The Scherzo (the third movement) of Mahler’s Fifth Symphony is built on the rhythm of the Austrian folk waltz, or Ländler. He described the effect of the music: “Every note is charged with life, and the whole thing whirls around in a giddy dance.”

The first song in Mahler’s song symphony The Song of the Earth (Das Lied von der Erde), “The Drinking Song of the Earth’s Sorrow” (Das Trinklied vom Jammer der Erde), expresses a bitter acknowledgement of life’s realities: “Life is dark, as is death.”

“At times I feel I am a solitary stranger everywhere! My whole life is one great homesickness.” The expressive “sighs” in the first movement of Mahler’s Second Symphony are a prime example of the way he achieved a musical portrayal of grieving and loneliness in piercing, searing lines.

Mahler’s Jewish identity was a subject of much discussion among his contemporaries. The melodic shapes and intensity of expression were often cited as evidence.

Many pages of Mahler's late works, The Song of the Earth (Das Lied von der Erde) and the Ninth Symphony, are colored by the musical motive called the turn. As a boy, he would have first become aware of its expressive possibilities when he heard it in synagogue, in the chanting of the Torah and in the singing of many prayers. In the last movement of the Ninth Symphony, as the music grows in intensity, Mahler employs the turn more and more. Play the audio to hear the opening phrase. Then play the video to hear the passionate climax.

Although Mahler himself gave his Second Symphony no title, it is commonly known as the “Resurrection” because of its dramatic arc, which portrays a soul’s journey from death through the day of judgment and resurrection, along the way looking back at the world. As the composer put it: “The whole thing sounds as though it came to us from some other world. And — I think there is no one who can resist it. One is battered to the ground and then raised on angels’ wings to the highest heights.”

The end of the second movement of Mahler’s Fifth Symphony evokes the sounds of church chorales. The music reflects a particularly productive period in his life, when his job at the Vienna Court Opera allowed him the resources to build a home in Maiernigg, where he conceived the Fifth Symphony.

The first movement of Mahler's Ninth symphony establishes a mood of searching. Only later do we get a hint of what is to follow, as just before the climax of the movement Mahler employs a short turning motive that hearkens back to his earliest compositions. It is orchestrated for brass and strings to heighten the effect.

The first movement of Mahler’s Second Symphony was originally named Todtenfeier (Funeral Rites).

Mahler’s Fifth Symphony opens with a fanfare that instructs us to “pay attention” before it moves into a funeral march. We hear echoes of this fanfare at the end of movement.