Mahler Symphony No. 9 - 2nd Movement - Listening Guide

The second movement is a series of dances, and opens with a rustic Ländler, which becomes distorted to the point that it no longer resembles a dance. It contains shades Mahler’s Symphony no.4, Movement 2: In gemächlicher Bewegung, in the distortion of a traditional dance into a bitter and sarcastic one.Traditional chord sequences are altered into near-unrecognizable variations, turning the rustic yet gradually decaying C major introductory Ländler into a vicious whole-tone waltz, saturated wi...