The Mahler Symphonies: An Owner's Manual (includes 1 CD)
by David Hurwitz
from Amadeus Press
Anyone fascinated but daunted by Mahler's monumental, complex orchestral works will find this book a welcome guide. Focusing on the nine completed symphonies and The Song of the Earth, David Hurwitz addresses his readers directly in an informal, conversational tone. Aided by a CD of four selected movements, he tells them what to listen for, what to pay special attention to, and, pointing out some recurring characteristics, what to remember for future reference. He explains Mahler's concept of form and structure, from the smallest motives to the over-life-size finished edifice. He discusses Mahler's manifold use of his songs, his love for quoting from himself and for recalling and anticipating thematic material--always in a new guise--and his penchant for aborted climaxes and deceptive endings: part of his reluctance (or inability) to conclude a composition. Despite his originality, Mahler stood on the shoulders of other giants, notably Wagner and Verdi, whose works he conducted at the Vienna Opera. Hurwitz devotes much attention--and an entire appendix--to Mahler's unsurpassed mastery of orchestration, his skill in exploiting every instrument's resources, even using them for thematic purposes.
Hurwitz admits that describing music in words has limitations; he falls back instead on describing Mahler's complex mixture of elements from the most sublime to the raw (for example, we find the music characterized as pretty," "cute," "sleazy," "sexy," "vulgar," "flatulent," or "squealing" like a barmaid "after being pinched on the behind" and the like). On the other hand, he rejects the conventional assumption that there is a link between a composer's work and life experiences, isolating the music from the personality. This might be considered a drawback insofar as it neglects a crucial dimension (consider, for example, our knowledge that Mahler tried to outwit fate by interpolating The Song of the Earth between his Eighth and Ninth Symphonies and how this might enhance our understanding of those two dark, valedictory final works). Yet even such cavils cannot diminish the originality and thoughtfulness behind this illuminating book. --Edith EislerSince Gustav Mahler was rediscovered in the early 1960s, his symphonies have become arguably the most popular works in the modern orchestral repertoire. Mahler's Symphonies: An Owner's Manual is the first discussion of the ten completed symphonies (No. 1-9 plus "The Song of the Earth") to offer music lovers and record collectors a comprehensive overview of the music itself, what it sounds like, how it is organized, its form, content, and meaning, as it strikes today's listeners. The book caters to the novice as David Hurwitz describes what the listener will hear, section by section, using simple cues such as important instrumental solos, recognizable tunes, climaxes, and other easily audible musical facts. He explains how each work is arranged, how the various parts relate to each other, and how one work leads to the next. It describes the emotional extravagance that lies at the root of Mahler's popularity, the consistency of his symphonic thinking, the relationship of each work to its companions, and his dazzling and revolutionary use of orchestral instruments to create an expressive musical language that is varied in content and immediate in impact. The accompanying CD contains recordings from Symphony No. 1, Third Movement; Symphony No. 2, First Movement; Symphony No. 5, Third Movement; and Symphony No. 7, Second Movement: "Nachtmusik I."
Gustav Mahler, Vol. 3: Vienna: Triumph and Disillusion, 1904-1907
by Henry-Louis De La Grange
from Oxford University Press, USA
When the second volume of de La Grange's monumental study of Mahler appeared, it was hailed in The New Yorker, The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times, and many other publications as an indispensable portrait of the great composer. Here at last is the third volume of this magisterial work.
Ranging from 1904 to 1907, it explores Mahler's final years as administrator, producer, and conductor of the Vienna Opera. It was a time of intense inner struggle, with Mahler's energy and creative powers drained by the competing demands of running the Hofoper and struggling for recognition as a composer. And they were tragic years as well, especially 1907, Mahler's last year in Vienna, when the death of his daughter and the diagnosis of heart disease forced him to leave the Opera. Throughout the book, de La Grange offers true-to-life portraits of Mahler the human being, the family man, and the composer, and he weaves in innumerable testimonies and anecdotes that throw new light on the great composer's complex personality.
The product of forty years of research, here is the definitive study of a musical giant. It is, as The Wall Street Journal said of volume two, "a work of the first importance, one that nobody seriously interested in Mahler can possibly afford to skip."
Gustav Mahler, Vol. 2: Vienna: The Years of Challenge, 1897-1904
by Henry-Louis De La Grange
from Oxford University Press, USA
In an age of artistic accomplishment, Gustav Mahler stood out as one of the supremely gifted musicians of his generation. As a composer, he won acclaim for his startling originality. As a conductor, his relentless pursuit of perfection was sometimes seen as tyrannical by the singers and musicians who came under his baton. And always, even with his greatest triumphs, he provoked controversy among the critics. Now Henry-Louis de La Grange, Mahler's celebrated biographer, offers new insight into Mahler's life and work with his latest look at the career of this musical genius.
