Deviation and Distantiation in the Scherzo of Mahler’s Senventh Symphony

Abstract

The Scherzo from Mahler’s Symphony n°7 is entirely characteristic of a
compositional practice whose constituent elements are not always immediately
obvious. This article aims to identify the salient traits and the aesthetic influence of
a score wherein the unsettlingly strange is mixed with themes of a quasi-citation
quality and of a deceptively innocent gaiety. The complex musical language of this
work also integrates material of a decidedly popular nature. Mahlerian distantiation
in the context of the Scherzo form and of the symphonic genre in general is the key
feature of this analysis, which relies on Adorno’s concept of «variant» and on the
piece’s writing-out of repetition. With Adorno’s study of the composer as a reference,
it is ultimately the paradoxical modernity of Mahler’s writing that will be
investigated.