The Fourth Symphony has throughout the suggestion of beauty and innocence that the poem itself and its musical setting embody, reflecting not only the world of Des Knaben Wunderhorn but also the beauty of the countryside in which the symphony was written, the imagined terrors of the second movement dispelled by what follows.

The Fourth Symphony is scored for an orchestra of four flutes, two doubling with piccolo, three oboes, one doubling on cor anglais, three clarinets in B flat, A and C, doubling with two E flat clarinets and a bass clarinet, three bassoons, the third doubling on contra-bassoon, four French horns, three trumpets, timpani, bass drum, triangle, sleigh-bells, glockenspiel, cymbals and tam-tam, harp and strings. This provides the opportunity for a rich variety of orchestral colour. There is an element of mock-classicism in the first movement of the symphony, in its thematic material, its textures and in its use of classical first movement form, the whole, however, essentially Mahlerian in its apparent ingenuousness, its use of orchestral colour and in the contrasts of mood introduced in the central development. The movement ends with a quasi-improvisatory passage for French horn, an apparent reminiscence of Mozart, after which the violins gently lead into a conclusion of increasing excitement.

The second movement, generally described as a Totentanz (Dance of Death), is in the form of a Scherzo with two Trios. It makes use of a solo violin tuned up a tone, in the role of a ghostly fiddler, the repeated Scherzo contrasted with the Ländler type Trios, introduced by horn and trumpet respectively. The third movement is started by the lower strings, suggesting at first the language of Brahms, but going on to a miraculous varying of the theme, in major and minor version, combining with it the wider structure of sonata-rondo form. The oboe leads into a minor version of the thematic material. The major key is restored for a further set of variations, followed by a return of the material in the minor key. This is succeeded by a set of variations on the major key theme, now in the form of a series of dances, an Austrian Ländler, a Minuet and a wilder dance, and a return to material from the first part of the movement. The concluding section, with its string arpeggios and harp glissandos leads to a gentle and tender final passage.

The song that ends the symphony and from which the mood of the whole work is derived is in strophic form, a series of five verses, some separated by brief orchestral intervention.The score carries a worried injunction to the conductor to provide an exceptionally discreet orchestral accompaniment to the song, a detail not exceptional from a composer who was at the same time one of the greatest conductors of his time and who took particular care to ensure, as far as he could, that his own music should be performed exactly as he wanted. The initial instruction Sehr behaglich (very comfortably) expresses the general mood of music that reflects the simple ingenuousness of the text, without ever faltering into triviality. Das himmlische Leben is a beautiful conclusion to a symphony of singular beauty.