Gustav Mahler

Patriotic Song of the Week

"Hall of Montezuma" The Marine Hymn

Musician of the Week

Gustav Mahler

Monday

Listening Example: Symphony No. 1

Gustav Mahler was born July 7, 1860 in a little Austrian town called Bohemia. Both his parents were Jewish, and the whole family only spoke German. At the age of 4, Mahler found a piano hidden in his grandmother’s attic. He would secretly play this piano until his parents heard him one day and realized they had a prodigy on their hands. Just 6 years after discovering the piano, Mahler was considered a child prodigy, or Wunderkind (wonder-kin). He gave his first public performance at the town hall at the age of ten, even though he had never had any formal training.

Today’s Listening Example is Mahler’s Symphony No. 1 “The Titan”. A titan is an extremely important person. Albert Einstein was a titan in the world of science. The noun titan comes from Greek mythology, in which the Titans were a race of gods. Today, a titan is someone who is god-like, or powerful and influential in a certain field. As you listen to this music, see if you can understand why he would’ve named this piece “The Titan”.

Tuesday

Listening Example: Symphony No. 2

Mahler was drawn to the music that he heard around him all the time. The military barracks near his home gave him the chance to hear marching style music, and he was fascinated by the songs of the working people in his town. This inspired him, at the age of 4, to begin composing his own music. Gustav used those military sounds, popular music sounds, and a little bit of nature, to compose his music. By the age of 15, he was such a musical genius that he was accepted as a student at the Vienna Conservatory. The Vienna Conservatory is a private institution that is highly regarded worldwide as a leading educational center for music studies.

After winning piano and composition prizes and leaving with a diploma, he supported himself by teaching music. Even though he liked teaching, he still wanted to be known as a great composer, and so, he continued to learn about music and to compose his own music.

Today’s Listening Example, “Symphony No. 2” by Gustav Mahler, known as the Resurrection Symphony, was written between 1888 and 1894, and first performed in 1895. This symphony was one of Mahler's most popular and successful works during his lifetime. It was voted the fifth-greatest symphony of all time in a survey of conductors carried out by the BBC Music Magazine.

Wednesday

Listening Example: Symphony No. 3

Among Mahler's fellow students at the Conservatory was the future song composer Hugo Wolf, with whom he formed a close friendship. Wolf was unable to submit to the strict disciplines of the Conservatory and was expelled. Mahler, while sometimes rebellious, avoided the same fate only by writing a penitent letter to the head master. Mahler left the Conservatory in 1878 with a diploma but without the silver medal given for outstanding achievement. He then enrolled in the University of Vienna where he studied literature and philosophy.

From June to August 1880, Mahler took his first professional conducting job, in a small wooden theatre in the spa town of Bad Hall, south of Linz. It was not as prestigious a job as Mahler had wanted, but he was promised the chance to work his way up. This first job was just one in a long line of conducting jobs that would make Mahler an outstanding conductor.

Today’s Listening Example is Mahler’s Symphony No. 3. You might recognize the conductor. It is Leonard Bernstein who we have studied before. He is credited with reviving Mahler’s symphonies and making them popular in America. In this video he is conducting the Vienna Boy’s Choir, as well as an orchestra.

Thursday

Listening Example: Symphony No. 5

For much of Mahler’s life, composing was just a part-time activity while he earned his living as a conductor. Aside from early works such as a movement from a piano quartet, composed when he was a student in Vienna, Gustav Mahler's works are designed for large orchestral forces, symphonic choruses and operatic soloists.

Aside from early works such as a movement from a piano quartet, composed when he was a student in Vienna, Gustav Mahler's works are designed for large orchestral forces, symphonic choruses and operatic soloists. Fun Fact about Mahler: Despite his inherited heart trouble, he was an extremely active man—a ruthless musical director, a tireless swimmer, and an indefatigable mountain walker.

Mahler was a very somber man. He was fascinated with death and came off as, kind of a depressed and very serious person. Today’s Listening Example is Mahler’s “Symphony No. 5.” The first movement of this symphony is titled “Funeral March.” Do you think that was a good name for this piece?

Friday

Listening Example: Symphony No. 8 "Symphony of a Thousand"

Mahler was a very serious conductor, and a rather bossy one too. The members of his orchestras would often complain about how often and how hard he made them practice and rehearse. It was for this reason that Mahler had a hard time keeping a job as a conductor for very long. Mahler worked in many locations. From Prague, to Liepzig to Budapest he bounced from one appointment to another. He always learned something new at every post that would help him with his next job.

While at his Vienna post, Mahler caused a revolt among stagehands and performers! They were tired of working so hard for someone who was so demanding. The Nazi party saw this is a way to get the Jewish Mahler out of his role as conductor and encouraged, and supported, the revolt. Mahler didn’t mind. He just quit and went on to conduct for the Metropolitan Opera House in New York.

Today’s Listening Example is “Symphony No. 8”. It is one of the largest-scale choral works in the classical concert repertoire. Because it requires huge instrumental and vocal forces it is frequently called the "Symphony of a Thousand", although the work is normally presented with far fewer than a thousand performer. The work was composed in a single inspired burst, in the summer of 1906. The last of Mahler's works that was premiered in his lifetime, the symphony was a critical and popular success when he conducted the Munich Philharmonic in its first performance, in Munich, on 12 September 1910.