Symphony No. 6 (Mahler)

The Symphony No. 6 in A minor is a piece of orchestral music by Gustav Mahler. The composer wrote the symphony from 1903 and 1904. It is sometimes called the Tragic, but nobody knows where this name came from.     

The symphony was first played on 27 May 1906 at the Saalbau concert hall in Essen. It was conducted by Mahler. 

 Instrumentation 
The symphony was written for a large orchestra with:

Woodwinds
 piccolo (used only in movement 4)
 4 flutes (3rd and 4th doubling 2nd and 3rd piccolos)
 4 oboes (3rd and 4th doubling 2nd and 3rd cor anglais; 2nd cor anglais used only in Scherzo)
 cor anglais (used only in movement 4)
 E clarinet (doubling 4th clarinet)
 3 B and A clarinets
 bass clarinet
 4 bassoons (4th used only in movement 4)
 contrabassoon
Brass
 8 horns
 6 trumpets (5th and 6th used only in movement 4)
 4 trombones (4th used only in movement 4)
 tuba
Keyboards
 celesta (doubled or tripled if possible)

Percussion
 6 timpani (two players)
 bass drum
 2 snare drums (used in movements 1 and 4)
 several pairs of crash cymbals 
 suspended cymbals
 several triangles
 cowbells (offstage in movements 1 and 4, onstage in Andante)
 hammer (see description below)
 2 tam-tams (standard and deep)
 rute (to be struck on the bass drum case, used only in movement 4)
 small wooden stick (to be struck on the bass drum case, used only in the scherzo)
 deep, untuned bells (used only in movement 4, offstage)
 glockenspiel
 xylophone
 Strings
 4 harps 
 1st violins
 2nd violins
 violas
 cellos
 double basses

 Form 
The work is in four movements. The first version had the form: 

Mahler changed the Andante to be the second movement. The form became:

 References 

 External links 


 MahlerFest XVI, 2003 programme book
 David Matthews, "The order of the middle movements in Mahler's Sixth Symphony" (website blog entry), January 2016]

Category:Symphonies by Gustav Mahler
Category:Compositions in A minor
Category:1900s compositions