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Experiencing Mahler surveys the symphonies and major song sets of Gustav Mahler, presenting them not just as artworks but as vivid and deeply felt journeys. Mahler took the symphony, perhaps the most tradition-bound genre in Western music, and opened it to the widest span of human experience. He introduced themes of love, nature, the chasmic depth of midnight, making peace with death, facing rebirth, seeking one's creator, and being at one with God. Arved Ashby offers the non-specialist a general introduction into Mahler's seemingly unbounded energy to investigate the elements that make each work an experiential adventure-one that has redefined the symphonic genre in new ways.
In addition to the standard nine symphonies, Ashby discusses Das Lied von der Erde, the three most commonly heard song sets (the Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen, Kindertotenlieder, and Rückert-Lieder), and the unfinished Tenth Symphony (in Cooke's edition).
Experiencing Mahler is a far-reaching and often provocative search for meaning in the music of one of the most beloved composers of all time.
List of contents
Chapter 1: The Symphony
Chapter 2: Symphony No.1 in D Major (first performed in Budapest, 20 November 1889)
Chapter 3: Excess
Chapter 4: Symphony No.2 in C Minor, "Resurrection" (first performed in Berlin, 13 December 1895)
Chapter 5: Beginning and Ending
Chapter 6: Symphony No.3 in D Minor (first performed in Krefeld, Germany, 9 June 1902)
Chapter 7: Symphony No.4 in G Major (first performed in Munich, 25 November, 1901)
Chapter 8: Song
Chapter 9: Symphony No.5 (first performed in Cologne, 18 October, 1904)
Chapter 10: Bernstein
Chapter 11: Symphony No.6 in A Minor (premiered Essen, 27 May, 1906)
Chapter 15: Death
Chapter 16: Symphony No.7 (premiered Prague, 19 September, 1908)
Chapter 17:Symphony No.8 in E-flat Major (premiered Munich, 12 September, 1910)
Chapter 18: Das Lied von der Erde (premiered Munich, 20 November, 1911) and Symphony No.9 in D Major (premiered Vienna, 26 June, 1912)
Chapter 19: Symphony No.10 in F-Sharp Major (unfinished)
About the author
Arved Ashby is professor of music at Ohio State University, where he specializes in 20th and 21st century art music as well as cultural history and media and communications. He has published articles on Arnold Schoenberg, Frank Zappa, and Benjamin Britten, and he has taught classes on topics as varied as ancient music, Philip Glass' film music, and 20th-century music through the prism of the Beatles.
Summary
Arved Ashby takes readers into the seeming chaos of Mahler’s work to investigate the elements which make each work an experiential adventure. The book surveys Mahler's symphonies and song cycles in detail, introducing them as intensely vivid, truthful, and lived and felt experiences.
