Symphony No. 1 in D Major, “Titan” (1889)

Gustav Mahler (1860–1911), Arr. Iain Farrington (b. 1977)

By the nineteenth century and in the wake of Beethoven, the symphony became the pinnacle of musical expression for composers who used the form to demonstrate their technical prowess and communicate their most profound thoughts Some composers also began writing symphonies that carried extramusical meanings or followed specific narratives . Such works, which became known as program or programmatic music, stood in contrast to absolute music, which was music written for music’s own sake and did not carry any extramusical associations . As program music became ever more popular and composers progressively used the symphony to express sentiments for which words were deemed inadequate, audiences increasingly expected composers to address what their music meant, even if there was no explicit program .

When Mahler’s First Symphony premiered on November 20, 1889, the accompanying program titled the work, “A Symphonic Poem in Two Parts ” The two parts were further divided by tempo markings, and the only hint of a possible program was the title of the fourth movement, which simply indicated that the movement should be performed in the style of funeral obsequies (“a la pompes funèbres”) Four years later, Mahler updated the music and the titles for a performance in Hamburg, calling the entire work “Titan: A Tone Poem in Symphonic Form.” The five movements— still divided according to the original two parts— all carried descriptions, beginning with an introduction that depicted the “awakening of nature from a long winter’s sleep” and ending with “Dall’ Inferno” and the “sudden outburst of despair from a deeply wounded heart ” By the 1894 performance in Weimar, Mahler had further tweaked the descriptions within his “Titan” Symphony, which he gave the subtitle “From the Days of Youth, Music of Flowers, Fruit, and Thorns ” The opening depiction of awakening nature remained largely unchanged, as did the final movement, which carried the name “Dall’ Inferno al Paradiso,” a title that made any connection to Dante’s Divine Comedy unmistakable The title of “Titan” itself referred to the four-volume Romantic novel written by Jean Paul Richter between 1800–1803 in which the protagonist strives to lead a passionate and heroic life . The inner three movements likewise carried brief descriptions ranging from a general floral scene to the specific “Hunter’s Funeral Procession: Funeral March in the Manner of Callot ” This latter title referenced an ironic woodcarving that was misattributed to the French Baroque printmaker Jacques Callot The woodcarving, which was actually created by Austrian artist Moritz Von Schwind, depicts animals carrying the body of a hunter in a funeral procession, thus providing an unforgettable ironic image .

Despite the effort put into revising the music and program titles for these three early performances, Mahler ultimately decided to remove the programmatic elements of his first symphony and settled on restructuring the piece into a traditional format of four movements with tempo markings for titles Of the decision to remove the titles, in 1896 Mahler remarked that the initial inclusion of descriptive titles was due to the insistence of his friends, but Mahler felt that the public had been misled and that the imposed narrative did not fit the music Mahler explained that he found himself forced to identify how specific musical moments corresponded to the identified narratives and that the symphony was not conceived with any program in mind . Rather, for Mahler, as he famously explained a year earlier in 1895, “the symphony must be like the world It must embrace everything ” The imposition of a program not only misdirected audience focus but also necessarily limited interpretive possibilities .

Today, it is the four-movement version without programmatic references that is the standard version performed by orchestras Although through the absence of descriptive titles Mahler encourages performers and audiences alike to experience the music without a specific program, it is impossible to hear the work without reference to any part of the outside world In the opening movement, Mahler keeps the indication “Like the sound of nature,” (wie en Naturlaut), and if we listen closely, we may even hear a cuckoo The second movement is the symphony’s dance movement, and while again there is no specific program, the melodic content recalls an earlier song “Hansel and Gretel” (Hans und Grethe), which Mahler first published in 1880. Mahler follows the standard ABA formula for this movement, beginning with a lively Austrian ländler, a triple-meter folk dance . The ländler contrasts with a more lyrical trio section that resembles— if not parodies—a Viennese waltz The third movement, which was previously identified as the hunter’s funeral procession, presents the popular children’s song “Frère Jacques .” Even without a specific narrative, Mahler creates a deep sense of musical irony by presenting the well-known tune in the minor mode and juxtaposing it with jaunty percussion The theme of nature returns with the tempo indication and title of the symphony’s fourth movement, “Stürmisch bewegt” (moving like a storm). With this title in mind, it is difficult to hear the opening moments as anything but the crashes of thunder and lightning Musical fragments from the preceding three movements return throughout the finale, which takes listeners on a journey from the turbulent to the triumphant, ultimately encompassing a world within itself

The chamber arrangement of Mahler’s first symphony heard tonight was published in 2011 by British composer, pianist, and arranger Iain Farrington In making this arrangement for small ensemble with single woodwinds, Farrington participates in a century-old tradition of adapting Mahler’s symphonies for reduced forces .

Composer Arnold Schoenberg first made chamber arrangements of Mahler’s symphonies to present at his Society for Private Musical Performances in

Vienna in 1918 . Farrington’s arrangement preserves the musical material of the symphony in its entirety with minimal reorchestration that allows appropriate balance with the significantly reduced string section and solo winds .

christine wisch Program Annotator

Christine Wisch holds a PhD in musicology with a minor in ethnomusicology Her work as a musicologist focuses on early nineteenth-century Spanish classical music and issues of nationalism, patronage, and identity She is the recipient of a 2019 Dissertation Fellowship from the Honor Society of Phi Kappa Phi for her in-progress dissertation, “Politics, Patronage, and Music in 1830s Spain ” Her research has been presented at both national and international conferences and has been supported by a number of awards and grants, including a 2017 Mellon Pre-Dissertation grant from Indiana University’s Russian and Eastern European Institute (REEI) and the A Peter Brown Research Travel Award Recently, she worked as a research consultant on Hispanic topics for the tenth edition of the History of Western Music and its corresponding anthologies, and she continues to work for Indiana University’s Latin American Music Center (LAMC) Additionally, she has written program notes for orchestras across the country and remains an active violinist .

Roger Kalia, conductor

Violin 1

Elliott Markow

Concertmaster

Emma Kondo Powell

Assistant Concertmaster

Aleksandra Labinska

Sargis Karapetyan

Violin 2

Kun Shao Principal Second

Amy Ripka Assistant Principal Second

Leonora LaDue

Katharina Radlberger

Viola

Dani Rimoni Principal

Seeun Oh

Kathleen Kalogeras

Cello

Harel Gietheim Principal

Nathaniel Lathrop

Young Sook Lee

Bass

Volker Nahrmann Principal

Flute

Kathleen Boyd Principal

Trumpets

Richard Watson Principal

Richard Kelley

Trombones

John Faieta Principal

Wes Hopper

Tuba

Takatsugu Hagiwara Principal

Cheryl Bishkoff Principal

Clarinet

Alexis Lanz Guest Principal

Bassoons

Michael Mechanic Principal

Horns

Steven Harmon Principal

Kristin Olsen

TIMPANI & PERCUSSION

Jeffrey Bluhm Principal

Dylan Barber

Harp

Katie Lyon-Pingree Principal