Gustav Mahler (1860-1911)

Mahler-Year Celebrations 2010-2011

Gustav Mahler was born on 7.July 1860 and died on 18.May 1911. The anniversary of these dates give the opportunity to celebrate his music world-wide in a "Mahler Year", from 7.July 2010 until 18.May 2011:

• The Universal Edition has set up a blog about all events related to the Mahler Year celebrations and events.
• The Mahler Society UK is providing details about events in the UK related to the Mahler Year aniversary.
• The International Gustav Mahler Society in Vienna has lots of information and also a forum for discussions.
• The city of Vienna is celebrating Gustav Mahler with a whole range of activities and events.

I have contributed to this commemoration of Gustav Mahler's 150th birthday by creating an electronic/digital rendition of his Symphony No.1 - "From the Life of a Lonely One", which I was able to complete during the night before 7.July 2010.

Mahler's Music

I got relatively late acquainted to Gustav Mahler's music. During the late 1970s and early 1980s when I began building up my classical musical interest through listening to radio, I got very fond of the music of Bela Bartok (big celebratory year in 1981), Stravinsky, Prokofjev. But somehow there was very little music by Mahler played in those days on any of the classical radio stations (BR2, HR2, SWF2) which I could receive. The first time I heard Mahler's music was in 1986 at a concert in Hamburg: the Ninth Symphony was played there, I forgot by which orchestra/conductor. I was impressed, but really got more into his music towards the end of the 1980s and the early 1990s, when his music was somewhat more omnipresent. Gradually I extended my knowledge of his oevre, and by then he had become my all-time favorite composer.

Why do I have such a fondness of his music? Is difficult to pinpoint... one reason is that in his music there is a lot of auto-biographical influence. And one can really hear that: the emotions that are replicated through his music are genuine and must have been really felt by him. His music is not an empty play with forms and mathematical principles, but it expresses strong emotions, going through all extremes from extatically happy down to bottomless desperation. I do not know any other composer who has incorporated these emotions and feelings to such an extent.

The second reason why I like Mahler's music is probably because his music is "human", with a sense of humor and irony in it. In contrast, music by Wagner and Bruckner, which is some way is similar to Mahler's music in its strive for absoluteness and eternity, is "super-human": there is no doubt allowed, and one cannot imagine to smile when listening to it: their music is dead-serious. Mahler's music, on the contrary, does have that feel of lite-ness, which also characterises Mozart's music: it is etheral and transcendent, but not in a heavy sense. There is always a twinkle in the eye, a humorous little smile that challenges the absolute rules of music. This is, for example, very evident in the 3rd movement of the first symphony ("Hunter's Funeral"), but also in the first movement of the 5th symphony: that heavy funeral march mode sounds like a parody, hereby implying not to take pathos so seriously. This is also very evident in those parts which initially some music critics have called "banality": it is exactly this "banality" on the surface which encapsulates the deeper truth, by demasking wrong pathos and opening the ears for the true meaning of life. There is deep sincerity in his music when it really matters: when real sincere issues of love and death are being emotionally encoded in his music.

And the third reason for me liking his music: it seems very close to my own traditions, both musically and culturally. When listening, for example, to his Laendler-type dance movements like the 2nd movement of his first symphony, images from Austria arise; in 1993 I visited the Narzissenfest around the Attersee, and I could not help constantly hearing his music in my mind when walking near the lake and seeing the mountains and the local people in traditional costumes. Also, as a child I spent with my family the annual vacation in the Pustertal, not far from Toblach (Dobbiaco) where Mahler spent his summers. Now when listening to his music, I see sometimes in my mind these mountaneous areas of the Dolomites. I was born in Germany, but my German ancestors lived for many centuries in what is now part of the Czech Republic (Sudetenland). And for some reason I feel very close to the Czech musical tradition, as represented by Dvorak, Smetana, Janacek and others (I hope that Czech readers forgive me this affection - I am not trying to take ownership of these composers). There is some of that in Mahler's music as well, very audible in his typical woodwind and brass harmonies and phrases. As such, he represents a bridge between the various cultural influences: Czech, Jewish, and German - a wonderful synthesis, somehow intricately linked to the Austrian k.u.k era long gone by.

My Electronic Renditions

In 1995 I began to create a computer-controlled rendition in MIDI of the 3rd movement of his First Symphony. This was followed by the "Adagietto" (4th movement of the 5th Symphony) in 2000, and in the same year I completed the most ambitious rendition so far: the 3rd movement of his 4th Symphony. At that time the sequencer/sampler technology was not yet as advanced as it is today, and the sound from the synthesisers was difficult to form into something that adequately represented the complex and intricate sound which Mahler could get from an orchestra.

In January 2010 I had upgraded my computing system (MAESTRO-2) so that it now would be appropriately equipped to tackle the recreation of the complex soundscape of Mahler's work. I have begun to re-record those three existing renditions with the Garritan Personal Orchestra 4 sample libraries, and I am beginning to work on new renditions. For the Mahler Year anniversary celebrations I prepared a rendition of his Symphony No.1.

More Gustav Mahler Sites

• The Chicago Mahlerites. The Gustav Mahler Society of Chicago.