Symphony No. 2 in C minor

1. Allegro maestoso. Mit durchaus ernstem und feierlichem Ausdruck
[At end:] Hier folgt eine Pause von mindestens 5 Minuten

2. Andante moderato. Sehr gemächlich. Nie eilen.

3. In ruhig fliessender Bewegung
[At end:] Folgt ohne jede Unterbrechung der 4. Satz

4. „Urlicht” (aus „Des Knaben Wunderhorn”) Sehr feierlich aber schlicht (Choralmässig)
[At end:] Folgt ohne jede Unterbrechung der 5. Satz

5. Im Tempo des Scherzo[.] Wild herausfahrend

Fl 1–2 (= picc 3–4), fl 3–4 (= picc 1–2 ), ob 1–2, ob 3–4 (= ca 1–2), cl 1–3 in A/B/C (3 = bcl in B), cl in E 1–2 (both doubled if possible in ff; 2 = cl 4), bsn 1–4  (3, 4 variously = cbsn)

Hn 1–6 in F  (+ hn 7–10 in 5th movement), tpt 1–6 in F (the score indicates 5, 6 can double as two of the off-stage tpt, but see the notes below), trb 1–4, cbtuba

Timp 1–6 (two players; in 5th movement a 3rd player also uses 2 drums of 2nd timpanist), bd, cymb, tam-tams 1–2 (high, low), tr, sd (doubled if possible), glock, 2 bells (of low, unpitched sound), rute (five percussionists)

Harps 1–2 (doubled if possible), strings (at least some of the double-basses must have C)

Off-stage (5th movement only): hn 1–4 in F (= hn 7–10 in the orchestra), tpt 1–4 in F/C (the score indicates that two may be played by tpt 5, 6 from orchestra, but see notes below); 1 timp, bd + cymb, tr

Organ (5th movement only)

Soprano solo (5th movement only), contralto solo (4th and 5th movements)

Chorus (5th movement only)

80 minutes

Autographs: sketches (1888; 1893–4)

Autographs: orchestral drafts (1888; 1893)

Autographs: full scores (1888; 1894; 1895)

Autographs: orchestral part (1895)

Autographs: album leaves (1897; ?1899)

Full scores (1897; 1899; 1913)

Study scores (1906)

Orchestral parts (?1899; ?1903; 1912/17)

Chorus parts (1899; 1911/12)

Performances (1895–1911)

Selected Historic Recordings (1925–1971)

Additional Literary Sources and Programmatic References

a) The first movement clearly reflects the impact of Adam Mickiewicz's Dziady, in Sigfried Lipiner's translation as Todtenfeier (Leipzig: Breitkopf & Härtel, 1887): see SHMMT, 158–260 for an extended and insightful account.

b) The first edition of the vocal score of Urlicht prints an additional text from Clemens Brentano's Gockel, Hinkel, Gackeleia beneath bb. 3–13 of the accompaniment:

Stern und Blume!

Geist und Kleid!

Lieb' und Leid!

Zeit! Ewigkeit!

Many years later Anna Mahler told Henry-Louis de La Grange that Mahler delighted in reading this story to his eldest daughter, Maria (Putzi) (HLG3, 690).

The edition was almost certainly based on the lost autograph of the voice and piano version of the original solo song, prepared before Mahler decided to incorporate it into the Symphony. Thus the inclusion of the unset text probably relates more to the creative history of the song, than the symphonic movement.

c) The autograph score of the last movement (AF₂) contains two programmatic headings. Der Rufer in der Wüste on fol. 81^v relates to the horn solo in b. 43ff. and Der grosse Apell on fol. 105^r to the passage starting at b. 449. These headings were retained in the early printed editions – PF₁, PF_1a, PF2, PT2p4 and PTp4 – and were printed in the movement description in the programme of the important performance, under Mahler at Basel in June 1903; they were omitted from the first edition of the study score (PS) and all later printings of it and the full score.

Related Works

a) The third movement incorporates an orchestral transcription of Mahler's Des Antonius von Padua Fischpredigt (Lieder aus Des Knaben Wunderhorn, No. 6).

b)  The fourth movement, Urlicht, was originally composed as an independent song and was later included as No. 12 in the published piano and voice and orchestral sets of the Lieder aus Des Knaben Wunderhorn. The orchestral song version is scored for a smaller ensemble than that used in the Symphony.

Quotations and Self-Borrowings

a) The first movement (bb. 270ff.) and the finale (bb. 62ff.) quote the opening of the Dies irae plainchant.

b) The head-motive of the E major theme in the third movement, bb. 257–60 is an allusion to the opening theme of the scherzo in Hans Rott's Symphony in E major.

c) The closing bars of the third movement, bb. 577–81, quote the end of 'Das ist ein Flöten und Geigen' from Schumann's Dichterliebe, bb. 80–4.

