Symphony No.1 in D Major "Titan" III.Funeral March (A)

[bandgeek85230]

its amazing what you can do when you slow down the tempo and chage the key

[welcome12ization]

My best part of the 1st. My dad introduced me only recently to Mahler and I am busy exploring his works. I will get this one on CD

[CanIHazIceCream]

I'm used to the Bernstein conducting but this one's good as well.

[arenadri7]

20th of November 1889 GUSTAV MAHLER'S 1st SYMPHONY premieres

[Durrakan]

God . . . this gives me shivers every time I listen to it.

[soooooHAPPY4u]

beautiful :)

[strawberrycowhead]

everyone should go check out part b and c, no just the first part to enjoy mahler's true spirit!!! :)))

[strawberrycowhead]

i love mahler. I think the best rendition of this was done by the berlin philharmonica. They were so awesome live :)

[ilol83]

good job... i can play tht song on mi violin.... i luv it xoxox...

[73Adorno]

Somehow they manage to make this gruesome movement sound harmless ...

[MrMaxmorphing]

Mahler 1st, luxury edition. :)

[omgtkseth]

Tilson Thomas?? Not the first time I hear him!

[Ilikadasauce]

love this song

[FernandVos]

my homework for next week's lesson is to learn how to play this song.

[kaviar10]

This picture is of the king Karl XII after he was shoot in Halden, Norway 1718

[ericberner]

"Rubin! Stop squeaking that stupid mouse!"

[elisaprasina]

recién he visto la película "Le Concert", y volví a escuchar a Mahler, me he nutrido de todos ustedes ALL OF YOU so thanks you!!! for your comments... i love this part♥

[Sword1479]

My favorite part in this symphony is the introduction of the Jewish theme.

[anlongv]

In high school I took Music as one of my state exam (similar to GCSE - I dunno how to compare it with the Dutch system). Anyway, my teacher once told us the story that it was a funeral march for the dead hunter (the Frère Jacques melody), and that the animals were happy that they wouldn't be hunted anymore (the Hungarian-style melody). Dunno if it's already being mentioned here. Sorry if so! ;)

[strukhoff]

Whoa! Where's the rest of it?

[lpcrush]

This one is much better than the original Brother Jack.

[bballbrotha6]

mahler is a sick bastard...so eerie and awesome

[jkao328]

I remember having to take a classical music class and this was one of the few songs I enjoyed

[rOsStAfArIaNSHU]

@jkao328 He's a Romantic composer not classic :)

[jkao328]

@rOsStAfArIaNSHU Good for him. I still had to listen to it in our classical music class anyway. 

[gally4life1]

When I was younger I thought it would be a great idea to slow down t"Brother John" to make it about death...was very upset when I found out that Mahler had already done it WAAYYYYY before my time = )

[Themusician43]

One of my favorite Pieces. I love this.

[popelkaguillermo]

Tiene mucho de Grieg, y de aquí nació la melodía principal para la película "El violinista en el tejado" Si yo fuera rico....

[gribule111]

The painting isn't appropriate for this piece at all! Mahler has put so much irony in it... And the jewish... It's hungarian verbunkos, as much as I know. But the piece is brilliant! The whole symphony is brilliant actually :)

[CinnAlla]

@gribule111 I don't agree that the painting is necessarily inappropriate. It's a matter of interpretation after all. There is something about the way the pall-bearers and the officer with drawn sword are caught in a slow-march that just seems to go with the pace of Michael Tilson Thomas' baton. I'm not the worlds greatest fan of Mahler but I love this movement.

[svion]

It's a painting by Gustaf Cederström of swedish soldiers bringing home the dead body of king Karl XII from the battlefield in Halden (Norway).

[ScardoniGiacomo]

what's the paint in the video?

[GeorgeVreelandHill]

Excellent music.

Thank you for sharing this with us.

George Vreeland Hill

[cutie404610]

i'm high

this sounds FUCKIN' AWESOME

[DaG37boy]

@cutie404610 IT IS!!!

[MediaSwift]

i can play this on the clarinet it is truley a great piece

[FCO0710]

Can someone explain to me the significance of the jewishy sounding theme at 2:40 ?

[karzoff]

@FCO0710 This piece is amazing. The first listeners were shocked by the mixing of extremely sad movements and happy "vulgar" folklore.

