Aaron Rabushka wrote:

>Wait a minute--Mahler's 6th has his only sonata-form first movement? What
>about What about symphonies 1, 2, 3, 4, and 8? Avowedly the opening of #1
>has no recapitulation although its (repeated) exposition does progress with
>the conventional sonata form key relationships.

To clear up this confusion, over on the Mahler List I made the distinction
regarding sonata form in the Sixth first movement by referring to it as
_strict_ sonata form to distinguish it from the other times Mahler uses
sonata form in some way or other, as Aaron rightly says.  But this led to
me being taken to task by one corresepndent who objected to my use of the
word "strict" since you could argue that not even the Sixth first movement
is "strict" sonata form in the tightest definition of the term.  The
movement closes with the second theme and not the first for example.
There is a distinction regarding the sonata form in the Sixth first
movement over the other times, for all that.

Tony Duggan
Staffordshire,
United Kingdom.