Symphony No. 5 (Mahler)

The Symphony No. 5 in C-sharp minor is a piece of orchestral music by Gustav Mahler. The composer wrote the symphony from 1901 and 1902.    

The symphony was first played on October 18, 1904 in Cologne. It was played by the Gürzenich Orchestra Cologne and conducted by Mahler. 

 Instrumentation 
The symphony was written for a large orchestra with:

Woodwinds
 4 flutes (all doubling piccolos)
 3 oboes (3rd doubling cor anglais)

 3 bassoons (3rd doubling contrabassoon)
Brass
 6 horns (obbligato solo horn in movement 3)
 4 trumpets
 3 trombones
 1 tuba

Percussion
 4 timpani
 bass drum
 a second bass drum with a suspended cymbal attached
 snare drum (used only in movement 1)
 cymbals
 triangle
 whip (used only in movement 3)
 tam-tam
 glockenspiel

Strings
 harp

 1st violins
 2nd violins
viola 
cello
double basses

 Form 

The work is in five movements, but Mahler grouped the movements into bigger parts. These are:

 Part I
 1. Trauermarsch (Funeral march). C minor
 2. Stürmisch bewegt, mit größter Vehemenz (Stormy, played with great vehemence) A minor
 Part II
 3. Scherzo. Kräftig, nicht zu schnell (Strong and not too fast) D major
 Part III
 4. Adagietto. Sehr langsam (Very slow) F major
 5. Rondo-Finale. Allegro  D major

 References 

Further reading


 Banks, Paul (May 1989) "Aspects of Mahler's Fifth Symphony: Performance Practice and Interpretation." The Musical Times, vol. 130, no. 1755, pp. 258–265.
 Barham, Jeremy (December 2018). "'The Ghost in the Machine': Thomas Koschat and the volkstümlich in Mahler's Fifth Symphony." Nineteenth-Century Music Review, vol. 15, no. 3, pp. 353–390. 
 Barry, Barbara R. (Spring 1993). "The Hidden Program in Mahler's Fifth Symphony." The Musical Quarterly, vol. 77, no. 1, pp. 47–66.
 Baxendale, Carolyn (1986–1987). "The Finale of Mahler's Fifth Symphony: Long-Range Musical Thought." Journal of the Royal Musical Association, vol. 112, no. 2, pp. 257–279.
 Buch, Esteban (Summer 2017). "Mahler's Fifth, Daniel Barenboim, and the Argentine Dictatorship: On Music, Meaning, and Politics." The Musical Quarterly, vol. 100, no. 2, pp. 122–154. 
 Forte, Allen (Autumn 1984). "Middleground Motives in the Adagietto of Mahler's Fifth Symphony." 19th-Century Music, vol. 8, no. 2, pp. 153–163.
 Kinderman, William (Summer 2005). "'Ich bin der Welt abhanden gekommen': Mahler's Rückert Setting and the Aesthetics of Integration in the Fifth Symphony." The Musical Quarterly, vol. 88, no. 2, pp. 232–273. 
 Micznik, Vera (June 1996). "Textual and Contextual Analysis: Mahler's Fifth Symphony and Scientific Thought." International Review of the Aesthetics and Sociology of Music, vol. 27, no. 1, pp. 13–29.
 Pavlović, Milijana (2013). "Lost And Found – Mahler's Fifth in Trieste. Studien zur Musikwissenschaft, vol. 57, pp. 275–297.
 Vernon, David (2022). Beauty and Sadness: Mahler's 11 Symphonies, Ch. 5 'Cosmic Expansion: The Fifth Symphony', pp. 173–202.
 Hurwitz, David. (2004) "The Mahler Symphonies, An Owner's Manual."

External links


 Mahler's Symphony No. 5 – A Beginners' Guide – Overview, analysis and the best recordings – The Classic Review
 Analysis, by Walter, everything2.com, 15 March 2002
 Gilbert Kaplan: "In One Note of Mahler, a World of Meaning", The New York Times, 17 March 2002

Category:Symphonies by Gustav Mahler
Category:Compositions in C-sharp minor
Category:1900s compositions