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Anna Stoll Knecht's Mahler's Seventh Symphony offers a new interpretation of Gustav Mahler's most controversial work, based on a confrontation between genetic and analytic approaches. Exposing new facets of Mahler's musical humor, this book freshly reconsiders the composer's cultural identity, revealing the Seventh's pivotal role within his output.
List of contents
- Introduction
- Chapter 1: Premiere and Reception
- Premiere
- Reception
- The "problems" of the Seventh
- Chapter 2: Structure, Interpretation and Genesis
- Structure
- Main interpretive leads
- Genesis
- Chapter 3: Compositional History
- Autobiographical and biographical evidence
- Musical evidence
- Chapter 4: Rondo-Finale
- Form and content
- Interpretive views
- Chapter 5: Genesis of the Rondo-Finale
- The Vienna sketchbook and the Moldenhauer sketches
- The Paris sketchbook leaves and the Moldenhauer sketches
- Other sketches and drafts for the Finale
- Chapter 6: Nachtmusiken
- The first Nachtmusik
- The second Nachtmusik
- Chapter 7: Scherzo
- Dancing death
- Structure
- Sketches and drafts
- Walpurgis night
- Chapter 8: First Movement
- Beginning of the Seventh
- Form and content
- Sketches and drafts
- (Auto)biography, genesis and interpretation
- Chapter 9: Die Meistersinger in the Seventh Symphony
- The Meistersinger references in the Finale
- Quartal harmony in the Seventh and Meistersinger
- Preliminary sketches in the Vienna sketchbook
- E minor to C major: from Night to Day
- Mahler and Beckmesser
- Conclusion
- What the genesis tells us
- "Problems" of the Seventh
- From tragedy to comedy
- Beginnings and ends
- Appendices:
- A: Manuscripts and editions of the Seventh Symphony
- B: Mahler discography
- M: Motivic tables
- F: Formal tables
- CSk: Correspondences between the sketches
- MSk: Motivic table for the sketches
- Synopsis of Richard Wagner's Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg
- Bibliography
About the author
Anna Stoll Knecht is the recipient of an Ambizione research grant from the Swiss National Science Foundation. Previously she was a British Academy postdoctoral fellow at the University of Oxford (Faculty of Music and Jesus College), engaged in a project on Gustav Mahlers interpretation of Richard Wagner, both as a composer and a conductor.
Summary
Anna Stoll Knecht's Mahler's Seventh Symphony offers a new interpretation of Gustav Mahler's most controversial work, based on a confrontation between genetic and analytic approaches. Exposing new facets of Mahler's musical humor, this book freshly reconsiders the composer's cultural identity, revealing the Seventh's pivotal role within his output.
Additional text
an illuminating and refreshing read.
