Exercise 4

Notice how Mahler creates a circular form or structure to the piece by increasing the texture towards the middle – the climax. The texture then subsides and thins out towards the end, concluding as it started. Try to follow the same pattern in your piece, ending as it started and creating a short middle section.

Listen again to:

Since this is a chapter mainly about texture and timbre, here are also some points about the background of the work.

• This is the third movement, but represents the slow movement.
• Although the main theme is in the minor key, the tune Frère Jaques is originally in the major and is also known in Germany and Austria as Bruder Martin (Brother Martin), sung in taverns and in social evenings
• The whole idea is based on the old Austrian tale – the Funeral March of the Hunter. There are some elements of folk music here and it can be said that the instruments that accompany the main theme in b. 45 are influenced by a Jewish Klezmer band. It reflects melancholy with the composer having chosen his instruments carefully.
• Towards the end, we see the instructions plötzlich viel schneller (abrubtly much faster), as the music almost takes on an element of black humour.