Like many people say here, the first movement is a minor version of "Frère Jacques". The add of the kettledrum (sorry i'm French, i'm not sure of this word) transform it to a funeral/military march.

The movement you speak about is the second movement. It's a Jewish fanfare music used in weeding.

[karzoff]

@FCO0710 It has to be said that Malher was Jewish and that this piece was composed in the late of 1800s at the end of the Romanticism.

It's still romanticism, a powerfull expression of the feelings of "me", "myslef" and "I", with grief, passion, and melancholy.

But Malher drew his music from the music of the childhood (military music, fanfare music, Jewish folk, etc.). He put some popular music in this pieces which made his music absurd, comic, dispirited and cheerfull.

[JuleJuleP]

@FCO0710

This song was ment as a warning. The componist realized that a war was coming and he wanted the people to wake up but they just won't realize.. the part from 2:40 shows the carelessness of the citizens, they dance and they don't listen. And then from 3:20 it's again the desperateness of the componist ..

I think this is how you could interpret it..

Hope it helps

[TrangOul777]

@JuleJuleP

I've heard a lot of different interpretations, this being one of them.

From it being a funeral march for a hunter with a procession of animals , to the war, to some saying that it reflects Mahler's discontent with his Jewish background.

Which is the fun of interpreting.

[zwiniful]

@JuleJuleP you are a genus, that's the best interpretation *_*

[RealMarcusAurelius]

what's the name of the painting in the video?

[Freakfolker]

Yes, Hunter's Funeral, he chose minor key...children died often from illnesses in the days before vaccinations, so coincidences not unusual. This time period of music dwelled on fairy tales, folk tunes, children stories, mythology...the great High Romantic symphonies. Mahler wrote for massive ensembles, sometimes almost a thousand performers!

[Serberus08]

the picture is quite fitting, by chance would anyone know what it is?

[Sverigetrotter1]

@Serberus08 The Funeral transport of Charles XII,

Made by Gustaf Cederström

[Serberus08]

@Sverigetrotter1 thanks great piece

[sephiroth2711]

northern music

i love how depressing it sounds

[Gonnakillyou]

@sephiroth2711 Hm, well, Mahler is from today's Czechia, I wouldn't count that as northern myself. :)

[ApppleMilkk]

sounds like the most famous canon in the wordl

[darkenedxrose666]

Mahler makes me smile. I especially loved this because I love to take children's songs and play them in minor.

[Chadt01]

I read that this piece is supposed to be representative of the death of a child, such as that that Mahler's brother suffered during his childhood...

Perhaps that's the use of the child's tune?

A beautifully powerful piece...

[ciccacarmen1]

Gustav Mahler è sotto l'incantesimo di Richard Wagner durante i suoi studi, e più tardi divenne un importante interprete delle opere di Wagner.............

Gustav Mahler 7 Luglio 1860 (Kalischt) - 18 Maggio 1911 (Vienna)

[omgtkseth]

as well as it transcends, in my opinion, The Hauntmans Funeral too. The idea behind it can be theorized as a type of inversion, turning the table to make things ridiculous. After all, images are closer to words, in which that they can transmit concrete and objective ideas, even imperatives. In change, music is like the smoke in a dream, and building a monument of this scale with it, results to me more impressive than the concept behind the curious engraving.

[omgtkseth]

Everyone mentions only jaques in minor and the animals. Its nice really, but thats a short conceptualization next to its great execution, and by that I mean Mahlers composition. One can notice how on the start the layers are A and B, then B and C, etc, and the change is completely contrasting too. When pieces might not seem to fit they still complement each other by creation unbelievable contrast. The jewish tune is shockingly amazing. This craftsmanship transcends the concept of 'funeral march'

[kahamarca]

The painting is depicting the march home from Norway to Sweden. The guy on the stretcher is King Carl XII who died on the battlefield fighting the Norweigans. He was shot in the head but not with a bullet but with a button from a uniform. Some people thinks that he was assasinated by one of his own while standing on a hilltop with his men behind him...Nobody will know...OK History lesson is over LOL

[markXrocksXyou]

no compromiss about this genius, hes a genius ...

[8Ryuk8]

Who could ever rate this negative? It is such beautiful and moving music. I totally see some funeral march in front of my eyes when I listen to this catching and wonderful piece.

[sandysandman]

This musical piece in particular has always inspired me to do things, so when I'm out of inspiration, all I have to do is listen to this. That is why this gets a thumbs up and a position on my favorites list

[lakacro]

So did children make this tune major, or did Mahler make this tune minor?

