Mahler Symphony No. 4 - 2nd Movement - Listening Guide

Leisurely moving, without haste. Scherzo and Trio. The second movement is a scherzo that features a part for a solo violin whose strings are tuned a tone higher than usual. The violin depicts Freund Hein, (lit. “Friend Henry”) a figure from medieval German art; Hain (or Hein) is a traditional German personification of death, invented by poet Matthias Claudius.

Freund Hein is a skeleton who plays the fiddle and leads a Totentanz or “danse macabre”. According to Mahler’s widow, Alma, Mahler took inspiration for this movement from an 1872 painting by the Swiss artist Arnold Bocklin (1827-1901) entitled Self-Portrait with Death playing the Fiddle (violin solo). The scherzo represents his dance and the unusual tuning of the violin adds tension to its sound and contributes to the music’s ghostly character.

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A listening guide of Symphony No. 4 - 2nd Movement with Lew Smoley.