On the face of it, the idea of a direct path leading from the music of Brahms to the music of Gustav Mahler seems laughable. There could hardly be two composers more different, yet their life spans overlapped by a good margin, and Mahler did express admiration for the music of Brahms.
It's even more startling to find the link between them in the music of a composer who has been all but forgotten by subsequent generations: Hans Rott. It's not that Rott's music was bad -- far from it. The criminal was a cruel fate which induced mental illness and persecution mania. During his final years, Rott destroyed most of his music, ripping it up and using it as toilet paper in the asylum where he was confined, saying that this was all it was worth. He died of tuberculosis in the asylum in 1884 at the age of 25.
Although Brahms did not care for Rott's music, both Bruckner and Mahler acclaimed him. Here's what Mahler had to say about his contemporary and friend:
What music has lost in him cannot be estimated. Such is the height to which his genius soars in his First Symphony, which he wrote as a 20-year-old youth, that it makes him -- without exaggeration -- the Founder of the New Symphony as I understand it.
Rott's Symphony in E Major clearly shows that he was already well on his way to becoming a force to be reckoned with. In four movements, and lasting for nearly an hour, it does indeed represent a bridge linking Brahms with Bruckner and with Mahler. Numerous moments in the Symphony anticipate Mahler's First, and it seems entirely possible that Mahler -- consciously or unconsciously -- incorporated this material in his own work as a tribute to his friend. Equally, though, Rott's orchestration in this youthful symphony corresponds more to the orchestral sound of Brahms than the sound world of any other composer -- or so it seems to me.
It would be easy enough to dismiss Rott's symphony as derivative because there are so many reminiscences of Wagner and the main theme of the finale is so plainly modelled on the finale of Brahms' First Symphony. Easy -- and misguided. I doubt if there has ever been a 20-year old creative artist in any sphere of music, drama, dance, visual arts, etc., whose work has not had derivative aspects. Rott's true achievement here lies in the way in which he reworks the traditional forms of "symphony" and arrives at completely different, yet entirely engaging, ways of manipulating musical materials in large structures. It's no wonder that Bruckner and Mahler were impressed. Bruckner never succeeded in breaking free of the chains of traditional sonata form, but Rott in this score ripped those chains into quivering fragments and went his own way.
The score of the work was reconstructed and edited by musicologist Paul Banks, working from a manuscript score of the last three movements and a set of parts for the first movement. It was given its first-ever performance by the Cincinnati Philharmonia Orchestra under Gerhard Samuel in 1989, 111 years after Rott completed it, and recorded shortly thereafter. Since then it has been taken up and recorded by a dozen more conductors and orchestras.
The first and most obvious structural novelty is the fact that each movement is longer than its predecessor, and the finale is almost as long as the next two longest movements combined. Rott has entirely reversed the formula followed by almost all classical and early Romantic composers, in which the sonata-form first movement is usually the longest.
Moreover, the first movement drastically shortens and simplifies the traditional sonata form, devoting itself to establishing the home key of E major and to announcing and elaborating a main theme of considerable length which in itself expresses three quite contrasting and versatile melodic statements. This long and intricate melody becomes the motto theme of the symphony, which will be heard in two subsequent movements.
The slow movement opens in A major with a slow, sweeping lyrical theme which again unfolds at considerable length. As the music darkens, this is worked up to a climax of two large anguished chords underlain by fateful-sounding dominant-and-tonic timpani strokes. After this climax, the movement omits a classical return to its opening theme and substitutes a chorale intoned softly on the brass in E major. In my ears, this immediately calls to mind the similar quiet trumpet theme which ushers in the coda in the finale of Mahler's Third. This chorale theme is also destined to play a key role in the finale.
The scherzo is a rumbustious, rustic country dance, in line with some of Bruckner's scherzo movements in his earlier symphonies. It amazes me that Rott is able to draw so many fascinating and diverse melodic shapes out of the basic formula of the first five notes of the scale, either as a scale or as intervals. This feature contributes much to the folklike cut of the themes in the entire work, and particularly here. The scherzo relaxes into a brief, quiet trio, and then the main theme returns. But this is the moment when Rott's true genius really shines through. As the movement sounds like it's working up to an enthusiastic final cadence, a long timpani roll sounds and the music launches out into unknown regions on a whole lengthy series of derivatives from the first movement. Having blown the traditional A-B-A form into fragments, Rott then rejoices in his ability to keep spinning more and more variants out of his basic thematic material, constantly varying dynamics and orchestration to maintain interest. This near-demonic moto perpetuo cascade of sound eventually winds up to a final climax and an abrupt but nonetheless timely cadence.