[ApsisApocynthion]

@lakacro Mahler made it minor.

[p1rateman]

@lakacro @ansketil There are some historians that discovered evidence they think proves frere jaques started as a song in a minor mode.

[lakacro]

@p1rateman ugh, well it sounds perfect either way

[Cbod285]

@lakacro Silly rabbit; kids don't make songs at all! >..<

[ZemArte]

A cena de uma beleza ímpar se dá quando Zeus, invejando a grandeza e a nobreza do Titã,puxa-lhe o fio de luz, arrancando-lhe o resto de vida ,enquanto dançantes e melódico canta a magnífica poesia ,a beleza que ele viu crescer aqui na Terra. Ele os pequenos humanos realizavam -se enfim, na organização dos meios ,nas maravilhas de alcançar as estrelas, universo afora.E isto Zeus não podia suportar.

[poliorkitis]

one of my personal fav's of Mahler... has inspired my first novel, along with Buxtehude organ works... so eerieee....

[PDeepIn]

great

[asusualful]

stunning

[CoeurdePiratedu13]

Il n'y a pas de français dans le coin? non bon en tout cas moi j'adore cete symphonie!! (frère jacques) je préfère cette mélodie, c'est beaucoup plus triste

[PickledHarrrington]

I love the impudent genius of Mahler in the third movement =).

The minor frere jacques and then the gypsy influences seem like they could have been quite a slap in the face to a typical Viennese audience of the 1890s.

[Vanzetti1936]

Why is the klezmer part so fast?

[asmodeusdelhuerta]

2:34... best part

[HallieBaker123]

hmhey bin so einsam jemand evtl lust zu camen oder schreibn

[wavecrasher8]

i love this song. it never gets old.

[melancholium]

Trivial melody, inflated with so much pretense and seriousness.

[Napoleontas]

this is the painting witch depicts the death procession of the swedish king charles the 12th i guess?

[haylser101]

@WorkingThemAngels

true that :P but it is dmajor because its only one section of the whole peice, so it starts in dmajor and ends in dmajor :)

[flowerlullaby]

So sad. Mahler lost many siblings while he grew up. To be a child and lose siblings...the piece is sad yet turns into a carnival...a play on kids....frere jacques...and the carnival music...brilliant.

[inaband]

This piece of music was written before Mahler had even had any children- so I dont think its got anything to do with his children. Apparently its a parody of a death march - I can't be sure of that though.

[flowerlullaby]

Sorry I think you misread my post; I mentioned his siblings, not his kids.

[inaband]

ah, sorry about that. I should probably read things a bit more thoroughly.

[lamalo80]

@inaband I must say the beginning reminds me a bit of Chopins death march.

[haylser101]

did you know this piece is based on the french childrens song "freres jaques" ? in a minor key :)

[newFranzFerencLiszt]

yeah, when he goes to die! xD

[rosten736]

@haylser101 And do you recognize that the second melody is nearly identical to part of Fiddler on the Roof's "If I were a Rich Man"?

[junkunter5]

@haylser101 freres jaques is only one part.

it actually sounds like a journey throughout europe (bohemian dances in between, frere jaques, and the others^^)

[AleXBeograd011]

@haylser101 it is ...

[gstarking94]

@haylser101 "vader jacob" in Dutch

[jazwiec]

Why king Charles the Twelfth?

[SaitFaik54]

@haylser101 And Malcom Lowry dug into it in a major story. Thanks for that association.

[elisaprasina]

@SaitFaik54

I have a doubt which is the similarity with writer Malcolm Lowry??? :(

[SaitFaik54]

@elisaprasina

"dormez-vous

"dormes-vous

sonnes lamentina

sonnez lamentina

dong dong dong

doom doom doom"

From "Through the Panama" by Lowry.

[elisaprasina]

@SaitFaik54

OH!!! Thanks for this ya understand :)

[SvitjodsKrigare]

The Swedish empire fell after this picture.

[Videocancer555]

I am not a great fan of classical music. But this, it is my first time listening to this piece and I thought I was the Father standing beside his son watching the soldiers marching to their destiny. The hire on my body stood up!

I can not stop watching this clip!

Thank you.

[VEGAMOTRIL]

una  maravilla digna de un genio

[MrLewek]

Visconti wyczuwał muzykę Mahlera, dlatego klimat filmu "Śmierć w Wenecji" był równie "duszny i okrutny", jak ta wspaniała muzyka.

