Gustav Mahler - Symphony No. 1 - A Funeral March in Callot’s Style

Arranged for Klezmer Band by Sam Henline. “Mahler’s First Symphony, written in February and March of 1888, incorporated music he had written earlier in his life. Originally met with animosity, it was not published until fifteen years after he began writing it. Particularly controversial was the third movement. This movement begins with the children’s song “Frère Jacques” played as a round in a minor key, followed by a funeral march which is interrupted by bombastic dance band reminiscent of the Klezmer or gypsy style. “Mahler said the main inspiration behind this movement was a woodcut entitled “The Hunter’s Funeral Procession,” made by the Austrian artist and friend of Schubert, Moritz von Schwind, which he attributed to the baroque printmaker Jacques Callot. In the woodcut, the body of a hunter is being carried by procession of wild forest creatures playing instruments, carrying banners and torches, followed by a band of weeping foxes, deer, and birds of all kinds rejoicing.