Editing Gustav Mahler (section)

===Genre===
Except for his juvenilia, little of which has survived, Mahler composed only in the media of song and symphony, with a close and complex interrelationship between the two.{{refn| [[Donald Mitchell (writer)|Donald Mitchell]] differentiates between "song" and "song-cycle"; he also disparages the term "song-symphonist", which he calls "a horrid cliché that belongs to the dubious history of Mahler's critics."<ref name="Mitch32" />|group=n}} [[Donald Mitchell (writer)|Donald Mitchell]] writes that this interaction is the backcloth against which all Mahler's music can be considered.<ref>Mitchell, Vol. II, p. 47</ref> The initial connection between song and symphony occurs with the song cycle {{lang|de|Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen}} and the First Symphony. Although this early evidence of cross-fertilisation is important, it is during Mahler's extended {{lang|de|Wunderhorn}} phase, in which his Second, Third and Fourth Symphonies were written, that the song and symphony genres are consistently intermingled. Themes from the {{lang|de|Wunderhorn}} song {{lang|de|Das himmlische Leben}} ("The Heavenly Life"), composed in 1892, became a key element in the Third Symphony completed in 1896; the song itself forms the finale to the Fourth (1900) and its melody is central to the whole composition.<ref>Mitchell, Vol. II, p. 309</ref> For the Second Symphony, written between 1888 and 1894, Mahler worked simultaneously on the {{lang|de|Wunderhorn}} song, {{lang|de|Des Antonius von Padua Fischpredigt}} ("The Sermon of St Anthony of Padua to the Fishes"), and on the Scherzo based on it which became the symphony's third movement.<ref>La Grange, Vol. 2. p. 743</ref> Another {{lang|de|Wunderhorn}} setting from 1892, {{lang|de|Urlicht}} ("Primal Light"), is used as the Second Symphony's fourth (penultimate) movement.<ref>Mitchell, Vol&nbsp;II, p. 136</ref>

In Mahler's middle and late periods, the song–symphony relationship is less direct.<ref name="Mitch32" /> However, musicologist Donald Mitchell notes specific relationships between the middle period songs and their contemporaneous symphonies—the second {{lang|de|Kindertotenlieder}} song and the Adagietto from the [[Symphony No. 5 (Mahler)|Fifth Symphony]], the last {{lang|de|Kindertotenlieder}} song and the [[Symphony No. 6 (Mahler)|Sixth Symphony]] finale.<ref>Sadie, p. 519</ref><ref>Mitchell, Vol. II, pp. 36–41</ref> Mahler's last work employing vocal and orchestral forces, {{lang|de|Das Lied von der Erde}}, is subtitled "A Symphony&nbsp;..."—Mitchell categorises it as a "song ''and'' symphony."<ref name="Mitch32" />