The Huntsman's Funeral The third movement of Mahler's First is one of my favorite symphonic movements. It's based on a picture called "The Huntsman's Funeral" by Callot. Apparently the hunter's coffin is carried by forest animals "in roguish attitudes".→[More:]

The movement is a funeral march based on "Frere Jaques", with some sad/happy klezmer thrown in as the animals begin to find it difficult to suppress their joy at the hunter's death.

Here's a description of the image:

The composer received the external stimulus to this movement from [Callot's] parodistic picture Des Jaegers Leichenbegängnis [The Huntsman's Funeral], well known to all children, especially in South Germany, as coming from an old book of fairy tales: the animals of the forest accompany the coffin of the dead hunter to its tomb; rabbits carry the flag, preceded by a band of village musicians from Bohemia, accompanied by cats, toads, crows etc. playing on instruments, and also by stags, does, foxes and other quadrupeds and feathered animals of the forest in roguish attitudes. The movement is intended to express alternately the moods of jesting irony and of eerie brooding.

I've googled around and found a very low-quality version of the image. (56k) Can anyone find a higher-resolution version? I'd love to see the animals looking roguish.

Here's an mp3 of the Mahler movement. Enjoy the music even if we can't find the image.