[pppccclll]

i think Mahler's music surpasses anything else in the world. Not too many composers can convey the abstract like this son of a bitch. Some of his work mkes me feel as if i should conquer the world or that i am loing my sanity when i hear it. He must have been a very troubled individual judging by how much time and effort went into the music. See with mahler "the lack of music is just as important as the music itself" Rumor has it he composed high inthe austrian mnts. in pure "SILENCE"

[musicfanBRA]

Many thanks to Apsis. This is a beautiful rendition of this piece, with its famous "Frere Jacques" motif and great parts for the winds. And the picture goes perfectly with it.

[morvensky]

I usually dislike Mahler but this I love this.

[drent391]

For the Dutch : this is "Vader Jacob"

[Khayman8888]

It's a wonderful choice of imagery for the music, Apsis. Just hearing this piece makes that image come alive, from the grim and steady trudge at the beginning to the middle section which kinda reminds me of the lazy acceptance of the soldiers who head toward their fate.

[SvitjodsKrigare]

Swedens most famous military art picture, However it was made by an artist who never saw the "Death March" instead he made his own view of how it would have looked like.

[SvitjodsKrigare]

You wanna know something funny about that painting?

It was made by a French artist who was obsessed whit Charles XII, Even though that artist lived 150years after Charles XII lived, he considered Charles XII to be the greatest king in mans history, And the last true warrior king.

The death march didn't look like that on the paining, It was more "Simple", But the french artist wanted to make Charles XII look like a hero.

[k1lkenny]

That painting was made by Gustaf Cederström in 1878. He was born in Stockhom :P

[abrahmbelinski]

its an arengment of fere jaqua

[sweenfan]

its look like frefre Jacquea

[Bbobe900000]

the tuba solo in the beginning is a bitch if you don't have the accuracy. I played it last summer and basically butchered the solo. but this is a great piece and a great symphony. love the 4th movement

[Loppie]

isn't that a picture of the swedish "karolinerna"?

[comingmania]

its to laggy

[TiiLLYYY]

right..

in my book i ave this song..called canon..and its by gustav mahler..

but i dno what it sounds like so i can't play it..but i'm not sure if this is it...

but i play bassoon..so it will probably have only have the bass part in my book..but still..i dnon't know. :( help me someone. :(

[Erinfuckyeah]

canon may have made a rendition of this symphony, but Mahler created it, based on sounds of nature and a funeral march. canon's usually known mostly for his composition, "pachebel," in the baroque era :)

eerie tune.. he was born and raised in a dysfunctional family, go figure.

[TiiLLYYY]

Thanks Homie (Y) :)

Helped Alot.

[ApsisApocynthion]

You have it all wrong. Pachabel is the name of a composer during the early Baroque period. He wrote a famous canon in the key of D-Major that is often called "Canon". But in fact he wrote many canon, as did many other composers of the era. Canon, refers to a specific form of music, just like a waltz, polka, symphony, etc.

Mahler, wrote during the end of the Late Romantic movement. And in thi movemet, he chose to revive the canon form, by applying it here.

[SvitjodsKrigare]

Why did you choose the painting of Charles XII's death?

Just curius.

[ApsisApocynthion]

sorry for the late response.

I needed a powerful image, of a moving funeral march. In other words, the image is full of movement, Which is very different from a static image of people mourning, steady and silently by a grave stone. And this is probably closer to what Mahler imagined.

[lesterdiamond5]

@ApsisApocynthion I didn't know so many people liked Mahler. I thought he was hard to understand?

[TheStockwell]

@ApsisApocynthion I'm one of those annoying Mahlerites who has to point out that what Mahler imagined was a group of animals carrying a hunter to his grave. He specifically mentioned an engraving (by Moritz von Schwind) called "The Huntsman's Funeral" as his inspiration for this movement. The irony is that, of course, the forest animals would be happy to be burying a dead hunter. Oh, Mahler loved that irony! Also, Tilson Thomas recorded Symphony No.1 but not the "Titan." There's a difference.

[ApsisApocynthion]

@TheStockwell You are annoying.

That's a nice fact, though I can't see myself changing the image unless I re-upload the video. Even then, I'm not gonna worry about being 100% accurate in terms of image. (would drive me crazy if I did)

Correct. This is the final revision version after he dropped the title. I put it up because I like it.

