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{{Short description|Symphony by Gustav Mahler}}

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name	Symphony No. 6| image = Photo of Gustav Mahler by Moritz Nähr 01.jpg| caption = Gustav Mahler in 1907| key = A minor| dedication = | composer = Gustav Mahler| catalogue = | movements = 4| duration = 77–85 minutes| composed = 1903–1904: Maiernigg Saalbau Essen| premiere_conductor= Gustav Mahler| premiere_performers= {edih}	Frederick Charles Adler>F. Charles Adler, Vienna Symphony, 1952}}The Symphony No. 6 in A minor by Gustav Mahler is a symphony in four movements, composed in 1903 and 1904, with revisions from 1906. It is sometimes nicknamed the Tragic ("Tragische"), though the origin of the name is unclear.JOURNAL, Rabinowitz, Peter J., September 1981, Pleasure in Conflict: Mahler's Sixth, Tragedy, and Musical Form, Comparative Literature Studies, 18, 3, 306–313, 40246269, Introduction Mahler conducted the work's first performance at the Saalbau concert hall in Essen on 27 May 1906. Mahler composed the symphony at an exceptionally happy time in his life, as he had married Alma Schindler in 1902, and during the course of the work's composition his second daughter was born. This contrasts with the tragic, even nihilistic, ending of No. 6. Both Alban Berg and Anton Webern praised the work when they first heard it. Berg expressed his opinion of the stature of this symphony in a 1908 letter to Webern:" (There is only one Sixth, notwithstanding the Pastoral.)NEWS,weblink Wo der Hammer hängt Komische Oper, Der Tagesspiegel, Sybill Mahlke, 2008-06-29, 2015-10-31, German, }} Nickname of Tragische The status of the symphony's nickname is problematic. Mahler did not title the symphony when he composed it, or at its first performance or first publication. When he allowed Richard Specht to analyse the work and Alexander von Zemlinsky to arrange the symphony, he did not authorize any sort of nickname for the symphony. He had, as well, decisively rejected and disavowed the titles (and programmes) of his earlier symphonies by 1900. Only the words "'" appeared on the programme for the performance in Munich on November 8, 1906.BOOK, Kubik, Reinhold, The Correct Movement Order in Mahler's Sixth Symphony, The Kaplan Foundation, 2004, 0-9749613-0-2, Gilbert Kaplan, New York, New York, Analysis versus history: Erwin Ratz and the Sixth Symphony,weblink {{rp|59}} Nor does the word ' appear on any of the scores that (scores:C.F. Kahnt|C. F. Kahnt) published (first edition, 1906; revised edition, 1906), in Specht's officially approved ('thematic guide'){{rp|50}} or on Zemlinsky's piano duet transcription (1906).{{rp|57}} By contrast, in his Gustav Mahler memoir, Bruno Walter claimed that "Mahler called [the work] his Tragic Symphony". Additionally, the programme for the first Vienna performance (January 4, 1907) refers to the work as "". Instrumentation The symphony is scored for large orchestra, consisting of the following:{{col-begin}}{{col-2}} Woodwinds piccolo (used only in movement 4) 4 flutes (3rd and 4th doubling 2nd and 3rd piccolos) 4 oboes (3rd and 4th doubling 2nd and 3rd cor anglais; 2nd cor anglais used only in Scherzo) cor anglais (used only in movement 4) E{{music|flat}} clarinet (doubling 4th clarinet) 3 B{{music|flat}} and A clarinets bass clarinet 4 bassoons (4th used only in movement 4) contrabassoon Brass 8 horns 6 trumpets (5th and 6th used only in movement 4) 4 trombones (4th used only in movement 4) tuba Keyboards celesta {{col-2}} Percussion 6 timpani (two players) bass drum snare drum (used in movements 1 and 4) cymbals triangle cowbells (offstage in movements 1 and 4, onstage in Andante) hammer (see description below) tam-tam rute deep, untuned bells (used only in movement 4, offstage) glockenspiel xylophone Strings 2 harps 1st violins 2nd violins violas cellos double basses {{col-2}}{{col-end}}(File:Die Muskete Mahler Karikatur.jpg|thumb|Contemporary caricature about the unorthodox usage of a hammer: "My god, I forgot the car horn! Now I can write another symphony." ({{ill|Die Muskete|de}}, 19 January 1907))Mahler requested that the celesta part should be doubled or tripled if possible. The number of harps specified is ambiguous, with Mahler calling for two in his list of instruments, but at one point calling for four harps in the score.BOOK, 0-903873-29-X, Del Mar, Norman, 68, Mahler's Sixth Symphony – A Study, Eulenberg Books, London, 1980, Norman Del Mar, In addition to very large woodwind and brass sections, Mahler augmented the percussion section with several unusual instruments, including the famous "Mahler hammer". The sound of the hammer, which features in the last movement, was stipulated by Mahler to be "brief and mighty, but dull in resonance and with a non-metallic character (like the fall of an axe)." The sound achieved in the premiere did not quite carry far enough from the stage, and indeed the problem of achieving the proper volume while still remaining dull in resonance remains a challenge to the modern orchestra. Various methods of producing the sound have involved a wooden mallet striking a wooden surface, a sledgehammer striking a wooden box, or a particularly large bass drum, or sometimes simultaneous use of more than one of these methods. Contemporaries mocked the use of the hammer, as shown by a caricature from the satirical magazine {{ill|Die Muskete|de}}.WEB, Mahler 6: Hammer!,weblink 2021-01-13, Südwestrundfunk, de, Structure The work is in four movements and has a duration of around 80 minutes. The order of the inner movements has been a matter of controversy. The first published edition of the score (C. F. Kahnt, 1906) featured the movements in the following order:JOURNAL, 10.1525/ncm.2001.25.1.49, Darcy, Warren, Rotational Form, Teleological Genesis, and Fantasy-Projection in the Slow Movement of Mahler's Sixth Symphony, 19th-Century Music, XXV, 1, 49–74, Summer 2001, 10.1525/ncm.2001.25.1.49, {{ordered list|list_style_type=upper-roman	Allegro (music)>Allegro energico, ma non troppo. Heftig, aber markig.|Scherzo: Wuchtig	Andante (tempo)>Andante moderato	Finale: Sostenuto – Allegro Tempo>moderato – Allegro energico}}Mahler later placed the Andante as the second movement, and this new order of the inner movements was reflected in the second and third published editions of the score, as well as the Essen premiere.{{ordered list|list_style_type=upper-roman|Allegro energico, ma non troppo. Heftig, aber markig.|Andante moderato|Scherzo: Wuchtig|Finale: Sostenuto – Allegro moderato – Allegro energico}}The first three movements are relatively traditional in structure and character, with a standard sonata form first movement (even including an exact repeat of the exposition, unusual in Mahler) leading to the middle movements – one a scherzo-with-trios, the other slow. However, attempts to analyze the vast finale in terms of the sonata archetype have encountered serious difficulties. As Dika Newlin has pointed out: I. Allegro energico, ma non troppo. Heftig, aber markig. The first movement, which for the most part has the character of a march, features a motif consisting of an A major triad turning to A minor over a distinctive timpani rhythm. The chords are played by trumpets and oboes when first heard, with the trumpets sounding the loudest in the first chord and the oboes in the second.{| role="presentation"		type=music	title=Listen}}

