MAHLER'S three middle symphonies, composed in the short time
between 1901 and 1905, and all purely instrumental again represent
a closely interrelated group. They seem so utterly different from the
preceding Wunderhorn trilogy that it is possible to speak of a funda-
mental change of style. They are not associated with any kind of
programme, they show a common tendency to link up with the
traditions of the Viennese classical symphony, and by excluding the
human voice they achieve greater structural cohesion. They also
contain fewer movements. Their neo-classical tendencies are em-
phasized by the fact that two of them close with a highly organized
rondo-finale applying the variation technique to a very extensive
sonata scheme. In Symphony V, for the first time, fugal technique
is employed for the purpose of thematic exposition, a turning towards
the processes of polyphony that was going to play an important part
in Symphonies VIII and IX. Still, in spite of the complete absence
of the human voice, these middle symphonies are by no means totally
devoid of vocal connotations. While a note-for-note quotation
from the first Kindertotenlied crops up in the first movement of Sym-
phony V (11 bars before cue 2), both that Symphony and the seventh
clearly display the fertilizing influence of the last two Wunderhorn
songs ( Revelge and Tamboursg'sell) in the former's Funeral March and
the latter's first 'Nachtmusik'. Symphonies VI and VII are further
linked by Mahler's favourite symbol of tragedy darkening the world:
the major triad turning into the minor with the effect of a solar eclipse. ¹
This symbol (foreshadowed in the Funeral March of Beethoven
'Eroica,' twenty bars before the end, and used by Mahler at the end
of the first movement in Symphony II, and again in the song Tam-
boursg'sell) dominates the whole structure of Symphony VI, only to

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