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.