In Mahler in Vienna, La Grange follows the great musician to the intellectual and artistic capital of turn-of-the-century Europe. From Mahler's spectacular debut as director of the Vienna Court Opera to his triumphant tour of the continent, we see him at the height of his powers. La Grange vividly portrays the marvelous spectacle, including the extraordinary range of artists who worked with Mahler--the composers Dvorak, Gustave Charpentier, Richard Strauss, Zemlinsky, and Schoenberg; the painters, architects, and decorators of the Secession (led by Klimt); and the writers Hauptmann, Dehmel, Hofmannsthal, and Schnitzler. In Vienna, the conductor worked a revolution in standards of performance and (along with Secession painter Alfred Roller) scenic illustration. It was also during this period that he wrote some of his best-loved symphonies--including his Fourth and Fifth--and his three orchestral song-cycles and collections, the Wunderhorn-, Ruckert-, and Kindertotenlieder. For each of these works La Grange provides full notes and analytic descriptions. And the author does not neglect Mahler's temptestuous personal life, for during these years he met Alma Schindler--"the most beautiful woman in Vienna." La Grange deftly captures the story of their engagement and marriage in 1902.
Mahler remains one of the greatest figures in the history f music, a man whose work provokes strong reactions today as in his own time. This account is just one part of the definitive four-volume biography Gustav Mahler, the result of a thirty-year research project; the author has personally translated it from his original French into English. Scrupulously researched and insightfully written, this volume is a brilliant account of a critical epoch in Mahler's life.
Mahler: Symphony No. 3 (Cambridge Music Handbooks)
by Peter Franklin
from Cambridge University Press
Mahler's Third Symphony was conceived as a musical picture of the natural world. This handbook describes the composition of Mahler's grandiose piece of philosophical program music in the context of the ideas that inspired it and the artistic debates and social conflicts that it reflects. In this original and wide-ranging account, Peter Franklin takes the Third Symphony as a representative modern European symphony of its period and evaluates the work as both the culmination of Mahler's early symphonic style and a work whose contradictory effects mirror the complexity of contemporary social and musical manners. The music is described in detail, movement by movement, with chapters on the genesis, early performance, and subsequent reception of the work.
Conceived as a musical picture of the natural world, the composition of Mahler's grandiose work is described here in the context of the ideas that inspired it and the artistic debates and social conflicts that it reflects.
Mahler: A Biography
by Jonathan Carr
from Overlook Hardcover
Evaluating with exemplary judiciousness the masses of material about Gustav Mahler (1860-1911), British journalist Jonathan Carr pens a highly readable biography. Whether describing the composer's youth in Central Europe, triumphs as a conductor in Vienna and New York, or stormy marriage to Alma Schindler, Carr elucidates Mahler's complex nature without presuming to "explain" it. Devilish or saintly? Cunning or naive? Extrovert or withdrawn? "He was all these things," writes Carr, "brandishing his contradictions in music of stinging intensity." Mahler's compositions and personality gain new dimensions from this fresh, nuanced approach.
Bruckner, Mahler, Schoenberg
Text extracted from opening pages of book: Bruckner Mahler Schoenberg DIKA NEWLIN KING'S GROWN PRESS MORNINGSIDE HEIGHTS : NEW YORK COPYRIGHT 1947 BY DIKA NEWLIN Printed in the United States of America by Vail-Ballou Press, Inc. King's Crown Press is a division of Columbia University Press organized for the purpose of making certain scholarly material available at minimum cost. Toward that end,, the publishers have adopted every reasonable economy except such as would interfere with a legible format. hms First Printing: 1947 Second Printing: 1947 To my friends MARIAN PASCHAL and HENRIETTE VOORSANGER whose interest has made this work possible Acknowledgments Both author and publisher gratefully acknowledge the following per missions to use quotations, both of words and of music; without the amiable cooperation of those listed here, it would have been difficult indeed to have concluded this study. Associated Music Publishers, Inc., New York, for various quotations from works by Bruckner, Mahler and Schoenberg, Boosey and Hawkes, Inc., New York, for quotations from works by Mahler, reprinted by permission of the copyright owners, Boosey and Hawkes, Inc., New York; and also for the quotation from the Preface to Mahler's Das Lied von der Erde. Dodd, Mead and Co., New York, for quotation from Franz Grill parzer, by Gustav Pollak. ' E. P. Button and Co., Inc., New York, for quotations from Johannes Brahms, by Richard Specht, and from Arnold Schoenberg, by Egon Wellesz. The Greystone Press, New York, for quotation from Gustav Mahler, by Walter and Krenek, John W. Luce & Co., Boston, for quotation from Masks and Min strels of New Germany, by Percival Pollard. G. Schirmer, Inc., New York, for quotations from works by Beethoven and Bruckner, used by permission of the publisher, G. Schirmer, Inc. Arnold Schoenberg, for quotations from various works. Charles Scribner's Sons, New York, for quotation from Ivory, Apes and Peacocks, by James Huneker. The Macmillan Company, New York, for quotation from Thus Spake Zarathustra, by Friedrich Nietzsche ( translated by Alexander me.)