Symphony No. 10 (Mahler)

The **Symphony No. 10** in F-sharp minor is a piece of orchestral music by Gustav Mahler. The composer started the symphony in 1910 but died before he could finish it.

When Mahler died, parts of the symphony were finished. There was no orchestration, so it could not be played. Only the first movement, Adagio, can be played the way Mahler wanted it.

## Instrumentation

Because the work is not finished, it is hard to find out what instruments would have been used. Deryck Cook's version is played most often, and it is written for:
- Woodwinds:
- 4 flutes (4th doubling piccolo)
- 4 oboes (4th doubling cor anglais)
- 3 B and A clarinets
- E clarinet (doubling 4th clarinet)
- bass clarinet
- 4 bassoons (3rd and 4th doubling contrabassoons)
- Brass:
- 4 horns
- 4 trumpets
- 4 trombones
- tuba
- Percussion:
- 6 timpani (two players)
- bass drum
- large muffled military drum
- cymbals
- triangle
- tam-tam
- rute
- glockenspiel
- Strings:
- harp
- 1st violins
- 2nd violins
- violas
- cellos
- double basses

## Versions

Deryck Cooke used Mahler's work to create four "performing versions" of the symphony. The first two were not made public, but the others were printed in 1976 and 1989.

Clinton Carpenter created a version of the symphony, finishing it in 1949. It was first played in 1983. Some say that Carpenter wrote his own symphony based on Mahler.

Joseph Wheeler made four versions from 1953 to 1965.

Michelle Castelletti wrote a chamber orchestra version of the symphony. It was first played in November 2012 in Canterbury, England by the Canterbury Chamber Orchestra.

## Further Reading

- Bloomfield, Theodore. "In Search of Mahler's Tenth: The Four Performing Versions as Seen by a Conductor", The Musical Quarterly, Vol. 74, No. 2 (1990), pp. 175–196
- Chew, Teng-Leong. "Performing Versions of the Tenth Symphony." _Naturlaut_, vol. 1, no. 2 (2002), pp. 7–10 (online)
- Rothkamm, Jörg. _Gustav Mahlers Zehnte Symphonie. Entstehung, Analyse, Rezeption_, Frankfurt: Peter Lang, 2003 (Reprint and e-book 2012).
- Rothkamm, Jörg. "The Tenth Symphony: Analysis of its Composition and 'Performing Versions, _The Cambridge Companion to Mahler_, ed. Jeremy Barham. Cambridge: University Press, 2007, pp. 150–161.
- Rothkamm, Jörg. "Five-Movement Orchestral Versions of Gustav Mahler’s Tenth Symphony", _News about Mahler Research_, vol. 53 (2006), pp. 48–66.
- Rothkamm, Jörg. "Berthold Goldschmidt und Gustav Mahler. Zur Entstehung von Deryck Cookes Konzertfassung der X. Symphonie", Hamburg: von Bockel, 2000.
- Matthews, Colin. "Tempo Relationships in the Adagio of Mahler's Tenth Symphony; and two wrong notes." The Musical Times, Vol. 151, No. 1910 (Spring 2010), pp. 3–8.

## Outside links

- Deryck Cooke's original 1960 radio broadcast on 'Mahler's Unfinished Tenth Symphony'
- Discography of the Tenth Symphony including incomplete versions, with commentary.
- Schott Music, "Work of the Week: Gustav Mahler/Yoel Gamzou, 10th Symphony", 1 September 2010
- Canterbury Christ Church University, concert announcement, 23 November 2012
- Orchestral score of the Adagio and Purgatorio movements, New York Philharmonic's digital archives

## Infobox (musical composition)

- **name**: Symphony No. 10
- **composer**: Gustav Mahler
- **image**: Photo of Gustav Mahler by Moritz Nähr 01.jpg
- **caption**: Gustav Mahler in 1907
- **key**: F-sharp major
- **first recording**: Eugene Ormandy, Philadelphia Orchestra, 1965
- **movements**: 5
- **premiere conductor**: Berthold Goldschmidt
- **premiere location**: Royal Albert Hall, London
- **premiere performers**: London Symphony Orchestra