His material he organized fairly independently of the old rules. He was
one of those who seem to have learned from Liszt that the content of a
piece must condition its form. Mahler's symphonies resemble symphonic
poems. They are essentially dramatic in character. Although he strove
continually for classic form, his works nevertheless reveal their
programmatic origin. He was at heart one of the literary composers. But
he was a better craftsman than most of them are. He was a finer workman
than Strauss, for instance. His scores are much more bony. They are free
of the mass of insignificant detail that clutters so many of Strauss's.
He could asseverate with some justice, "I have never written an
insincere note." And although his orchestration is not revolutionary,
and is often commonplace enough, he nevertheless oftentimes employed an
instrumental palette distinctly his own. He utilized instead of the
violin the trumpet as premier instrument of the band; achieved all
manner of brilliant effects with it. He increased the variety and
usefulness of the instruments of percussion, forming out of them a new
family of instruments to balance the families of the strings, brass, and
wood-wind. In the score of the Second Symphony he calls for six timpani,
bass and snare-drums, a high and a low tam-tam, cymbals, a triangle,
glockenspiel, three deep-toned bells, in the chief orchestra; besides a
bass-drum, triangle and cymbals in the supplementary.
Pages:
195
196
197
198
199
200
201
202
203
204
205
206
207
208
209
210
211
212
213
214
215
216
217
218
219