[TheStockwell]

@ApsisApocynthion I told you was annoying - I didn't want you to think I was being rude, though - just picky. And keep the image you have - and the description. This is what YouTube is all about. You see things, you hear things, you learn things. Mahler regretted giving titles and descriptions to his early works but, it's too late, now. It'll take another 150 years to erase the titles added to his symphonies.

[OpenCadence78]

@ApsisApocynthion I thought he imagined a bunch of forest animals carrying the coffin of a hunter, from the picture "The Hunter's Funeral" from Das Knaben Wunderhorn?

[reonat]

@ApsisApocynthion This movement is also a nudge to french nursery song "Frere Jacques" which is approximately the same melody, only in major key ;)

[usernameguy3]

and don't forget the klezmer (sp?) quote!

[xavieramont]

@Erinfuckyeah 7/10.

[34ve]

Wonderful of performance

[WankiTank]

I wrote an exam today about this part of the symphony.

Can't get it out of my head ... so ...beautiful.

[Prestiisi]

hmm. Maybe this symphony cannot be wholly understood if the listener isn't familiar with the Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen. For example, one of the songs gives lyrics to this part of the symhony, and another to the first part. Very autobiographical work(s).

[Curixq]

Do I dream or do I hear a scary, sad version of "Broeder Jacob" = "Frère Jaques" ?

[Curixq]

I should have read the description first

[jayantisthebest]

No u r rite. It is frere jacques. But in minor. And as a funeral march. Learnin dis in Music.

[Gretsche87]

Is this really D major? It sounds so haunting/brooding I would have guessed a minor scale. However, I never studied so I really wouldn't know, only an assumption.

[ApsisApocynthion]

No, it's not in D Major. Good question.

Traditionally, when a large work is said to be in a particular key, it really means that it begins in that key and it ends in that key - or, in Romanticism, sometimes the relative major/minor. Therefore, the title "Symphny in D Major" doesn't account for all the changes in keys throughout the piece.

[paranoid711]

@Gretsche87

the symphony as a whole is in D major, but your right this particular section is in a minor key

[wierdo1232123]

@Gretsche87 Its D minor, E minor, D-flat Major, then back to D minor for the ending :)

[levike899]

amazing, by the way it has some jewish roots also

[Arodon3x0]

uhm what/who has jewish roots?

[levike899]

the music of course. I mean there are a lot of jewish motives/rythms in it. actually there is one part of it when its like a jewish wedding song.

[odalrich]

Gustav Mahler was Jewish and therefore likely to be influenced by the music of the community he had heard in his childhood.

[LysFlower13]

6:20 it's a part of the "Songs of a Wayfarer"!!!!!

Anyway, it's so wonderful!!!

[ArturoAlejandroS]

This is too beautiful

[phil1184]

its fkn amazin .. thanx for postin it .. amazin music

[ansketil]

Wow... Turning a child's song into a funeral march... that's rather chilling.

[Aro2220]

It may actually have its roots in a funeral march. At least, in Austria. That's what wikipedia suggests, too.

truth is often stranger than fiction. after all, ring around the rosie is about the plague...

[tanel82]

On the other hand, the music depicts animals burying a huntsman, and the march turns into a wild dance in the middle. Perhaps that explains why a funeral march is actually a children's song. It is bitter irony.

[Betziburli]

@ansketil chilling it may be but in life as in death we are children all in all, don't you think? We learn to live too late to enjoy it fully, that dawns on us when the end is near..

[johnnynoirman]

Yes..Well... that's Mahler for you...composing songs for dead children and then one of his own.....dies.....CHILLING IS RIGHT.!

[VJ425]

@ansketil an oft important feature of Mahler's compositions is the perversion of the child-like or innocent

[Madinzi52]

this peice is very hard to play on the violin. very hard.

[Utubenoob23]

lol are you serious? this piece is easy as hell and ive only been playing for 9 years

[Sinfoniette]

*Only 9 years? And just because you can play the notes does not mean that you can convey the emotions.

[far45s]

i agree that it is difficult playing for an hour and the notes arent easy as well

[FranconianBassplayer]

i think he was joking folks^^

[Sw33tSm0k3]

Hey that picture is of the Swedish king Carl XII's death

[ApsisApocynthion]

Very good!

[martenkrijgsman]

Brilliant ^^

[dragongirl113]

i love the frere jacquest variation

:)