Instrumentation
The piece is scored for a large orchestra made up of:
- woodwinds: 4 flutes (3rd & 4th doubling piccolos; for the last two bars of the Scherzo, all four flutes play piccolo), 3 oboes (3rd doubling English horn), 3 clarinets in B-flat (3rd doubling clarinet in D1 and bass clarinet), 3 bassoons (3rd doubling contrabassoon)
- brass: 6 horns in F2, 4 trumpets in B-flat and F, 3 trombones, tuba
- percussion: timpani, bass drum, snare drum, cymbals, triangle, tam-tam, whip, glockenspiel
- strings: harp, violins I, II, violas, violoncellos, double basses
1The part is written for a clarinet in D in the score, but as this instrument is now virtually obsolete, almost all clarinettists play this part on an E flat clarinet. In the Critical Edition of the score published in 2001 (see below), the editors have the second player taking the E flat clarinet part with the third doubling on bass clarinet only.
2Mahler uses a Solo obbligato Horn in the Scherzo. However, this is not counted as a seventh horn because only four other horns play in that movement.
Read more about this topic: Symphony No. 5 (Mahler)