Mahler Symphony No.

6: Andante Moderato Klangfarbenmelodie II | Orchestration Masters

2/15/16, 12:24 AM

Mahler Symphony No. 6:

Andante Moderato
Klangfarbenmelodie II
APRIL 12, 2015JUNE 21, 2015 / WONG CHUN-WAI AND
CHAN KAI-YOUNG
Last time we discussed how Mahler used various combination of
instrumental colours within one melody. Sometimes the colour
change happens abrupty; sometimes it happens in a gradual
manner.
In the following example, we continue to look at the same
technique, Klangfarbenmelodie (KFM), with a different approach.
To make a better comparison of orchestration techniques, we will
first present the reduction, then provide our own orchestration
based on Mahlers principle, before revealing Mahlers own
orchestration.
We will also use Samuel Adlers terms foreground, middle
ground and background to distinguish different layers in the
musical texture. In general, foreground refers to the melody;
middle ground refers to accompanying
patterns/countermelody; and background refers to the

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Mahler Symphony No. 6: Andante Moderato Klangfarbenmelodie II | Orchestration Masters

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harmonic backdrop or bass line.

(Samuel Adler, The Study of Orchestration, Third Edition. New
York: W.W. Norton c2002. p.118)
The following example is drawn from the same movement form
Mahlers Symphony No.6, Andante Moderato, between measures
76-84. Lets first look at the reduction:

(https://orchestrationmasters.files.wordpress.com/2015/04/mahlersymphony-no-6-iii-andante-moderato-eg-2-ii.jpg)
(click to enlarge)
In these measures, the expressive melody in the top line carries
through the section until it becomes a middleground figure in the
E major section (m.84)
What are the possible ways to orchestrate this melody? Should we
use only the first violins? Could we double the melody with
winds occasionally to observe dynamic changes and create timbre
variety? How would Mahler orchestrate it?
You may try orchestrate a version of your own before comparing
your version with Mahlers.Orchestrating a version of your own
and comparing that to the masters version has always been a
great way to learn orchestration. Before revealing Mahlers
orchestration, we are providing an hypothetical orchestration for
comparison:

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Mahler Symphony No. 6: Andante Moderato Klangfarbenmelodie II | Orchestration Masters

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(https://orchestrationmasters.files.wordpress.com/2015/04/mahlersymphony-no-6-iii-andante-moderato-eg-3-ii.jpg)
Using the principle of Klangfarbenmelodie of Mahlers
orchestration, we have created the above orchestration by
st
introducing different doublings of the 1 violin (which plays the
melody for the most part):
1.
2.
3.
4.

first with two flutes (playing in octave), mm.76-77;

then with two clarinets (in unison), mm.79-80;
one additional clarinet (in unison), m.81;
three additional flutes (in unison) for the sf octave drop , m.82;

then the melody is played by a flute and three clarinets alone (in
unison), mm.83-84. We have adopted the following approaches to
reflect the dynamic changes and cope with balance issues:
st
1. At m.79, 2 clarinets are used at first to balance the 1 violin. At.
m.81, one more clarinet is added to strengthen the crescendo and
sf; The sf effect is further enhanced by doubling with three flutes;
2. At m.83, two flutes are dropped out to create a shift of
emphasis to the clarinet sound.
How about Mahlers?

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Mahler Symphony No. 6: Andante Moderato Klangfarbenmelodie II | Orchestration Masters

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(https://orchestrationmasters.files.wordpress.com/2015/04/mahlersymphony-no-6-iii-andante-moderato-eg-4-ii.jpg)
Mahler scored with a much lighter hand in his actually
orchestration. At most two different instrumental parts are used
to play the melody at one time. Our post last time showed that he
would colour melody either in a pointiliistic way or by gradual
colour change. In this case, he preferred the gradual change.
Unlike what most orchestrators would do, the dynamics of the
doubling parts are always different. It is rare for orchestral
composers both before and after Mahler to double a melody
with different dynamics. Crossfading instrumental colours can be
seen through the excerpt between different instruments:
st
mm. 76-77: while 1 violins stay in the foreground, three
clarinets gently increase the resonance of the violin in the
background and gradually drop out, resulting in a gradual
change in the level of resonance.
st
m. 78: 1 violin has cresc. for the big glissando characteristic
nd
st
in Mahlers string writing. Now the 2
violin joins the 1
violin (with a cresc.) to remedy the vanished resonance from
the clarinet. Now the violins solely come to the foreground,
the expressive glissando would not be so effective with the
clarinet doubling, so we understand why Mahler drops the
clarinets out a measure before. Instead of making cresc. to
exaggerate the expressive glissando, 2nd violin fades out in
the second half of the measure.
m. 79: The melody is passed from the violins to the oboe
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Mahler Symphony No. 6: Andante Moderato Klangfarbenmelodie II | Orchestration Masters

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gradually. The first oboe enters very softly while the violin is
playing in forte, allowing the oboe to fade in. After the forte
attack, the violins fade out. The focus has changed gradually
from the violin to the oboe, creating a continuously changing
color.
m. 80: having dropped out the first violins, Mahler added a
second oboe to the melody, entering with ff to balance the
resonance, keeping up the intensity of the melody. Yet, Mahler
did not just stop here a flute fades in on the third beat while
the oboe is making a dim., again creating a gradual change of
instrumental colour.
m. 81: similar to m.80, as the oboes dropped out, one more
flute is added. Yet two flutes are still too soft for the phrase, so
first violin enters with a pp, and then p when the flutes are
making a sf. Then the flutes fades out while the violin cresc.
and take over the melodic line in the next measure
mm.79-81: Notice that the flute, oboe and violin all fade in or
out with the two-note figures.
m. 82: Mahler has again introduced the expressive glissandos
in the violins, thus he has left out all other instruments.
m. 83: the clarinet in A abruptly takes over the figure played
by the violin in the previous measure. This moment is
significant, for it indicates that these figures are dropping out
from the foreground and becoming a middle-ground material
for the next section (m.84-)
Below is a summary of instrumental colour changes employed for
the second phrase in mm. 76-84:
Measure
number

Instrumental colour

76-77

1st violin f, mixed articulations

of slur and tenuto
2 clarinets in unison, p dim. , slur
throughout

78

1st violin, with cresc at the

glissando

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Mahler Symphony No. 6: Andante Moderato Klangfarbenmelodie II | Orchestration Masters

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2nd violin doubles without the

cresc. at glissando, fades out in
the second half of the measure
79

1st violin, swelled on the second

beat, then dim to p
1st oboe fades in from the
second beat with pp

80

1st oboe continues 2nd oboe

enters with a ff and fades away 1
st

flute enters on the third beat, p

with cresc
81

2 flutes in unison, sf on second

beat, and dim, stops on the
fourth beat
1st violin sneaks in with a pp, p
on the second beat and cresc

82
83-84

1st violin alone

st
1 clarinet (change to one in A)
alone

The following recording is a good one to listen for the smooth

transitions between instruments:
Claudio Abbado with Berliner Philharmoniker
(deutschegrammophon, 2005 May)
You may also refer to this recording on youtube, starting at 30:30:

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Mahler Symphony No. 6: Andante Moderato Klangfarbenmelodie II | Orchestration Masters

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Gustav Mahler: Symphony No. 6 (Lucerne Fe

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Mahler Symphony No. 6: Andante Moderato Klangfarbenmelodie II | Orchestration Masters

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THEME.

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