This motif reappears in subsequent movements. The first movement also features a soaring melody which the composer's wife, Alma Mahler, claimed represented her. This melody is often called the "Alma theme".JOURNAL, Monahan, Seth, "I have tried to capture you ...": Rethinking the "Alma" Theme from Mahler's Sixth Symphony, Journal of the American Musicological Society, 64, 1, 119–178, Spring 2011, 10.1525/jams.2011.64.1.119, A restatement of that theme at the movement's end marks the happiest point of the symphony.

II. Scherzo: Wuchtig

The scherzo marks a return to the unrelenting march rhythms of the first movement, though in a 'triple-time' metrical context. Its trio (the middle section), marked Altväterisch ('old-fashioned'), is rhythmically irregular ({{music|time|4|8}} switching to {{music|time|3|8}} and {{music|time|3|4}}) and of a somewhat gentler character. According to Alma Mahler, in this movement Mahler "represented the unrhythmical games of the two little children, tottering in zigzags over the sand".BOOK, Cambridge University Press, 0-521-23175-2, Cooke, Deryck, Gustav Mahler: An Introduction to his Music, Cambridge, 1980, 84, The chronology of its composition suggests otherwise. The movement was composed in the summer of 1903, when Maria Anna (born November 1902) was less than a year old.BOOK, Yale University Press, 978-0-300-13444-5, Fischer, Jens Malte, Gustav Mahler, New Haven, 2011, 410, Anna Justine was born a year later in June 1904.BOOK, Henry-Louis, de La Grange, Henry-Louis de La Grange, 705, Gustav Mahler, Volume 2: Vienna: The Years of Challenge, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1995, 0-19-315159-6,

III. Andante moderato

{{listen|type=music|filename=Mahler Symphony No 6 Andante Moderato.ogg|title=III. Andante moderato|description=Performed by the Virtual Philharmonic Orchestra (Reinhold Behringer) with digital samples}}The andante provides a respite from the intensity of the rest of the work. Its main theme is an introspective ten-bar phrase in E{{music|flat}} major, though it frequently touches on the minor mode as well. The orchestration is more delicate and reserved in this movement, making it all the more poignant when compared to the other three.

IV. Finale: Sostenuto – Allegro moderato – Allegro energico

File:Version of the 'Mahler hammer' as used by the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra for a performance in November 2016.jpg|thumb|Another version of the "hammer", used by the Baltimore Symphony OrchestraBaltimore Symphony OrchestraThe last movement is an extended sonata form with an introduction and coda, characterized by drastic changes in mood and tempo, the sudden change of glorious soaring melody to deep agony. The movement is punctuated by two hammer blows. The original score had five hammer blows, which Mahler subsequently reduced to three, and eventually to two.WEB,weblink Mahler: Symphony No. 6 (study score). Neue Kritische Gesamtausgabe, Reinhold Kubik, ed. C.F. Peters and Kaplan Foundation. EP 11210, Classics Today, David Hurwitz, May 2020, 2020-07-30, WEB,weblink The Mahler Symphonies – A synoptic survey by Tony Duggan: Symphony No. 6, MusicWeb International, Tony Duggan, May 2007, 2020-07-30,