Symphony No. 2 – Three programmes

One evening Mahler arranged a performance, by himself and Walter of Behn's piano reduction of the Second Symphony. This took place at Behn's house,' as a treat for me, in the company of a few close friends. Although I had already heard him play parts of it in Steinbach, its total impact on me now was tremendous.

The next morning Mahler spoke to me about this work: `The first movement depicts the titanic struggles of a mighty being still caught in the toils of this world; grappling with life and with the fate to which he must succumb – his death. The second and third movements, Andante and Scherzo, are episodes from the life of the fallen hero. The Andante tells of love. The experience behind the Scherzo I can describe only in terms of the following image: if, at a distance, you watch a dance through a window, without being able to hear the music, then the turning and twisting movement of the couples seems senseless, because you are not catching the rhythm that is the key to it all. You must imagine that to one who has lost his identity and his happiness, the world looks like this – distorted and crazy, as if reflected in a concave mirror. The Scherzo ends with the appalling shriek of this tortured soul.

The "Urlicht" represents the soul's striving and questioning attitude towards God and its own immortality.

While the first three movements are narrative, in the last everything is inward experience. It begins with the death–shriek of the Scherzo. And now the resolution of the terrible problem of life – redemption. At first  how faith and the Church transcend this present life – the Day of Judgement. The earth trembles. Just listen to the drum–roll, and your hair will stand on end! The Last Trump sounds; the graves spring open, and all creation comes writhing out of the bowels of the earth, with wailing and gnashing of teeth. Now they all come marching along in a mighty procession: beggars and rich men, common folk and kings, the Church Militant, the Popes. All give vent to the same terror, the same lamentations and paroxysms; for none is just in the sight of God. Breaking in again and again – as if from another world – the Last Trump sounds from the Beyond. At last, after everyone has shouted and screamed in indescribable confusion, nothing is heard but the long drawn–out call of the Bird of Death above the last grave – finally that, too, fades away. There now follows nothing of what had been expected: no Last judgement, no souls saved and none damned; no just man, no sinner, no judge! Everything has ceased to be. And softly and simply there begins: "Auferstehn'n, ja aufersteh'n..." – the words themselves are sufficient commentary. 'And' cried Mahler 'I absolutely refuse to give another syllable of explanation!'

'The increasing tension, working up to the final climax, is so tremendous that I don't know myself, now that it is over, how I ever came to write it.'

Having said all that, I now feel some misgivings, as you will appreciate, in setting out to say anything about the C minor symphony. – I called the first movement 'Totenfeier', and  it may interest you to know that it is the hero of my D major symphony who is being borne to his grave, and whose life life is reflected, as in a clear mirror, from higher standpoint. Here too the great question is asked: What did you live for? Why did you suffer? Is it all only a vast, terrifying joke? – We have to answer these questions somehow if we are to go on living – indeed, even if we are only to go on dying! The person in whose life this call has resounded, even if it was only once, must give an answer; and I give this answer in the last movement.

The second and third movements are intended as an interlude, the second being a memory! A ray of sunlight, pure and cloudless, out of that hero's life.

You must surely have had the experience of burying someone dear to you, and then, perhaps, on the way back some long–forgotten hour of shared happiness suddenly rose before your inner eye, sending as it were a sunbeam into your soul – not overcast by any shadow – and you almost forgot what had just taken place. There you have the second movement! – When you then awaken from that melancholy dream and are forced to return to this tangled life of ours, it may easily happen that this surge of life ceaselessly in motion, never resting, never comprehensible, suddenly seems eerie, like the billowing of dancing figures in a brightly lit ball–room that you gaze into from outside in the dark – and from a distance so great that you can no longer hear the music! Life then becomes meaningless, an eerie phantom state out of which you may start up with a cry of disgust. – There you have the third movement. What follows will be explained to you!

What it comes to, then, is that my Second Symphony grows directly out of the First!

Symphony in C minor

1st movement. – We are standing beside the coffin of a man beloved. For the last time his life, his battles, his sufferings and his purpose pass before the mind's eye. And now, at this solemn and deeply stirring moment, when we are released from the paltry distractions of everyday life, our hearts are gripped by a voice of awe–inspiring solemnity, which we seldom or never hear above the deafening traffic of mundane affairs. What next? it says. What is life – and what is death? Have we any continuing existence?

Is it all an empty dream, or has this life of ours, and our death, a meaning? – And we must answer this question if we are to go on living.

The next three movements are conceived as intermezzi.

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2nd Movement. – Andante. A blissful moment in the life of the dear departed and a mournful memory of youth and lost innocence.

3rd Movement. – Scherzo. The spirit of unbelief and negation has taken possession of him. Looking into the turmoil of appearances, he loses together with the clear eyes of childhood the sure foothold which love alone gives. He despairs of himself and of God. The world and life become a witch's brew; disgust of existence in every form strikes him with iron fist and drives him to an outburst of despair.

4th Movement. The Primal Dawn. (Alto solo.) The moving voice of ingenuous belief sounds in our ears.

'I am from God and will return to God!

God will give me a candle

to light me to the bliss of eternal life.'

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Fifth Movement.

We are confronted once more by terrifying questions and the mood of the end of the 1st movement. –

A voice is heard crying aloud: the end of all living beings is come – the Last Judgement is at hand and the whole horror of the day of days has come. The earth quakes, the graves burst open, the dead arise and stream on in endless procession. The great and the little ones of the earth – kings and beggars, righteous and godless – all press on – the cry for mercy and forgiveness strikes fearfully on our ears. – The wailing constantly rises higher – our senses desert us, consciousness dies at the approach of the eternal spirit.

The 'Last Trump' is heard – the trumpets of the Apocalypse ring out; in the eerie silence that follows we think we can just catch the distant, barely audible song of a nightingale, a last tremulous echo of earthly life! A chorus of saints and heavenly beings softly breaks forth:

'Thou shalt arise, surely thou shalt arise.'

Then appears the glory of God! A wondrous, soft light penetrates us to the heart – all is holy calm! And behold – it is no judgement – there are no sinners, no just. None is great, none is small – there is no punishment and no reward. An overwhelming love lightens our being. We know and are.