Mahler Symphony No. 10

The Symphony No. 10 by Gustav Mahler was written in the summer of 1910, and was his final composition.

At the time of Mahler's death the composition was substantially complete in the form of a continuous draft; but not being fully elaborated at every point, and mostly not orchestrated, it was not performable in that state. Only the first movement is regarded as reasonably complete and performable as Mahler intended. Perhaps as a reflection of the inner turmoil he was dealing with at the time (Mahler knew he had a failing heart and his wife had committed infidelity), the 10th Symphony is arguably his most musically dissonant work.





The instrumentation of the symphony cannot be defined precisely, owing to the incompleteness of the orchestral draft. However, in the short score there are occasional indications of instrumentation, and some of the orchestration may be surmised from the three movements of the orchestral draft, from which the probable forces include: four flutes, one piccolo, four oboes, four clarinets in B flat and A, with one doubling E flat, three bassoons, two contrabassoons, four horns, four trumpets, four trombones, a tuba, two sets of timpani, tam tam, a large muffled military drum, harp and strings (first and second violins,violas, cellos and double basses). The surviving orchestration does not specify a cor anglais (English horn) or a bass clarinet, bass drum, cymbals, and triangle, although Mahler regularly used these instruments in his other symphonies.

Source: Wikipedia

  • Symphony No. 10 (sample)

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