Symphony No. 7 (Mahler)

The Symphony No. 7 by Gustav Mahler is a symphony in five movements composed in 1904–05, sometimes referred to by the title Song of the Night (German: Lied der Nacht), which was not the composer's own designation. Although the symphony is often described as being in the key of E minor, its tonal scheme is more complicated. The symphony's first movement moves from B minor (introduction) to E minor, and the work ends with a rondo finale in C major. Thus, as Dika Newlin has pointed out, "in this symphony Mahler returns to the ideal of 'progressive tonality' which he had abandoned in the Sixth". The complexity of the work's tonal scheme was analysed in terms of "interlocking structures" by Graham George.