The long final movement opens with a slow, ponderous pizzicato bass line, followed by a reminiscence of the scherzo theme, and for a moment it sounds like we are facing the finale of Beethoven 9, Mark 2. But Rott again goes his own way, and a series of figures based on a rising fourth slowly build up to a monumental climax with thunderous timpani and striking brass chords, all the more powerful for maintaining the basic slow tempo of the music. In the end, it takes no less than nine minutes for Rott to reach the end of this long, slow meditation and launch decisively into the allegro section which so plainly reflects the finale of the Brahms First. Even the texture is the same: a complete play-through of the theme on the lower range of the strings, followed by a repeat on the full orchestra. It's at this point in time that we see the purpose of all those rising fourths, since that is the opening interval of the Brahms melody. But Rott's theme, all by itself, lasts for a full minute. In classical terms, this is just a few seconds shy of eternity.
After the entire theme has been played through twice, the orchestra launches into a spectacular series of vigorous free variations on fragments or parts of the theme. Again the energy is maintained against the odds of a rather four-square rhythmic environment. In a fashion that echoes Bruckner, the music rises again and again to what seem like climactic moments, then slips back into quiet before resuming its relentless buildup.
Then, totally unexpectedly, a large chord fades into a quiet snatch of melody in slower time, and we at last see the real point of Rott's structure here: not a slow introduction followed by a fast main movement, as one might guess at first, but a three-part structure in which two slow sections bookend the faster allegro in the centre. The closest point of reference I can identify, and it comes many years later, is in the draft finale of Mahler's Tenth symphony. I wonder if, by that time, Mahler still had Rott's intriguing musical ideas in his mind?
In this final, long slow section, the rising fourth theme takes on a different shape, and assumes a distinctly familiar air. It took me several listen-throughs of the entire disc to realize that the finale's opening is actually a close cousin to the symphony's motto theme from the first movement, and here at last is the culmination when the motto itself slowly unfolds once again, and then builds up to the last and greatest climax of the entire work. As this final grandiose vision fades away, gently rising and falling string arpeggios quietly frame pairs of horn chords in an obvious tribute to the final moments of Wagner's Die Walküre. The Wagnerian reference is no less poetic and moving after the journey we've taken in this remarkable work which, although plainly an apprenticeship piece, nonetheless displays considerable mastery of the art of melody, of orchestration, and of building and developing large scale and truly symphonic structures and forms.
Rott's Symphony is a startling and noteworthy landmark in the development of the symphony.
It would be easy enough to dismiss Rott's symphony as derivative because there are so many reminiscences of Wagner and the main theme of the finale is so plainly modelled on the finale of Brahms' First Symphony. Easy -- and misguided. I doubt if there has ever been a 20-year old creative artist in any sphere of music, drama, dance, visual arts, etc., whose work has not had derivative aspects. Rott's true achievement here lies in the way in which he reworks the traditional forms of "symphony" and arrives at completely different, yet entirely engaging, ways of manipulating musical materials in large structures. It's no wonder that Bruckner and Mahler were impressed. Bruckner never succeeded in breaking free of the chains of traditional sonata form, but Rott in this score ripped those chains into quivering fragments and went his own way.
The score of the work was reconstructed and edited by musicologist Paul Banks, working from a manuscript score of the last three movements and a set of parts for the first movement. It was given its first-ever performance by the Cincinnati Philharmonia Orchestra under Gerhard Samuel in 1989, 111 years after Rott completed it, and recorded shortly thereafter. Since then it has been taken up and recorded by a dozen more conductors and orchestras.
The first and most obvious structural novelty is the fact that each movement is longer than its predecessor, and the finale is almost as long as the next two longest movements combined. Rott has entirely reversed the formula followed by almost all classical and early Romantic composers, in which the sonata-form first movement is usually the longest.
