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Mahler's Sixth Symphony is his most consistently tragic and bitter, lacking the elements of innocence and folkloric bumptiousness that lend emotional balance to his other works. Ironically, this symphony was written during one of the happiest times of Mahler's life, in 1903-5 when he was professionally successful and happiest with Alma and his two infant daughters.
The Symphony #6 is perhaps best known for the two (or three) great "hammer blows" of the finale, which Mahler describes as to be "short, powerful but dull-sounding [strokes] of a non-metallic character, like the stroke of an axe." There were originally three strokes - which Alma identified in her diaries as the composer's resignation from the Vienna Opera, his daughter's death and the diagnosis of his heart condition, all of which took place after the symphony was finished - but Mahler removed the last one after the 1906 premiere. He had come to identify the abstract "protagonist" of the symphony as himself, and perhaps he was afraid that the symbolism of a third fatal stroke of the axe would turn into prophecy.
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