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Symphony No. 2
Sketches, movement 2 – S2.2
Symphony No. 3
Sketch, movement 1 – S1.1
US-STu MLM 630
Symphony No. 2
– Manuscript sources
Symphony No. 2 – Main page
Symphony No.
3
– Manuscript sources Symphony No.
3 – Main page
Catalogue Homepage
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3 |
Peter Franklin believes these may be
connected with instructions he wished to give to a local
builder for the construction of his composing hut on the
lakeshore at Steinbach, which was to be ready for his
1894 vacation (PFMS3,
45).
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Title |
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None present, but
the front wrapper (fol. 1r) bears an autograph inscription in ink:
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Steinbach am Attersee.
Am 28 Juli 1896 ereignete sich das
Seltsame, daß ich meiner lieben Freundin Natalie den
Kern eines Baumes schenken konnte, der trotzdem aber
in voller Lebensgrösse mit allen Zweigen, Blättern
und Früchten nun in die Welt hinein blüht und wächst.
Gustav Mahler. |
Steinbach am Attersee
On 28 July 1896
the curious thing happened that I was able to give
my dear friend Natalie the seed of a tree which
nevertheless already blossoms and flourishes in the
world fully grown, with all its branches, leaves and
fruit.
Gustav Mahler |
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Date |
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[Non-autograph, probably
Natalie Bauer-Lechner, on 2r:] Steinbach 1893 |
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Calligraphy |
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Mahler: black ink;
non-autograph: black ink, pencil |
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Paper |
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The manuscript has not been examined: the paper details are
derived from
MSO, 399 in preference to the Stanford University Library
Catalogue |
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| A |
24 staves, no maker's mark, no
watermark, upright
format, 360 x 270
(r = not recorded) |
| B |
18 staves, no maker's mark, no
watermark, upright format, 330½ x 250 (r = not recorded) |
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Manuscript
structure and collation |
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4 fol.
Two nested bifolios
that, together with US-Stu MLM 631, once formed part of
a group of at least nine sketch sheets and bifolios all of which
included, alongside other drafts and notations, preliminary ideas for the opening (but last to be composed)
movement of the Symphony.
The outer bifolio (a
wrapper) bears a non-autograph pencil itemisation G1 in the
bottom l.h. corner of folio. 1r; the inner bifolio bears a
non-autograph pencil foliation G7 in the bottom l.h.
corner of folio. 2r and a non-autograph pencil pagination 1 in the
top r.h. corner and the pagination sequence is continued on the top
fore-edge corners of fol. 1v–2v. For details of the paper usage, fascicle
structure, non-autograph itemisation, and non-autograph pagination
of the whole group, see the
conjectural reconstruction of the convolute
of sketches prior to its incorporation into the Memorial Library
of Music collection.
The following
abbreviations are employed to identify the symphonic movements being
sketched:
II2 = Second Symphony, second movement
II5 = Second
Symphony, Fifth
movement
III1 = Third Symphony, first movement
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Folio/ System |
Content |
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1r |
[ink: inscription (see above)] |
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1v |
blank |
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2r |
[ink:]
[heading [non-autograph]: 1893 Steinbach. |
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2r1 |
blank |
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2r2 |
[ink:] 1 bar = revised version of b. 2 on
fol. 2r3–4 (S1.1) |
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2r3–4 |
[ink:] 8 bars with upbeat (2 bars deleted) ≈ III1, bb. 279–285 (5th lower) (S1.1) |
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2r5 |
blank |
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2r6–8 |
[ink:] 6 bars (1 deleted) ≈ III1,
bb. 286–291 (5th lower) (S1.1) |
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2r9–10 |
[ink/ pencil:] 3 bars with upbeat ≈ III1,
bb. 279–82 (4th lower)¹ (S1.1) |
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2r11–13 |
[ink:]
3 bars ≈ III1,
bb. 11–12 (S1.1) |
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2r14–15 |
[ink:] 2 bars with upbeat ≈ III1, bb. 273–4 (4th higher);
6 bars with upbeat ≈ III1,
bb. 596–601² (S1.1) |
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2r16–18 |
blank |
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2r |
[Foot of the
page, in pencil:] text and doodles³ |
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2v |
[pencil, ink:] cf. II2, bb. 139–209 (=
S2.2) |
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3r |
[pencil:] II2:
cf. bb. 139–209 (= S2.2) |
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3v1–3 |
[ink:] 4
unidentified bars (3/8, C major?) |
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3v4 |
blank |
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3v5–7 |
[pencil]: 5
unidentified bars (3/8, E
major?) |
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3v8 |
blank |
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3v9–11 |
[pencil]: 7 bars
≈ II5,
bb. 301–5 + 2 bars (S5.7) |
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3v12–14 |
[pencil]: „Ich
ging mit Lust‟, bb. 1–4 (2/2, B
major?) |
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3v14–15 |
[pencil]: 12 or 13 unidentified bars
(3/4, C major?) |
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3v16–17 |
[pencil]: 14
unidentified bars = continuation of 3v14–15 |
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3v18 |
blank |
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4r |
blank |
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4v |
blank |
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Provenance |
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Gift to Natalie
Bauer-Lechner, 1896;
offered for sale by V.A. Heck c. 1929 as part of a collection of
Mahler sketch leaves (Inv.
