Blumine gustav mahler biography

The first three performances of Mahler’s first symphony contained a serenade-like second movement titled Andante or ‘Blumine’. This movement received harsh criticism and was later removed from the work by Mahler after its third performance in Weimar, also being omitted from the first publication in 1899.

Mahler’s first symphony has been played as a work of four movements since the symphony’s fourth performance at the Berlin premiere which took place on 16th March 1896.

Origin and description

The Blumine movement was originally one of seven pieces of incidental music composed by Mahler in "two days" during June 1884, for a performance of Joseph Victor von Scheffel’s play Der Trompeter von Säkkingen ("The Trumpeter of Säkkingen").

The Blumine movement in the symphony contains little or no revisions from the original version, including its orchestration which utilises only a small section of the full symphoni