Gustav Mahler

1
Gustav Mahler

• b. Kalist, Bohemia, July 7, 1860
• d. Vienna, May 18, 1911

2
Gustav Mahler - life and music

• born July 7, 1860
• second of twelve children
• attended Vienna Conservatory
• moved from position of conductor, city of Hall to
  conductor of the greatest orchestras in the world
• conducted the Metropolitan Opera for two seasons
  and the New York Philharmonic for two years

3
Gustav Mahler - life and music

• people can become frantic about Mahler
• too neurotic
• too banal
• brings rapture
• stirs something in the subconscious
• some followers think of him as a combination of
  Moses and Christ
• Life melody - fate - resignation - joys - death -
  glorification

4
Gustav Mahler - life and music

• thin, fidgety, short, high steep forehead, long
  dark hair, deeply penetrating eyes
• manic-depressive
• sadistic
• respected by musicians but they hated to play in
  his orchestra
• no social graces

5
Gustav Mahler - life and music

• Mahler seemed to enjoy misery
• this weakness turned him into an austere,
  despotic, querulous and arrogant man
• his wife said that he was always telephoning God

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Gustav Mahler - life and music

• put everything into his music
• life passed him by
• referred to the NYPO as a typical American
  orchestra - without talent
• left New York without finishing the second season
• died in Vienna on May 11, 1911

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Gustav Mahler - life and music -Symphony No. 1 in
D Major (1888, premiered in 1890)

• aversion to programmatic music
• disavowed poetic and literary explanations
• gave the first symphony all sorts of programmatic
  allusions
• Mahler described this symphony as a symphonic
  poem in two parts
• the entire work is called The Titan (after Jean
  Paul Richter)

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Mahler Symphony No. 1 in D Major, The Titan

• I Langsam, schleppend wie ein Naturlaut (Adagio
  comodo) slow, dragged sounding naturally Days of
  Youth, Flowers, and Thorns
• Spring without end. The introduction represents
  the awakening of Nature at early dawn
• suggests spring in the Moravian plains
• cuckoo-call (clarinets)
• no second theme and very little development

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Mahler Symphony No. 1 in D Major, The Titan

• a second movement (permanently deleted after a
  Weimar performance in 1894) was called A Chapter
  of Flowers
• II Kräftig bewegt, doch nicht zu schnell (Con
  moto) with forceful motion, but not too quick
• a scherzo called Full Sail!
• an Austrian Landler

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Mahler Symphony No. 1 in D Major, The Titan BBC
Symphony Orchestra conducted by Manfred Honeck

• III Feierlich und gemessen, ohne zu schleppen
  (Moderato) in celebratory mood and measured, but
  without dragging
• this opens the second part of the symphony called
  The Human Comedy
• mvt. III opens with a Funeral March a la
  Callot also described as Stranded
• begins with a canon Frere Jacques double bass,
  bassoon and cello tuba and low clarinet
• dies away and leads directly (no pause) to the
  fourth movement

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Mahler Symphony No. 1 in D Major, The Titan

• IV Stürmisch bewegt (Tempestoso) in stormy
  motion
• the fourth movement is the finale called From
  Inferno to Paradise
• raging chromatic triplets
• a very loud climax of seven horns heard over
  everything - a chorale from paradise - SAVED