violins; creating discomfort to the ear and thus creating tension. The tension is increased yet more by the use of tremolo in the double basses. Mahler marks the score with “viel Bogen”, meaning “much bow” or “many bow changes” , to intensify the sound, and “Wieder Zuruckhaltend”, meaning “to hold back tempo”, to prolong each note to increase the drama of the music. (http://www.orchestralibrary.com/reftables- /mahler2gloss.html#V) The combined effects create a profound emotional response among listeners, as Mahler intended.
7. AMBIGUITY
One note harmony During one of his six lectures at Harvard, in his series of lectures for The Unanswered Question, Arnold Bernstein quoted two definitions for musical ambiguity: (1) to be “doubtful or uncertain”, …show more content…
Convention expects the dominant Ab7th chord in bar to resolve into Db major: however, a solo bassoon joins the violins and plays an ascending scalic movement in the parallel minor. This ascending scalic movement in bars 11-12 foreshadows the beginning of the B section beginning at bar 28. The single Db note creates ambiguity, as the tonality could be either major or minor: minor in this case. The single Db creates a thin, open texture and is marked with “p subito”, contrasting the “forte” prior in bar 10, and together create a sense of sudden uncertainty. Mahler surprises us by using the turn motif to decrease almost to nothing. He features the solo bassoon for the first time in bar 11, intentionally drawing attention to its melody. The resulting thin texture is exaggerated by the wide tessitura between the violins and the bassoon. The melody is played at the lowest range of the bassoon to produce a coarse, growly, unrefined sound, thus creating an eerie atmosphere. The Db is then marked with “morendo”, meaning to make the sound slowly die away (http://piano.about.com/od/termsrelatingtodynamics/g/GL_morendo.htm), thus adding to the ghostly atmosphere. However this unsettling noiselessness is soon interrupted by the obtrusive return of the original turn motif at bar
7. AMBIGUITY
One note harmony During one of his six lectures at Harvard, in his series of lectures for The Unanswered Question, Arnold Bernstein quoted two definitions for musical ambiguity: (1) to be “doubtful or uncertain”, …show more content…
Convention expects the dominant Ab7th chord in bar to resolve into Db major: however, a solo bassoon joins the violins and plays an ascending scalic movement in the parallel minor. This ascending scalic movement in bars 11-12 foreshadows the beginning of the B section beginning at bar 28. The single Db note creates ambiguity, as the tonality could be either major or minor: minor in this case. The single Db creates a thin, open texture and is marked with “p subito”, contrasting the “forte” prior in bar 10, and together create a sense of sudden uncertainty. Mahler surprises us by using the turn motif to decrease almost to nothing. He features the solo bassoon for the first time in bar 11, intentionally drawing attention to its melody. The resulting thin texture is exaggerated by the wide tessitura between the violins and the bassoon. The melody is played at the lowest range of the bassoon to produce a coarse, growly, unrefined sound, thus creating an eerie atmosphere. The Db is then marked with “morendo”, meaning to make the sound slowly die away (http://piano.about.com/od/termsrelatingtodynamics/g/GL_morendo.htm), thus adding to the ghostly atmosphere. However this unsettling noiselessness is soon interrupted by the obtrusive return of the original turn motif at bar