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Mahler's Symphonic World: Music for the Age of Uncertainty
- Author: Berger, Karol
Mahler's Symphonic World: Music for the Age of Uncertainty
- Author: Berger, Karol
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About
A new analysis of Mahler’s symphonies, placing each within the context of his musical way of being in and experiencing the world.
Between 1888 and 1909 Gustav Mahler completed nine symphonies and the orchestral song cycle Das Lied von der Erde; his tenth symphony was left incomplete at his death in 1911. Mahler’s Symphonic World provocatively suggests that over his lifetime, the composer pursued a single vision and a single, ideal symphony that strived to capture his personal outlook on human existence. Writing at the turn of the twentieth century, when all trust in firm philosophical and spiritual foundations had evaporated, Mahler’s music reflected a deep preoccupation with human suffering and transience and a search for sources of possible consolation.
In Karol Berger’s reading, each of the symphonies follows a similar trajectory, with an opening quest leading to the final unveiling of a transcendent, consolatory vision. By juxtaposing single movements—the opening Allegros, the middle movements, the Finales—across different works, Berger traces recurring plotlines and imagery and discloses the works’ multiple interrelationships as well as their cohesiveness around a central idea. Ultimately, Mahler’s Symphonic World locates Mahler’s music within the matrix of intellectual currents that defined his epoch and offers a revelatory picture of his musical way of being in the world.
Contents
- Preface
- Prologue: The Lesson of Mahler
- 1. Cycles: The Norm and Its Extensions
- 2. Allegro: The March of the World The First: Art before Art
- The Second: Building and Breaking
- The Third: The Rite of Summer
- The Fourth: Neoclassicism and Exhaustion
- The Fifth: The Tentative Triumph
- The Sixth: The Programmatic Temptation
- The Seventh: The Intransitive Anticipation
- The Ninth: The Amalgamation of Forms
- The Tenth: Music and Autobiography
- 3. Andante: The Respite The Funeral March The First: Jewishness in Music The Dance-Based Andante The Second: Remembrance of Music’s Past
- The Third: The Dance of the jeunes filles en fleurs The Serenade The Sixth: Night Music I
- The Seventh: Night Music II and III
- 4. Scherzo: The Run of the World The First: Danse à la campagne and Danse à la ville
- The Second: An Outsider Looks In
- The Third: Animals Listen
- The Fourth: Dancing till We Drop
- The Fifth: La Valse
- The Sixth: The Invention of Cubism
- The Seventh: Night Music IV
- The Ninth: The Development of Cubism
- The Rondo-Burleske of the Ninth: The Wild Chase
- Postscript: The Tenth
- 5. Finale: In Search of Consolation The Allegro-Finale The First: The Breakthrough
- The Sixth: The Unmotivated Catastrophe The Rondo-Finale The Fifth: The Taking Back of the Ninth
- The Seventh: On the Nuremberg Meadow The Adagio-Finale The Third: Love Descending
- The Ninth: On the Heights The Vocal Finale The Second: The Taking Up of the Ninth
- The Fourth: Finding the Solution
- 6. The Vocal Cycles The Eighth Symphony I. Hymnus: Veni, creator spiritus
- II. Schlußszene aus “Faust” Das Lied von der Erde I. Das Trinklied vom Jammer der Erde
- II. Der Einsame im Herbst
- III. Von der Jugend
- IV. Von der Schönheit
- V. Der Trunkene im Frühling
- VI. Der Abschied
- 7. Symphonies for the Age of Uncertainty The Sense of an Ending
- How Poor a Yea-Sayer Was Mahler?
- The Worldview Music
- Epilogue: The Lesson of Proust
- Acknowledgments
- Symphonic Works
- Chronology
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Index
