ABSTRACT
Several of Gustav Mahler's contemporary critics accused him of a lack of originality, claiming him to be a 'Kapellmeister' composer, namely one who recycled pre-existent music instead of inventing and producing new works. Mahler's carefully considered instrumentation also contributes significantly to the stifling nature of the atmosphere, which is indeed disturbed by the 'spiky oboe melody' (bars 19-23, repeated in bars 29-33), but not completely dissolved. This chapter shows that the third movement of Mahler's First Symphony — that is, in the Todtenmarsch in Callots Manier — music and literature are interconnected in a manner that abolishes the traditional division between programme music and absolute music, establishing a new relationship between autonomy and heteronomy. The main difference between the finale of Berlioz's Symphonie fantastique and the third movement of Mahler's First Symphony is that Berlioz represents an imaginary scene in his music.
