Copyright by Eric Peter Hogrefe 2016 The Dissertation Committee for Eric Peter Hogrefe Certifies that this is the approved version of the following dissertation: Extreme Narration in Mahler’s Late Adagios Committee: Byron Almén, Supervisor James Buhler Sabine Hake Robert Hatten Michael Tusa Extreme Narration in Mahler’s Late Adagios by Eric Peter Hogrefe, B.A.; M.A. Dissertation Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of The University of Texas at Austin in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy The University of Texas at Austin May 2016 Dedication For my parents Acknowledgements It goes without saying that I could not have completed this dissertation without the support of friends, family, and mentors. First and foremost, I would like to thank my advisor, Dr. Byron Almén, for his guidance and insight stretching from the broadest aspects of organization down to the smallest details of punctuation. This dissertation would not have been possible without your ideas, your advice, or your patience. The other members of my committee also provided valuable guidance at every stage. I thank Dr. Jim Buhler for helping me find my own perspective on Mahler’s music. Dr. Robert S. Hatten offered feedback, copyediting, and an encyclopedic knowledge of all things musical meaning, each of which added to my project immeasurably. Finally, I thank Dr. Michael Tusa, whose keen eye for detail helped me refine several analyses for the better. In graduate school, friends are important. Among my colleagues at the University of Texas, I have been fortunate to have many. In particular, Matt Bell, Eloise Boisjoli, Cari McDonnell, Joel Mott, Alex Newton, Scott C. Schumann, and Allison Wente have all listened to me talk about Mahler far longer than etiquette required. Finally, I owe my deepest debt of gratitude to Rachel. Your partnership, encouragement, and kindness have inspired me throughout. I don’t know how anyone writes one of these things without you. v Extreme Narration in Mahler’s Late Adagios Eric Peter Hogrefe, Ph.D. The University of Texas at Austin, 2016 Supervisor: Byron Almén The symphonies of Gustav Mahler continually inspire analyses that invoke terms and concepts from narrative theory. Yet little work has been done on the particularities of Mahler’s narrative idiom. Instead, analysts tend to use narrative theory for interpretation of individual movements, or to situate Mahler’s works within a particular historical context. Seth Monahan’s (2015) recent work on narrative and sonata form in Mahler’s earlier symphonies represents one counterexample, but only addresses a small portion of Mahler’s entire output. Mahler’s Adagio movements remain a particularly noticeable gap in the literature. This dissertation offers an examination of Mahler’s Adagio narratives, with particular emphasis on his late stylistic period (1908-1911). As Mahler’s music moved from a reliance on codified formal schemes towards a more discursive style in his late music, the Adagio took on greater importance within his symphonies. But these less clearly defined movements challenge traditional notions of narrative. I view Mahler’s late Adagios through the lens of unnatural narratology, a strand of literary theory that focuses on strange or aberrant texts, and articulates narrative strategies that go beyond realist or mimetic norms. vi Chapter 1 positions musical narrative as an intersubjective phenomenon through three theses and a brief analysis of Mahler’s song “Der Einsame im Herbst.” Chapter 2 articulates a theory of extreme narration in music by adapting ideas from unnatural narratology to the analysis of music. Chapter 3 outlines prototypical narrative strategies in what Margaret Notley (1999, 2007) has called the Adagio genre—as Mahler inherited it. The final two chapters each present an analytical essay on one of Mahler’s late Adagios. Chapter 4 analyzes the finale of Mahler’s Ninth Symphony as an example of what Byron Almén and Robert Hatten call tropological narrative (2013). Finally, Chapter 5 analyzes the first movement of Mahler’s Tenth Symphony as an example of what narratologist Brian Richardson calls denarration (2006). vii Table of Contents List of Tables ...........................................................................................................x List of Figures ........................................................................................................ xi List of Examples ................................................................................................... xii Introduction ..............................................................................................................1 Analysis, Interpretation, and Mahler ..............................................................4 Extensions of Musical Narrative .....................................................................5 Why Slow Movements? ..................................................................................9 Chapter 1: Three Theses on Musical Narrative .....................................................15 Introduction by Analysis: “Der Einsame im Herbst” ...................................15 Genre Identification ......................................................................................16 Pentatonicism as Narrative ...........................................................................20 Narrative or Not? ..........................................................................................23 Three Theses on Musical Narrative ..............................................................26 Thesis 1: Narratives are Parts of Other Narratives .......................................27 Thesis 2: Musical Narrative is Intersubjective ..............................................33 Thesis 3: Musical Narrative Does Not Inhibit Sustained Theoretical Thought .........................................................................................................38 Conclusions: Paths Forward for Musical Narrative ......................................43 Chapter 2: Extreme Narration in Literature, Music, and Mahler ...........................46 Introduction: Degrees of Narrativity .............................................................46 Extreme Narration and Unnatural Narratology .............................................50 Extreme Narration in Music ..........................................................................53 Analytical Interlude: Symphony no. 1, mm. 1-162 ......................................57 Mahler’s Narrative Negations .......................................................................63 Analytical Interlude: Symphony no. 5, Finale ..............................................70 Conclusion ....................................................................................................76 viii Chapter 3: Narrative, Genre, and the Nineteenth-Century Adagio ........................79 Introduction ...................................................................................................79 Adagio as Genre ............................................................................................80 The Cantilena ................................................................................................87 Part Forms and the Nineteenth-Century Adagio ...........................................91 Sonata Forms and the Nineteenth-Century Adagio ......................................98 Mahler’s Early Adagios ..............................................................................109 Conclusion ..................................................................................................116 Chapter 4: Tropological Narrative in the Finale of Mahler’s Ninth Symphony ..117 Introduction .................................................................................................117 Considering Tropological Narrative ...........................................................119 Towards a Theory of Tropological Narrative .............................................122 9/IV: Agential Level (mm. 1-48) ................................................................127 9/IV: Actantial Level ..................................................................................139 9/IV: Narrative Level ..................................................................................146 Music’s Narratives ......................................................................................151 Conclusion ..................................................................................................154 Chapter 5: Hypothetical Ending(s) in Mahler’s Tenth Symphony, Movement 1 ...............................................................................................156 Introduction .................................................................................................156 Agential Level I: Form, mm. 1-103 ............................................................159 Agential Level II: Chromatic Language, mm. 1-103 ..................................168 Agential Level: Synthesis ...........................................................................172 Actantial Level: Development and Recapitulation .....................................175 Interlude: Hypothetical Music ....................................................................183 Narrative Level ...........................................................................................185 Conclusion: Irony and Extreme Narration ..................................................187