Music

When you think of famous composers names like Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Ludwig Van Beethoven, and Joseph Haydn come to mind, granted there are all legends at their craft. But a composer that maybe doesn’t get the credit, or isn’t as well known as them but has the credentials is Gustav Mahler. Gustav Mahler was a late romantic Austrian composer, born in the village of Kalischt, Bohemia but spent most of his life living in Iglau, where he grew up (Classical Net). He lived from 1860-1911 dieing at the early age of 50 because of a blood infection (Classical Net). Throughout this paper I will go in depth on three of Mahler’s most famous pieces, symphony one, symphony two, and arguably his most popular symphony number eight.

The style Mahler used was late-Romantic, similarly to other famous composers like Anton Bruckner, Richard Wagner, and Alexander von Zemlinsky (Classical Net). Although tending to use the classical forms of sonata and scherzo, his themes typify the anxious fin-de-siécle mood that took hold of Europe during his era (Classical Net). In the composition of his early symphonies, Mahler borrowed relatively often from his own works and from other composers (Floros 25). His first symphony is a great example of this. The basis for the main movement and the middle section of the slow movement is the music of two songs from the cycle Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen (Songs of a Wayfarer), which Mahler composed in 1884. Symphony 1 was composed between late 1887 and March 1888 (Floros 25). The piece was composed while Mahler was second conductor at the Leipzig Opera, in Germany. An interesrtng snipbit about symphony one is in Mahlers letters he almost always regarded this work as a symphony, but the first two performances described it as a symphonic poem or tone poem. The work was premièred at the Vigadó Concert Hall, Budapest in 1889, but did not receive high praise (Mitchell 149). So for the second performance Mahler made some major revisions, which...