Cover -- Table of Contents -- Introduction -- First Part: Basics of the Symphony -- I. Mahler's place in history -- 1. Eclectic or original genius? -- 2. Bruckner-Successor or Bruckner-Antipode? -- II. Beethoven and the new categories of symphonic music -- III. The history of the reception of Beethoven's music -- IV. Mahler's conception of the symphonic cantata -- V. Borrowings from the Lieder repertoire -- 1. Schubert, Mendelssohn and Brahms -- 2. Mahler's intentions with his borrowings -- VI. Aspects of architectonics -- 1. Varying number of movements and their arrangements - sectional structuring -- 2. From Beethoven's Pastoral and Berlioz' Fantastique to Mahler's Titan -- VII. Content and Form: The "axis" of the new aesthetics -- VIII. The cyclic form principle and the programmatic idea -- Beethoven -- Schubert and Schumann -- Berlioz -- Liszt -- The correlation between music and program in Liszt's Les Préludes -- Bruckner -- Tchaikovsky -- Mahler -- "Flashbacks": Six examples from the symphonies of Beethoven,Berlioz, Bruckner and Mahler -- IX. Musical themes and the "poetical conception" -- 1. The alteration and ornamentation of thematic characteristics as a means of expression in Berlioz, Liszt and Mahler -- 2. Simultaneous reduplication of contrasting themes as a means of expression in Berlioz, Liszt, Bruckner and Mahler -- X. The Mephisto movement of Liszt's Faust Symphony -- 1. The themes and Liszt's method of ornamentation -- 2. The Malédiction for piano and string orchestra as a source for the Mephisto movement -- 3. The curse as a central idea of the Mephisto movement -- 4. Liszt's setting of the Chorus mysticus -- Part Two: The Universality of the Symphony -- XI. Characteristics in general -- 1. Fundamentals -- 2. Regarding Adorno's conception of the "material theory of form in music" -- XII. Characteristics derived from vocal music.

1. Speaking parts: Recitative and Arioso -- 2. The Chorale: Regarding the meaning of genres in the symphonies of Berlioz, Mendelssohn, Liszt, Bruckner, Brahms and Mahler -- 3. Hymns: The Hymn in Bruckner and Mahler as well as in Beethoven, Schubert and Brahms -- 4. Lieder -- XIII. Characteristics derived from instrumental music -- 1. March (marziale) and funeral march: The meaning of the category in the symphonies of Berlioz, Liszt, Bruckner and Mahler -- 2. Entombment music: "like a very slow funeral procession" -- 3. Pastorale: The genre in Beethoven, Berlioz, Mendelssohn, Liszt, Bizet, Brahms and Mahler -- 4. "Music from afar": Orchestra in the distance or illusion of an orchestra in the distance -- 5. Crescendo (and diminuendo) as sound dynamics expressing musical form: March music from afar, gradually coming closer -- XIV. Scherzo, scherzando and dance characteristics -- 1. Fundamentals -- 2. Minuet -- 3. Ländler -- 4. Waltz and Valse -- XV. Conclusions -- Structure of the opening movement of Mahler's Third SymphonyAnalysis in accordance with the characteristics -- Third Part: Elements of the Symphonies -- XVI. The symbol in music -- 1. Explanation of the concept -- 2. Schering's conception of the symbol -- 3. Techniques for solving the problem (heuristic) -- XVII. The semantics of the sounds of birds -- 1. Birdcalls and sounds as the "sounds of nature" -- 2. Mahler and the birdcalls in Beethoven's "Scene at the brook" -- 3. Mahler and birdcalls in Wagner's "Forest murmurs" -- 4. The "bird of the night" -- 5. The "bird of death". The song of the nightingale as the "echo of earthly life" -- 6. Bird cantilenas, duets and concerts -- XVIII. Elementary Motifs -- 1. Calls and signals -- 2. Sighing motifs: Plaintive cries, woes, motifs of suffering, "screams" -- XIX. Motifs of falling and symbols of the abyss -- XX. Symbols of night and of sleep.

XXI. Satanism and the Crucifix -- The polarity of the spiritual world in the music of Franz Liszt -- 1. Liszt's attraction to Goethe's Faust and Dante's Divine Comedy -- 2. The polarity between calamity and victory -- 3. The diabolus in musica and the "tonal symbol of the Cross" -- XXII. "Dall' Inferno al Paradiso" -- 1. Regarding a fundamental philosophical-poetical idea in thesymphonies of Liszt and Mahler -- 2. Inferno and Lucifer motifs in Liszt, Tchaikovsky and Mahler -- 3. The "tonal symbol of the Cross" as a representation of the"heavenly" in Wagner, Mahler, Bruckner and Tchaikovsky -- 4. Motifs for "eternity" in Wagner and Mahler -- XXIII. La Gamme terrifiante: The history of the whole tone scale -- XXIV. Rhythmic Leitmotifs -- Symbols of death, fate and combat -- Beethoven -- Liszt -- Wagner and Bruckner -- Strauss -- Tchaikovsky -- Mahler -- XXV. Guiding sounds (Leitklänge) -- Characteristic chords and symbols -- 1. An "eerie" minor third chord as a tonal symbol in Wagner, Liszt, Mahler and Strauss -- 2. Major-minor motivic shifts in Schubert, Mahler, Strauss and Brahms -- 3. The "terrifying fanfare" in Beethoven's Ninth and in Mahler's Second -- 4. Four note chords as mottos -- 5. Neapolitan sixth chords and dissonances at climaxes in Mahler, Schubert and Strauss -- Neapolitan Sixth and Fifth-Sixth Chords -- Diminished Seventh Chords -- 'Minor' Ninth Chords -- Double Leading Tone Sounds and Double Dominant Sounds -- Thirteenth Chords -- 6. The shape of Bruckner's climaxes -- 7. The nine-tone sound in the Adagio of Mahler's Tenth -- 8. Regarding the technique of imprévu: A "frightening note" in Beethoven, Berlioz, Bruckner and Mahler -- XXVI. Idiophonic sound symbols -- 1. Regarding sound symbols generally -- 2. The tamtam as a funereal and macabre sound symbol in Mahler, Wagner, Liszt, Strauss, Tchaikovsky, Schönberg and Berg.

3. Bell sounds in Berlioz, Liszt and Strauss -- 4. Bell sounds and a sound symbol for the eternal in Mahler -- 5. The symbolic and coloring functions of the Glockenspiel -- 6. Cowbells as a sound symbol for "otherworldly solitude" -- Epilogue -- Abbreviations -- Notes -- Selected Bibliography -- List of Tables -- Tables -- Index.