* Preface . HE IDEA of this book originally came to me during my years of study with Arnold Schoenberg in Los Angeles ( 1938-1941). At that time I was first introduced to the most radical works of Schoenberg works virtually unknown in this country so far as public performances are concerned. I felt the need of a historical background which would explain the origins of the new style. It was this which brought me to a study of the works of Mahler and Bruckner; for Schoenberg's oft expressed indebtedness to Mahler plainly indicated that the roots of Schoenberg's style might be found in Mahler's scores ( however different Mahler's music might be in texture from Schoenberg's), and the re lationship between Mahler and Bruckner seemed well established. Thence, it was but a step to the conclusion that Schoenberg is not only the heir of Bruckner and Mahler but also the heir of the great Viennese classical tradition, which they transmitted to him. It is this conclusion which I have tried to prove in the following pages; it has been my desire to portray Schoenberg's works as the culmination of several centuries of historical development, rather than as the products of a wilful icono clasm. To this end, I have attempted to place Schoenberg in the Vien nese cultural scene by analyzing, not only the musical background, but also the literary, artistic, and political background of his generation a task which I have likewise performed for the period of Bruckner and of Mahler. Such an extensive project could never have been carried out without the assistance and cooperation of those who were familiar at first hand with the milieu which I wished to reconstruct. Though space forbids detailed acknowledgments, I would like to express here some measure of my gratitude to all who helped me in any capacity to Professor Paul Henry Lang and Dr. Erich Hertzmann, of the Department of Music, Columbia
Mahler: Das Lied von der Erde (The Song of the Earth) (Cambridge Music Handbooks)
by Stephen E. Hefling
from Cambridge University Press
Since its premiere Mahler's Das Lied von der Erde (The Song of the Earth) has been widely regarded as his finest masterpiece. It was written in the wake of personal events that shook the foundations of his life in 1907 and, like all his earlier works, it is deeply influenced by the composer's individual and philosophical worldview. Stephen Hefling provides a background to this symphony for voice and orchestra, describes its genesis, summarizes reviews of the premiere, and gives a careful account of all six movements.
Since its première Mahler's Das Lied von der Erde (The Song of the Earth) has been widely regarded as his finest masterpiece. It was written in the wake of three catastrophic events that shook the foundations of his life in 1907 and, like all his earlier works, it is deeply influenced by the composer's personal and philosophical worldview. Stephen Hefling provides a background to this symphony for voice and orchestra, describes its genesis, summarises reviews of the première, and gives a careful account of all six movements.
Gustav Mahler: Letters To His Wife
by Gustav Mahler
from Cornell University Press
Gustav Mahler and Alma Maria Schindler were married in . . . 1902. The bride was twenty-one and a half years old, her groom a few months short of forty-two. Apart from their substantial age difference, it seems to have been the very disparity of their intellectual and social backgrounds that drew them together. Mahler was attracted to Alma by her beauty, her alert mind and emotional intensity. Though aware that he possessed by far the broader outlook, he trusted in Alma’s ability and willingness to learn from him."—from the Introduction
"Once the stiffness of unfamiliarity has been softened by a few months of marriage, Mahler’s style of correspondence with Alma is generally simple, direct, and astonishingly down-to-earth. In a manner akin to that of his musical style, he spikes his language with witticisms and double-entendres, colloquialisms and quotations from librettos and classical works of literature."—from the Preface
This profusely illustrated collection of Gustav MahlerÂ’s letters to his wife Alma is more comprehensive than any previous edition; it contains 350 letters, 188 of them until now unpublished. Since 1995, when the German edition of this book was first published, two events have served to expand its horizons: the publication in 1997 of the complete text of AlmaÂ’s early diaries, dating from January 1898 to March 1902, and the publication in 2003 of a catalogue of all Mahler letters acquired from the Moldenhauer Archives. With the aid of this new material, the editors were also able to revise the dates assigned to many of the letters. Commentaries and annotations throughout the book have been corrected and expanded annotations included. The editorsÂ’ introduction provides a biographical context for the correspondence that follows.
Mahler: His Life, Work and World
Gustav Mahler was one of the greatest conductors and composers of his time, acclaimed throughout Europe and America for his full-blooded interpretations of a repertoire that ranged from Mozart and Beethoven to Wagner and Strauss, and for his own richly orchestrated pieces. Today his music is almost a cult: intensely emotional and evocative, it stirs and inspires the listener, and it awakens curiosity as to the nature of the man who created it.This book brings together a wealth of contemporary material--letters, reviews, concert programs, diary extracts--to create a picture of Mahler in his own words and those of his friends, colleagues, and critics. From his early childhood to the days of his final triumphs in Vienna and New York, his life, attitudes, beliefs, conflicts, loves, and losses are recorded and presented in vivid detail.
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