Moreover, the first movement drastically shortens and simplifies the traditional sonata form, devoting itself to establishing the home key of E major and to announcing and elaborating a main theme of considerable length which in itself expresses three quite contrasting and versatile melodic statements. This long and intricate melody becomes the motto theme of the symphony, which will be heard in two subsequent movements.
The slow movement opens in A major with a slow, sweeping lyrical theme which again unfolds at considerable length. As the music darkens, this is worked up to a climax of two large anguished chords underlain by fateful-sounding dominant-and-tonic timpani strokes. After this climax, the movement omits a classical return to its opening theme and substitutes a chorale intoned softly on the brass in E major. In my ears, this immediately calls to mind the similar quiet trumpet theme which ushers in the coda in the finale of Mahler's Third. This chorale theme is also destined to play a key role in the finale.
The scherzo is a rumbustious, rustic country dance, in line with some of Bruckner's scherzo movements in his earlier symphonies. It amazes me that Rott is able to draw so many fascinating and diverse melodic shapes out of the basic formula of the first five notes of the scale, either as a scale or as intervals. This feature contributes much to the folklike cut of the themes in the entire work, and particularly here. The scherzo relaxes into a brief, quiet trio, and then the main theme returns. But this is the moment when Rott's true genius really shines through. As the movement sounds like it's working up to an enthusiastic final cadence, a long timpani roll sounds and the music launches out into unknown regions on a whole lengthy series of derivatives from the first movement. Having blown the traditional A-B-A form into fragments, Rott then rejoices in his ability to keep spinning more and more variants out of his basic thematic material, constantly varying dynamics and orchestration to maintain interest. This near-demonic moto perpetuo cascade of sound eventually winds up to a final climax and an abrupt but nonetheless timely cadence.
The long final movement opens with a slow, ponderous pizzicato bass line, followed by a reminiscence of the scherzo theme, and for a moment it sounds like we are facing the finale of Beethoven 9, Mark 2. But Rott again goes his own way, and a series of figures based on a rising fourth slowly build up to a monumental climax with thunderous timpani and striking brass chords, all the more powerful for maintaining the basic slow tempo of the music. In the end, it takes no less than nine minutes for Rott to reach the end of this long, slow meditation and launch decisively into the allegro section which so plainly reflects the finale of the Brahms First. Even the texture is the same: a complete play-through of the theme on the lower range of the strings, followed by a repeat on the full orchestra. It's at this point in time that we see the purpose of all those rising fourths, since that is the opening interval of the Brahms melody. But Rott's theme, all by itself, lasts for a full minute. In classical terms, this is just a few seconds shy of eternity.
After the entire theme has been played through twice, the orchestra launches into a spectacular series of vigorous free variations on fragments or parts of the theme. Again the energy is maintained against the odds of a rather four-square rhythmic environment. In a fashion that echoes Bruckner, the music rises again and again to what seem like climactic moments, then slips back into quiet before resuming its relentless buildup.
Then, totally unexpectedly, a large chord fades into a quiet snatch of melody in slower time, and we at last see the real point of Rott's structure here: not a slow introduction followed by a fast main movement, as one might guess at first, but a three-part structure in which two slow sections bookend the faster allegro in the centre. The closest point of reference I can identify, and it comes many years later, is in the draft finale of Mahler's Tenth symphony. I wonder if, by that time, Mahler still had Rott's intriguing musical ideas in his mind?
In this final, long slow section, the rising fourth theme takes on a different shape, and assumes a distinctly familiar air. It took me several listen-throughs of the entire disc to realize that the finale's opening is actually a close cousin to the symphony's motto theme from the first movement, and here at last is the culmination when the motto itself slowly unfolds once again, and then builds up to the last and greatest climax of the entire work. As this final grandiose vision fades away, gently rising and falling string arpeggios quietly frame pairs of horn chords in an obvious tribute to the final moments of Wagner's Die Walküre. The Wagnerian reference is no less poetic and moving after the journey we've taken in this remarkable work which, although plainly an apprenticeship piece, nonetheless displays considerable mastery of the art of melody, of orchestration, and of building and developing large scale and truly symphonic structures and forms.
Rott's Symphony is a startling and noteworthy landmark in the development of the symphony.
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