The Collage-Shaped Worlds of Gustav Mahler's Rückert Symphonies

Abstract

The main goal of this paper was to reveal the very beginnings of collage technique in Western art. Musical materials taking place in the scherzo movements of Gustav Mahler’s Fifth, Sixth and Seventh Symphony are arranged astonishingly similar to arrangement of different materials (i.e. fabric, wallpaper, newspaper fragments etc.) in first collage paintings by Picasso and Braque. Considering the fact that composing of the symphonies occurred significantly earlier than the first collage paintings, we come to a conclusion that collage technique pioneered not in the art of painting but in that of music.