 Sixth, her report of Mahler's 'superstitious' reason for removing the third hammer-blow not only has no corroboration of any kind, but also betrays an ignorance of the musical sources.Mahler originally notated no fewer than "five" large percussive impacts in the score of his finale (b.9, b.336, b.479, b.530, b.783); these five were later reduced to a 'classically' dramatic three and specifically allotted to a 'Hammer' — though with one of these blows (the last) occurring in a structural and gestural context that makes it very different from the other two (and equivalent to the two that were removed).It was this anomalous blow that Mahler, in revising the work, chose to delete — making the important question not 'Why did he finally take it out?