overthrow *
notes on a performance
Gustav Mahler Symphony no.1, 3rd movement
/ the ‘Wie die Tiere den Jäger begraben’, by Moritz von Schwind
/ ‘Frère Jacques’
/ a freylekh
“This movement represents the funeral procession of a hunter by all of the animals. They are all pretending to be sad when they are really happy that the hunter is dead. That is why Frere Jacques is used in a minor mode; because of its absurdity..” [mathes107]
‘The Hunter’s Funeral’ Wie die Tiere den Jäger begraben
This wood cut by Moritz von Schwind (1850) was the inspiration for this 3rd movement of Mahler’s Symphony No. 1. It is illustrating a popular classic Austrian children’s fairy tale.
Mahler referred to it ‘funeral marche after (Jacques) Callot’. [wikipedia]
The Slovene ballad ‘Animals Bury the Hunter’ is an animal narrative song of jocular character.
It tells of the burial of a hunter and of a funeral procession not composed of humans but wild animals (a bear, foxes, hares, a wolf, cranes and partridges, song birds, etc.) who seem to derive great joy from the event.
The analysis of the song’s 31 variants reveals the changes made to the song over the course of time, as it survived through different historical periods and spread throughout Slovenia. (…)The ballad was used as a model for painted beehive panels featuring the same motif.
[There could be] at least three possible theses:
1. The song is part of the conception of a topsy-turvy world, where the roles and mutual relationships of people and animals are reversed in an ironic sociological view of the world.
2. The song is a critique of one class by another: peasants mocking hunters who belong to a different social stratum.
3. The song is a representation of “pre-Cartesian” times, when animals were not “mere machines” without feelings, to be treated by man as objects with no ethical significance. It points to the ethical aspects of the human treatment of animals.
[ “Animals bury the hunter” – Ethical and sociological elements of the slovene ballad” by Marjetka Golezˇ Kaučič ]
3è mouvement de la symphonie n°1 “Titan” de Gustav Mahler.
Le mouvement le plus mystérieux de cette symphonie, une lente marche funèbre en ré mineur, est bâti sur la version allemande de la chanson Frère Jacques (Bruder Jakob).
Sur un mouvement de balancier lourd et sombre des basses, la chanson, altérée par le mode mineur, se déploie lentement en une sorte de cortège funèbre. La mélodie s’amplifie, se répandant à tout l’orchestre. Soudain, un thème presque vulgaire, issu des danses de bistro, est joué « avec parodie » par un petit orchestre, aux sonorités étranges : c’est la musique d’un mariage juif.
Cette alternance d’éléments graves et futiles scandalisa les premiers auditeurs peu habitués à cet amalgame de genres.
Mahler indiqua que l’inspiration saisissante de ce morceau lui venait de la réminiscence d’une image du dessinateur autrichien Moritz von Schwind, familière à tous les enfants allemands et autrichiens, L’Enterrement du chasseur (Wie die Tiere den Jäger begraben), dans laquelle un cortège d’animaux aux attitudes faussement sombres portent à sa dernière demeure le chasseur, leur ennemi. Toute l’ironie de la scène se retrouve dans la marche funèbre provoquant de la sorte un effet effroyable. Soudain surgit un thème sublime provenant une nouvelle fois des chants du compagnon errant (4e lied, die zwei blauen Augen). Ce bref épisode ramène alors la terrible marche funèbre et, dans sa suite, les danses vulgaires avant qu’une dernière fois les rythmes de la marche s’éloignant dans le lointain ne referment le mouvement.
* overthrow:
A alter, alteration, answer, answer conclusively, apoplexy, apostasy, argue down, arise,
B beat, betterment, bouleversement, break, break up, breakdown, breakup, bring down, bust,
C capsizal, capsize, catastrophe, change, clean sweep, climax, collapse, contradiction, controversion, conversion, counterrevolution, crash, crush, crushing,
D deathblow, deconsecration, defeasance, defeat, defection, deform, defrock, defrocking, degeneration, demolish, demolition, destroy, destruction, deterioration, dethrone, dethronement, deviation, diastrophism, difference, disaster, disbar, disbarment, disbarring, discontinuity, discrediting, discrown, disenthrone, dismiss, dismissal, displace, displacement, dispose of, divergence, diversification, diversify, diversion, diversity, downcast, downfall, downthrow,
E end, excommunicate, excommunication, expel, expulsion,
F failure, fall, finish, firing, fit, fitting, flip-flop, forced resignation,
G give the gate, gradual change,
H hiding, honeycomb,
I impeachment, improve, improvement, insurge, insurrect,
K keel over, kick upstairs, kicking upstairs, knock over,
L lambasting, lathering, licking, liquidate, liquidation,
M master, mastery, meliorate, melioration, mitigate, mitigation, modification, modify, modulate, modulation, mount the barricades, mutate, mutineer, mutiny,
N nonplus,
O oust, ouster, ousting, overcome, overcoming, overmaster, overmatch, overpower, overset, overthrowal, overturn, overturning, overwhelm,
P palace revolution, paroxysm, parry, pension, pension off, pensioning off, precipitation, prostration, purge, put to silence,
Q quake, qualification, qualify, quashing, quietus,
R radical change, re-create, re-creation, read out of, realign, realignment, rebel, rebuild, rebut, rebuttal, reconstruct, redesign, reduce to silence, refit, reform, reformation, refutal, refutation, refute, reluct, reluctate, remake, remaking, removal, remove, remove from office, renew, renewal, reshape, reshaping, restructure, restructuring, retire, retirement, revamp, reversal, revival, revive, revivification, revolt, revolute, revolution, revolutionary war, revolutionize, revulsion, ring the changes, riot, rise, rise up, rout, ruin, run riot,
S sabotage, sap, sap the foundations, send flying, settle, shellacking, shift, shift the scene, shuffle the cards, shut up, silence, smash, smash all opposition, somersault, somerset, spasm, spill, squash, squelch, strike, striking alteration, strip of office, strip of rank, stroke, subdual, subduing, subjugation, subversion, subvert, sudden change, superannuate, superannuation, suppression, surmount, suspend, suspension, sweeping change, switch,
T tabula rasa, technological revolution, temblor, thrash, thrashing, throw down, throw over, tidal wave, tip over, topple, topple over, toppling, topsy-turvy, total change, transilience, transition, trimming, trip, trip up, trouncing, tsunami, tumble, turn, turn a somersault, turn over, turn the scale, turn the tables, turn the tide, turn topsy-turvy, turn turtle, turn upside down, turnabout, turnover,
U unchurch, unchurching, undermine, undermining, undoing, unfrock, unfrocking, unhorse, unsaddle, unseat, unseating, unthrone, upend, upheaval, upset, upsetting, upturn,
V vanquishment, variation, variety, vary, violent change,
W weaken, whipping, work a change, worsen, worsening, worst
