The tune 'Brother John;' or 'Bruder Martin' to Mahler's recognition; is used in the third movement; titled 'Funeral March in the Manner of Callot;' to create a sense of irony. The inspiration for this section was a woodprint from a book of fairy tales. The print depicts forest animals serving as pallbearers at a hunter's forest funeral. The question is not so much; 'Are you sleeping (forever)?' as it is 'Are we mourning or celebrating?' The animals appear unsure whether to focus on the end of the hunter; or the end of the hunt. Mahler sets the tune in a minor key to stress this irony as the music moves between merriness and brooding. The tune appears as a canon; or round.

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