Through harmonic, formal, and cognitive analysis of Mahler’s Symphony No. 1 in D Major, this thesis seeks to address the gap that currently exists between theoretical analysis, cognitive experiments, and listeners’ experience of performance in the study of music. The analyses focus on mm. 338-363 in the first movement, and mm. 607-645 in the finale. Each of these sections contains one of Mahler’s famed Durchbruch (“breakthrough”) passages, as well as the phrases immediately surrounding these Durchbruch moments. Drawing on the analytical scholarship surrounding these excerpts, as well as literature on the performance analysis, theories of social change, I curated and analyzed a corpus of 58 recordings. Through empirical analyses of the corpus, I demonstrate that differences in expressive timing between the two Durchbruch passages are related to their role in the symphony’s form. By supplementing traditional analyses with performance data and cognitive models, I predict the psychological underpinnings of the listener’s experience of the musical narrative and how expressive changes in performance can manipulate the way the piece’s narrative is understood. Ultimately, the methodologies employed in this analysis can be adapted to other pieces and genres of music and lay the groundwork for empirical studies connecting traditional formal analysis to its execution in performance and effect on listeners.
These results are demonstrated in the present study through analysis of expressive timing in a corpus excerpts from Mahler’s Symphony No. 1 and predictive psychological modeling of the symphony’s formal and motivic structure. Chapter 2 compares expressive timing of the two Durchbruch passages, discussing how this relates to the performance of form and narrative in this symphony. Chapter 3 narrows the scope of this analysis, comparing the interpretations of individual performances in the corpus as they relate to the symphony’s narrative arc. Chapter 4 turns to psychological modeling, forming hypotheses about how the sections of this symphony discussed in the corpus analyses would affect listeners’ experiences of musical expectation and perception of the narrative. Finally, in Chapter 5, these analyses are contextualized to demonstrate how performance analysis, formal analysis, and psychological modeling can be employed together to gain a nuanced understanding of how performance choices affect an audience.
The full thesis document can be found by following the link below. On February 27, 2021, I performed the first and last movements of Mahler’s Symphony No. 1 with a chamber orchestra at The Ohio State University. This performance will included elements of musicalized lighting design that visually outline and explored the research discussed in my thesis.
Samantha Burgess 