Stanford Libraries Blog

3. Symphonie / von Gustav Mahler.
Wien : J. Weinberger, [1899?]
Acquired through the Susan & Ruth Sharp Book Fund.

Dritte Symphonie D Moll / von Gustav Mahler.
Wien : Universal-Edition, [19--]
Acquired through the Susan & Ruth Sharp Book Fund.

The first and second editions of Mahler’s third symphony increase the number of source materials for the work in the Memorial Library of Music in the Department of Special Collections, which already included two sketches and a corrected first edition. This copy of the first edition contains extensive manuscript corrections and alterations in a neat hand in red ink throughout, possibly from a member of Mahler’s circle, or of a professional copyist from the publisher Universal. Stanford owns another copy of the first edition which also contains corrections by an unknown source. Mahler is known to have constantly revised his works so that sources such as these may provide significant insight into his process. Besides the two annotated first editions at Stanford, there are other annotated copies at the Internationale Gustav Mahler Gesellschaft in Vienna, which has corrections in Mahler’s handwriting and another hand, the Library of Congress, and New York Public Library. The handwriting in the first Stanford copy and the New York Public copy seem to be similar. We do not fully know what the relationship is between these copies or what the information in them tells us. When one compares the newly acquired first and second editions, it is evident that the corrections and alterations noted in the first edition were made in the published second.

Additional images, with examples of annotations and corrections: