March Music as a Musical Topic in the Symphonies of Gustav Mahler

Abstract

The symphonies of the Austrian composer Gustav Mahler (1860-1911) are flooded with folk music references such as klezmer, ländler, and marches. With this research I will specifically focus on the march music in Mahler’s Symphony No. 1, 3 and 5. My aim is to unravel the fragmenting effect of the incorporation of this march music material, and examine it as a musical topic. The main objective will then be how the march as musical topic adds to the fragmented feel of Mahler’s music. First, there will be a chapter devoted to the concept of musical topics or topoi, and this will form the main framework of the thesis. Next to the focus on musical topics, I will include observations on Mahler’s time, the fin de siècle, as well as his preoccupation with death. In the subsuming chapter I shall then provide three analyses of Mahler’s Symphony No. 1, 3 and 5, in which I will be looking at how the march is used in those symphonies and see if the march is used as a musical topic or not. This will involve literature of already consisting musical and topical analyses combined with my own observations. Through the coupling of all the literature and my own analyses I will in the end be able to give a conclusion on the question how the march music as musical topic adds to the fragmented feel of Mahler’s music.