A Theory of Musical Narrative by BYRON ALMEN

Author:BYRON ALMEN
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Indiana University Press
Published: 2017-03-05T16:00:00+00:00

Example 6.2. Mahler, Symphony no. 3, sixth movement, measures 1–29

Measure 1: Pa—Pb—Pa (cont.)—Pa1

Measure 92: Pa (cont.)—Pb—Pa1

Measure 198: Pa (cont.)—Pb

Measure 252: Pa—Pb—Pa1

Only the final return reprises the opening measures—with theme 1 sounding above theme 2—to provide an additional degree of syntactic closure not found in the medial returns.

The primary theme group also occupies a substantially large proportion of the movement: exactly half of its 328 measures are taken up with this material, leaving the other half for all other thematic and developmental areas. Only 65 of the remaining 164 measures contain no obvious references to the primary-theme group. The appearance of primary material to some degree in 70 percent of this movement—including the beginning and the end—hints at the continuously high semiotic rank of this material and contributes to the articulation of a romantic narrative archetype. By contrast, the other thematic material—transitional, secondary, closing—seems relatively unimportant, although some development of this material does occur in strophes II and III.

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