Mahler - Symphony no.7 (movement 4): Score and Analysis

Bernstein & New York Philharmonic

The second Nachtmusik marks the turning point in Mahler’s seventh symphony. The darkness of the night seems to have finally given way to the first streaks of moonlight, resulting in a sudden and drastic change in the atmosphere. The cosmic, bigger-than-life character of the second movement is replaced with intimate and lyrical melodies, while the bleak orchestration of the scherzo is replaced with a newly introduced lightness of sound, complete with a guitar and mandolin. However, while the change of the surroundings does transform the appearance of the music, its character, namely its irony and sarcasm, remains its integral part. The otherwise sweet melodies get filled with “wrong notes” and are plagued with the motivic development of their most inconsequential parts. But the irony is no longer the bitter and hateful kind that we heard in the scherzo, which was set in the depths of the night. Mahler again shows us that even the ugliest and the most horrid aspects of the music can be playful and fun, if presented through the right surroundings – in our case, through human intimacy and moonlight.

The main theme of the movement, in its lyrical nature and plucked accompaniment resembles and parodies an intimate serenade. As I have mentioned, its gentle and naïve disposition is continuously disrupted by the constant motivic development, which fills the theme with dissonances and obsesses over its tiniest fragments. The trio section seems to have more luck as it successfully forms a broad and sincere melody, which is, with a clever sleight of hand, gradually revealed to be merely a transformation of the main motives. And with that, the line between the genuine and the ironic is once again playfully blurred.

0:00 – Serenade. Opens with a descending scale that crudely places us into F major. A lyrical melody full of sharp and sudden dissonances follows, characterized by limping accompaniment figures, repeated notes and the long-short-short rhythm from the descending scale.
0:51 – Descending scales lead us into a gentle melody, and then back to the original statement.
1:36 – Serenade, already vigorously developed. The music reaches for a climax but is interrupted by the descending scales.
2:07 – Descending scales again lead us into an episode, this time consisting of a rising chromatic scale, flourished with arpeggios.
3:03 – Serenade, accompanied by the arpeggios from the previous section.

3:56 – The music enters a development episode with tense harmonies. The spotlight is on the repeated notes and the long-short-short rhythm, both being obsessively developed.
5:04 – The rising chromatic scale from the earlier episode enters and rises to a climax, where it joins with the other motives and slowly winds back down.

6:48 – Trio. A broad and sincere melody, with the accompaniment figures from the serenade.
7:32 – The limping accompaniment figures are incorporated as melodic gestures. Repeated notes return in the following transition.
8:14 – Trio, statement 2, now fused with the main motives from the serenade. Trio’s melody is revealed to originate from the descending scale of the serenade and organically leads us to the recapitulation.

9:23 – Serenade. Its main motives are recycled as accompaniment.
10:24 – Gentle melody. Descending scales again transitions us back to the main theme.
10:55 – Serenade, statement 2. This time it successfully reaches its climax and organically transitions to the rising chromatic scales.
11:38 – Rising chromatic scales are extended and elaborated, climaxing as in the development.
12:11 – The climax evaporates, and the serenade appears one last time, functioning as a coda. The trio’s melody returns, after which the movement hesitantly ends.

[classicore]

6:48 Lovely bit of orchestration—a solo cello and a French horn in unison

[leestamm]

Good analysis, as always Of all the exquisite music that Mahler wrote, this piece is one of the most pleasant. Just makes me want to smile and feel good about things, particularly after the edgy previous movement.

[classicore]

Thank you for your insightful analysis!