LYRISCHES INTERMEZZO

Chapter:

CHAPTER 1 Reaching (for) Limits

Source:

MUSIC IN THE EARLY TWENTIETH CENTURY

Author(s):

Richard Taruskin

There remains one more aspect of maximalism to describe, and that is the colossally underscored contrast in mood, tempo, key, and orchestration that sets the Todtenfeier’s E-major “second theme” off from the first. (The use of scare quotes around “second theme” here signals that the theme so designated is not by any means literally the second melody to be heard, but rather the melody that expresses or embodies the movement’s main secondary tonality.) This was a characteristic of late-nineteenth-century symphonic writing that Mahler seems deliberately to have enhanced so as to magnify the impression of a world-encompassing reach, or a reach into the inner world, where Weltanschauungs originate.

Citation (MLA):

Richard Taruskin. "Chapter 1 Reaching (for) Limits." The Oxford History of Western Music. Oxford University Press. New York, USA. n.d. Web. 21 Sep. 2023. <https://www.oxfordwesternmusic.com/view/Volume4/actrade-9780195384840-div1-001008.xml>.

Citation (APA):

Taruskin, R. (n.d.). Chapter 1 Reaching (for) Limits. In Oxford University Press, Music in the Early Twentieth Century. New York, USA. Retrieved 21 Sep. 2023, from https://www.oxfordwesternmusic.com/view/Volume4/actrade-9780195384840-div1-001008.xml

Citation (Chicago):

Richard Taruskin. "Chapter 1 Reaching (for) Limits." In Music in the Early Twentieth Century, Oxford University Press. (New York, USA, n.d.). Retrieved 21 Sep. 2023, from https://www.oxfordwesternmusic.com/view/Volume4/actrade-9780195384840-div1-001008.xml