what is different between Gustav Mahler and other romantic period composers?

Mahler was a true contrapuntalist: most of the other romantic composers were not, or their counterpoint was more of a rhythmic sort (ala Brahms) versus actual notes in counterpoint (Mahler.)

best regards, petr b.

P.s. When Mahler (1860 - 1911) was 23 year old, Wagner died (1813 - 1883), and Schumann (1810 - 1856) had been dead for 27 years, making Mahler no link between or influence upon any of these composers. So much for school degrees….)

The most notable difference, to my ears, is the way that Mahler uses the instruments of the orchestra. You're right to note that his orchestra was "larger-scaled" -- a Mahler orchestra uses a large variety of instruments, and a large number of them. The thing that stands out to me is that Mahler tends to treat each of his wind instruments in a somewhat soloistic fashion. Rather than following the "standard" mold of families of instruments playing at once (woodwinds play now, then the brass comes in, etc), Mahler's scores feature so many passages that are just like chamber music. A flute, an oboe, a horn or two, maybe some muted strings thrown in. The constant fluctuation between the full, gigantic orchestral tutti and the intimacy of having just 4 players creates an incredible effect. I won't claim that Mahler is the ONLY romantic composer to use the orchestra this way, but I think this kind of orchestral treatment is more characteristic of his writing than others (certainly more so than Brahms, Schubert, Schumann...maybe R. Strauss comes close).

Hope this helps!

Another difference is that Mahler directly incorporated elements of the real world in his music, even "low-brow" elements. The opening of the first symphony is filled with military fanfares, and with birds. Later on, a seemingly profound funeral march is interrupted by raucous Gypsy music. In the sixth symphony, to a quiet contemplative moment he adds the sound of cows' bells, randomly jinging in the wind of some pasture.

Mahler wasn't afraid to incorporate these low-brow effects into his ambitious, grand plans. This is one of the reasons that his music, while being high and mighty, sounds so personal.

Mahler was one of the first composers to end a song in a key that was different from the one in which it started. Also, he was a great writer of brass and percussion music and expanded their place in the orchestra. He was an important link between the early romantic orchestral composers such as a Schumann to late romantic composers such as Wagner.

I think as a young shavetail,he listened to klezmerim(yiddish) groups playing on route to weddings,funerals,,,,,some of these were used in the titan,and other works

I am a composer who is incapable of working without a blueprint, such as ternary form, rondo form, or sonata form. The term "symphony" usually implies that the first movement is in sonata form, but in Mahler's case, it obviously isn't. I have analyzed his second and fifth symphonies from stem to stern and I still can't figure out how he does it. If you can figure out what form Mahler writes in, please write back.

I can make one generalization about his orchestration: he recognized what an acoustical marvel the triangle is. He is the only composer I know who has that little bitty piece of steel cutting through while the rest of the orchestra is blasting con tutta forza.