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Mahler Kindertotenlieder Analysis

Robert McGowan

What is perhaps Gustav Mahler’s most personal work, his song-cycle Kindertotenlieder

gives a hauntingly aural depiction of a grieving parent coming to grips with the loss of a child.

As this piece starts, an oboe line immediately obscures the target key trajectory by descending a

diminished 5th amidst an ascending line. This is important as the symbolism of ascending lines

throughout the piece indicates a hopeful inclination while descending lines symbolize

depression. Though this phrase ends on a sonority implying D minor, the preceding line and its

counterpoint from the horn leaves the resolution obscured.

The A section vocal line begins where the oboe line leaves off, on A. Reading “Now the

sun wants to rise as brightly”, the vocal line contrasts this seemingly hopeful impression of a

sunrise by descending into D minor. Though there is a lack of analyzable harmony in this phrase,

the C# to D interjections in the oboe and horn grounds this phrase firmly in D minor. The phrase

ultimately ends unresolved on E as the oboe once again takes the foreground, mimicking the

vocal line that just preceded it.

The second line reads “as if nothing terrible had happened during the night.”, and this is

complimented by the vocal harmony in that it starts on F♮ (the third of D minor), and moves

chromatically up to F#, indicating the modulation into the parallel D major. This gives the

powerful effect of the narrator finding happiness with their memories of the past. Though this

phrase ascends, it is done chromatically which gives an off-kilter melancholy to the

transformation of mood. Measure 14 (one line before the resolution of the phrase) gives two

important motifs that will reoccur. The first one (that will here on be called ‘motif 1’) occurs on

beats one and two of this measure and symbolizes the narrator’s momentary relief of depression

and is characterized by a 2nd step down followed by a 6th leap up and 4th leap down. The second
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motive is a grace-note yodel from the singer which emphasizes this happiness before resolving

the phrase in D major.

The first horn, which till now played a contrapuntal role, echoes motive 1. Yet given its

unique tone color, this line comes off as a sort of funeral dirge. This line stays in a hopeful D

major until measure 18 when it quickly relapses back into D minor with the accent of C♮. From

here, further tone painting occurs as the glockenspiel (glock) accents 3&4; harkening to the

imagery of a child’s crib perhaps. The familiar oboe line, signifying depression comes in as the

glock motif dyes away. The A section vocal line on “Das Unglück” is a restatement of the first

two phrase and follows the same motivic ideas. What is curiously left out here is the yodel

motive in the vocal line that is now given to the violas; perhaps a sign that the narrator is losing

their grip for hope.

As the second phrase once again resolves in D major and the horn takes its macabre role,

it quickly loses its grip on the sediment realm of D major. In an almost desperate attempt to

regain this hopeful state of mind, it tries to fully quote motif 1 several times, each time

unsuccessful as the music fluctuates its implication of major or minor.

From the line which reads “You must not enfold the night in you”, the line for the first

time implies the tone center of F major with its ascending line from F and counterpoint in the

oboe. This mood is quickly extinguished as the line reading “You must sink it in eternal light”

accents the D minor chord. The ascending vocal line hints at E major before concluding in D

minor. From here, the violins are the ones quoting motive 1 in an effort to bring the music back

to D major territory. A flute solo is heard which echoes the oboe line which started the piece and

the glock motive is heard underneath this with decrescendo dynamics to fade it out.
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The A section returns once again yet the second phrase of this is modified in having the

vocal line start a measure later than it did the last two times as the violins fill this void. This last

line is repeated in a coda which ends the piece in D minor. The glock motive, which has been

thus far heard in pairs, is heard once more and Mahler chooses to end this song with the glock

ringing alone, a covertly optimistic message as it completes the pairing which is absent in the

penultimate measure.