Movement order and grouping

A number of the manuscript sources suggest that Mahler changed his mind about the order of the inner movements: the orchestral draft of the Scherzo (OD₃; 16 July 1893) is numbered '2' and that of the Andante (OD₂; 30 July 1893) is numbered '4'. Assuming that Urlicht was the only other planned inner movement in the summer of 1893 and was therefore notionally no. 3, it is striking that the numbering sequence corresponds to the order in which the draft full scores of the three movements were completed (see the chronology above).

In the complete autograph full score (AF₂; completed on 18 December 1894) only Urlicht is numbered in ink: '4'. The remaining movements are all numbered in blue crayon (certainly later additions) and the fascicle structure is such that the Andante and Scherzo could have been in reverse order when the manuscript was originally prepared, and placed in their present sequence only at a later date; the fascicles were in the final order when the pencil foliation was supplied. In the partial manuscript copy prepared in 1894 (ACF₁), the scherzo is placed second, and the Andante third, but both the handbill for the partial première in March 1895 and the reviews (see HLG1, 319–21) make it clear that the movements were played in the now familiar sequence.

All published editions and issues of the full score agree in the their instructions placed at the ends of three of the movements: a five-minute pause after the first movement, and the last three movements to be played without breaks. This suggests movement groupings that are not wholly congruent with those implied by the programmes: the January 1896 programme associates the first three movements, but does not explicitly link the fourth and fifth together; the March 1896 programme links the second and third movements together (as intermezzi) and tacitly links the fourth and fifth movements. The layout and text of the 1901 programme is explicit in its tripartite division with Urlicht being part of the central group of three intermezzi and this finds an echo in a letter from Mahler to Julius Buths (25 March 1903 ) in connection with a forthcoming performance of the work in Düsseldorf (GMB, 315–6; GMSL, 269):

In view of these comments it is perhaps worth noting that the layout of the hand bill for Mahler's last performance of the work, in Paris in 1910, also seems to associate Urlicht with the scherzo rather than the finale. Nevertheless Mahler made no changes to his instructions in either the study score (1906) or the printer's copy (APFpr) for the third edition of the full score (1908–9).

Off-stage Brass

The peregrinations of the 'off-stage' brass instruments in the finale are complex, and, in the case of the trumpets, not always clarified in the score. The four horns are first heard 'off-stage' in b. 83ff., before making their way on-stage from b. 93, in readiness for b. 202ff. where they take parts 7–10 (their inclusion at this point was first adumbrated in an autograph revision to ACF₂). They resume their off-stage position from b. 252 in readiness for bb. 447–71, during which the verbal instructions imply yet more movement: at the outset all are 'in die Ferne' and 'Links aufgestellt',  but in b. 461 they should be 'sehr entfernt'. After bar 471 they return to their positions in the main orchestra, again taking parts 7–10.

There is some uncertainty about exactly how many trumpets the work requires in the finale. The rubric at the start of the movement lists six on-stage trumpets in F and four off-stage trumpets in F (but see below) of which two parts may be played by on-stage trumpets 5–6, and an autograph addition in ACF₂ instructs them to move off-stage at b. 323 to double the offstage parts (one of which is for trumpet(s) in C) in bb. 343–380. However he seems not to have grappled with the problem that  in terms of stage management it would be difficult for  trumpets 5 and 6 to be doubling the offstage parts in b. 380 and playing on-stage in bar 385. The first edition of the printed parts  (PO₁) -  whether intentionally or in error – omits bb. 343–380 from the parts for tpt 5 and 6 (though a pencil annotation at fig. 21 in APO tpt 6 reads 'go to other part' which implies they may well have moved off-stage in Mahler's 1908 performance in New York; one wonders how this move might have been managed).

A further contradiction emerges later in the movement. Despite the fact there must be a minimum of two trumpets placed permanently off-stage, after b. 417 in the printed scores Mahler needlessly instructs that onstage trumpets 3 & 4, as well as 5 & 6 take up places off-stage in preparation for the four-part off-stage trumpet writing of bb. 452–71 (see ACF₂ for a summary of the relevant annotations to that score). 

This lack of clarity over numbers seems to stem from a desire to minimise the number of additional trumpets required, but, if so, this is rather undermined by the demand that from bar 689 the six on-stage parts should be 'mit Verstarkung'. This apparently implies at least twelve on-stage trumpets at this point. The printed part set resolves these ambiguities: the parts for on-stage trumpets 3–6 do not require the players to move, or to play bb. 452–71 (and there are no annotations in APO to suggest Mahler's practice departed from the letter of the parts), as the whole passage is given to the four off-stage trumpets who then move on-stage to provide the required doubling in bb. 689ff., with the six-part trumpet writing of the passage skilfully redistributed amongst the four doubling instruments.

Critical Edition

SWIIa: Gustav Mahler, Symphonie Nr. 2, Sämtliche Werke, Kritische Gesamtausgabe, Band II, ed. Erwin Ratz (Vienna: Universal Edition, 19??)

From sketches to autograph full score – Outline Diagram

From autograph full score to ACF₁ – Provisional Stemma

Production of printed scores and parts – Provisional Stemma