Mahler - Symphony no.6 "Tragic" (movement 4): Score and Analysis

The whole analysis is based on Seth Monahan's book Mahler's symphonic sonatas (Oxford University Press 2015)
Introduction in the comment

INTRODUCTORY COMPLEX
0:00 – Generative phase, in C minor.
0:24 – Motto. A minor forcibly displaces C minor, foreshadowing their later conflict.
0:48 – Fragmanted motives from the main theme, followed by much more stable motives from the second subject.
2:14 – Disintegration/Chaos
2:46 – Chorale - origin of transition and hammer themes, C minor regains tonal authority.
3:43 – Motto, leads to a reinstalment of the main motives.
4:28 – The chorale is restated, leading to the Motto in C, enabling the exposition launch.

EXPOSITION
5:05 – First theme’s motives assemble into durable thematic formations, under the authority of C minor.
5:36 – Theme 1. A minor forcibly displaces C minor for a third time. An aggressive march forms, with relentless four-bar groupings.
6:26 – Transition. Drive towards chorale’s C-tonic is reinstated, but A minor keeps derailing progress.
7:32 – Motto's generic motives intrude, leading to collapse. They eliminate the transition theme through a surgence of Motto rhythms and reinstate A minor.
8:11 – Theme 2. Motivically derived from T1.
8:45 – T2 escapes T1 world and reignites drive to D-major cadence.
9:15 – M (Motto) motives return and destabilize the music. Exposition fails, as T2 doesn't secure a cadence in D major.


INTRODUCTORY COMPLEX
9:37 – The introduction returns, now infused with tonal and thematic elements of T2.
10:04 – Motives from T1 continuously suppress every attempt of T2 at stabilizing.
12:12 – T2 returns with all of its might, with a drive to achieve closure in D major. It is as if the expositional space is reopened, as the second theme isn’t willing to accept its failure. Gradually more and more M motives intrude into the texture and destabilize the music.
14:03 – Hammer blow theme, accompanied by M motives. Its goal is to derail cadential drive to D tonic. M motives soon take over and start a liquidation process.
14:52 – First utopian, but unattainable vision of T2. We’re in tonic major, the best of all possible outcomes, and there are no M motives in sight. But we reached this place prematurely, in the development. Soon the texture gets corrupted by M motives and leads to a collapse.

DEVELOPMENT
16:13 – C minor successfully takes over control and restabilizes music through a series of Mottos in C. The first theme begins development, but because it's liberated from the Motto’s influence, it finally forms into a proper theme. It soon starts to shift towards C major, a large-scale modal inversion of the Motto.
16:55 – As soon as M motives creep into the texture, the music becomes destabilized. The music enters a battle with M motives.
17:35 – C tonic is lost, and the M motives take control.
18:04 – Second utopian vision of T2, injected with motives from the introduction. As the theme attempts to reach a cadence in A major, M motives enter and shift the tonal drive to D major.
19:02 – D major cadential attempt derailed by the hammer theme for a second time. This time it doesn’t hide its C minor roots and uses the opportunity to guarantee the start of the exposition in C. To do that, it shifts to dominant of D minor for a final destruction of T2’s drive to cadence in D.


INTRODUCTORY COMPLEX
20:08 – Perfect authentic cadence in D minor poisoned by the return of augmented sixth in Cm. Motto now in C minor. Introduction block of the exposition is mirrored, but now firmly in C.
22:00 – Theme 2 takes advantage of C minor’s inefficiency, and starts searching for a tonality.
23:27 – Theme 2 is suddenly revived.
24:56 – Tonal and thematic stability is lost. Motives from all theme groups co-mingled. As the Motto rhythm enters in the timpani, theme 1 motives gradually start to dominate.

RECAPITULATION
25:44 – Theme 1, A minor. Tracks exposition bar-by-bar; after T2’s motivic spillage evaporates, the recapitulation is exact, even in orchestration.
26:34 – Simultaneous recapitulation of Transition and T2, in A minor. M motives are everywhere. A minor is kept firmly as the tonic throughout the whole section.
27:10 – Transition takes over and tracks recapitulation with minor adjustments. As before, M motives intrude and cause a collapse.
28:08 – A liquidation process starts to reduce the music to the symphony’s basic motivic cells.
28:33 – Final utopian vision. Elaboration of the introduction motive from utopian Vision 2. A major is soon firmly reinstated, and we reach towards a cadence accompanied by a bitterly sarcastic motto rhythm. Just as the cadence is in sight, we again collapse.


CODA
30:31 – Introductory Complex: A minor. Introductory theme in sour inverse counterpoint at the tritone. Ends with the Motto.
31:30 – Final liquidation resulting in rhythmic, harmonic, motivic, and tonal uniformity. The symphony ends with the Motto in A minor, where the major triad has been omitted.