II, 1) and apparently
acquired by George Thomas Keating (1892–1976),⁴ probably in the
1930s. The whole collection subsequently formed part of the
Memorial Library of Music (divided between two call numbers, MLM
630, MLM 631) dedicated to the memory of those
alumni of Stanford University killed in WWII, that Keating and his
wife presented to the University in the late 1940s. |
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Facsimiles |
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Complete colour facsimile; 2r:
PFMS3, 44 (with a transcription on 102–103) |
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Select
Bibliography |
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MSO, 399–409 (manuscripts 1 and 2);
NKGII.2,
27, 116 (source PE-2);
NPCML, no. 630, p. 146;
OACAM,
no. 1149, p. 178;
HLG1F, 1034;
PFMS3, passim; and especially 100–101;
CFGM, III, 75–9. |
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Notes |
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The chronology of the sketches recorded on the inner bifolio
(fol. 2-3, paper type B) is far from certain. Fol. 2r is dated 1893 Steinbach
(perhaps by Natalie Bauer-Lechner) and is substantially
concerned with sketches for the second 'trio' of the second
movement of the Second Symphony (= S2.2;
for the end of the 'trio', see
S2.3).
Bauer-Lechner recorded that Mahler worked on the movement while
at Steinbach am Attersee in July–August
1893 (NBLE, 29):
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'Here are two marvellous themes' said Mahler 'that I picked up
today from the sketch for the Andante of my Second Symphony.
With God's help, I hope to finish both it and the Scherzo while
I'm here'....Mahler finished his Andante in seven days.... |
The orchestral draft of the Scherzo of the
Second (OD3)
was completed on 16 July 1893 and that of the Andante (OD2)
on 30 July 1893, so the sketches on fol. 2v for the latter
movement probably date from the summer of 1893. Whether all the
other sketches of fol. 2 and 3, including those for III1,
were notated at about the same time is a matter for conjecture.
Not all of the other notations on these leaves have been
definitively linked to known works, but the four-bar quotation (in 2/2 not
2/4) from the opening of „Ich ging mit Lust‟ on 3v12–14
is perplexing. It seems unlikely that it was connected with
the composition of the song, which was probably composed
sometime between 1887 and 1890 and published in volume 2 of
the Lieder und Gesänge in February 1892. The reason for
its appearance on this sheet is not obvious.
Another interesting feature of fol. 3v is
the short pencil sketch for bb. 301–5 of the
fifth movement of the Second Symphony (S5.7):
this appears to be evidence that either, contrary to Natalie
Bauer-Lechner's
report, Mahler did manage to sketch at least one idea for
this movement in 1893, or that this leaf was to hand when Mahler
was working on the last movement of the Second in the
summer of 1894.
The summer of 1895 proved to be remarkably fruitful and
by mid-August Mahler could announce to Fritz Löhr (GMB2,
125;
GMSL, 162–3) and Arnold Berliner (GMB2,
125–6;
GMSL, 162–3) that the Third Symphony was complete in
score except for the first movement. Subsequent events suggest
that Mahler had also begun sketching the first movement that
same summer. When he arrived in Steinbach on 11 or 12 June
the following year
Mahler found, to his dismay, that he had left the preliminary sketches for the movement in Hamburg, and had to
enlist the help of Hermann Behn to have them sent to Austria (GMBAvM,
103–4;
GMUB,
26, letter 7;
GMUBE, 28, letter 7).
These arrived safely on 19 or 20 June,⁵ and in gratitude Mahler
promised to send them to Behn in due course 'in memory of his
act of friendship'. However, it would appear that, for whatever reason, he actually
presented them to Natalie Bauer-Lechner on 28 July 1896. So
the sketches for the movement on fol. 2r of the manuscript
described here, notwithstanding its contradictory heading, could
have been jotted down as late as 1895. The identification of the precise passages being sketched on
fol. 2r is problematic, but the fragments are all concerned with
the fast march music that emerges first at b. 136, and later at
b. 273. Moreover, other issues merit further consideration:
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Timothy D. Freeze points out that there is no indication that the marches
on 2r were at the time of notation, intended for a third
symphony (TDF, 13).
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Some scholars argue that the sketches on 2r date from 1891 (i.e. before the
Das himmlische Leben was composed): see
FKWB, 349ff.
This description is based on an examination of the online
facsimile and the descriptions in
MSO, 399ff. and
NKGII.2. |
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