Mahler’s first symphony went through as complicated a process of genesis as any major work of music. It started out as a symphonic poem in one movement, grew to a five-movement symphony, and was finally revised into four movements. As is also true of several of his other symphonies, Symphony No. 1 includes fragments from a number of earlier songs by Mahler. The program that Mahler once published for the whole symphony, but then withdrew, concerns the disillusion and distress of disappointed love, with the hero pulling himself together again in the finale.

An important general feature of Mahler’s style is a special kind of counter-point closely tied up with his very individual style of orchestration. He picks instruments out of the orchestra to play momentary solos, which are heard in counterpoint with other lines played by other “solo” instruments. The changing combinations can create a fascinating kaleidoscopic effect, for the various bright strands are not made to blend, as in most Romantic orchestration, but rather to stand out in sharp contrast to one another.

Third Movement (Feierlich und gemessen, ohne zu schleppen — “With a solemn, measured gait; do not drag”) This ironic funeral march is also a personal lament, for its trio is taken from an earlier song by Mahler about lost love. (Though the musical form of the movement is quite original, it is based on march and trio form, analogous to the Classical minuet and trio.)

Section 1 Mahler had the extraordinary idea of making his parody funeral march out of the French round “Frère Jacques.” He distorts the familiar tune by playing it in the minor mode at a slow tempo:

The mournful, monotonous drumbeat that accompanies the march is derived from the ending of the tune. (Note that Mahler slightly changed the ending of “Frère Jacques” as he transformed it into his march — he wanted only so much monotony.)

The slow march itself is played first by a single muted double bass playing in its high register — a bizarre, deliberately clumsy sonority. An additional figure that Mahler appends to his version of “Frère Jacques,” played by the oboe, fits so naturally that we almost accept it as part of the traditional tune. The music dies out on the drumbeat figure (played by the harp), then on a single repeated note.

Section 2 This section is a study in frustration, as fragmentary dance-music phrases that sound distorted, parodistic, and even vulgar give way to equally fragmentary recollections of the funeral march. One dance starts up in band instruments, with a faster beat provided by pizzicato (plucked) strings; notice the exaggerated way in which its opening upbeat is slowed down. It is cut short by a new dance phrase — louder, more vulgar yet, scored with bass drum and cymbals. “With Parody,” Mahler wrote on the score at this point:

This phrase, too, is cut short, and a varied repetition of the material introduced so far does not proceed much further. Instead, a long, grieving cadential passage is heard over the funeral-march drumbeat. Other fragments of “Frère Jacques” are recalled. Mourning gives way to utter exhaustion.

Section 3 A note of consolation is sounded by this contrasting “trio,” which begins with warm major-mode sounds and a triplet accompaniment on the harp. (The funeral-march beat is transformed into a faster but gentler throb.) The melody introduced is the one that belonged originally to a nostalgic song about lost love. Played first by muted strings, then the oboe and solo violins, the song melody soon turns bittersweet.

The rhythm is halted by quiet but dramatic gong strokes. Flutes play a few strangely momentous new phrases, also taken from the song.

Section 4 The final section combines elements from both sections 1 and 2. Soon after the “Frère Jacques” round commences, in a strange key, a new counterpoint joins it in the trumpets — another parodistic, almost whining sound:

One of the dance phrases from section 2 interrupts, picking up the tempo; and when “Frère Jacques” and the trumpet tune return, the tempo picks up even more for a wild moment of near chaos. But the mourning passage that ended section 2 returns, with its constant, somber drumbeat. The movement ends after another series of gong strokes.