"Symphony No. 6 in A minor" by Gustav Mahler was composed between 1903 and 1904 (rev. 1906; scoring repeatedly revised). The work�s first performance was conducted by Mahler in Essen in 1906. The tragic ending has been seen as unexpected, since the symphony was composed at what was apparently a happy time in Mahler�s life. His second daughter was born during the course of the work�s composition. As Mahler stated in a letter to his biographer, �My Sixth will propound riddles the solution of which may be attempted only by a generation which has absorbed and truly digested my first five symphonies.