Mahler Songs and Symphonies of Life and Death

8/20/2019 Mahler Songs and Symphonies of Life and Death

1/11

Review: Songs and Symphonies of Life and Death

Author(s): John WilliamsonSource: Journal of the Royal Musical Association, Vol. 113, No. 2 (1988), pp. 350-359Published by: Taylor & Francis, Ltd. on behalf of the Royal Musical AssociationStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/766369

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2/11

350

REVIEWS

soloists but often

a much

larger

orchestra

than

for an

opera);

and both

were

given

with

elaborate

'staging'

but without dramatic

action.

As

entertainments, oratorios in Italy were often indistinguishable from

serenatas,1

and

from

what

Smither

tells us about

performances

at the

Ajuda

Palace

in

Lisbon

in

the 1770s and

1780s,

it

seems that oratorios

were

used

there

in

place

of

serenatas

to celebrate

royal

birthdays

and

name-days.

Did the oratorio

similarly

usurp

the function of

the

serenata

in

Italy?

Or

did

the

two

genres

fall into

decline

together?

In

the

preface

to his first

volume,

Professor Smither

optimistically

stated that 'volume 3

will follow

the

history

of the

oratorio

from

the

Baroque

era

to the

present'.

In

volume 3 he

makes

no

similar

prediction

but,

whether

it

takes

another volume or

several,

the

completion

of

this

monumental

study

will be awaited with keen

interest.

Malcolm

Boyd

'

See

Thomas E.

Griffin,

'The Late

Baroque

Serenata

in Rome and

Naples'

(dissertation,

University

of

California,

Los

Angeles,

1983),

esp. pp.

38-53.

Songs and Symphonies of Life and Death

Donald

Mitchell,

Gustav

Mahler,

ongs

nd

Symphonies

f Life

andDeath:

nterpreta-

tions

nd

Annotations.

ondon,

Faber,

1986.659

pp.

ISBN 0

571

13634

6.

Donald Mitchell's

work

on Mahler over

a

period

of

30

years

has

been

less

a

study

than

a

biographical,

critical

and

documentary

adventure

in

numerous

instalments.

Few

writers

on

Mahler

have

Mitchell's

ability

to

involve the reader

in a

continuing

process

of

discovery

in

which

false

leads, wrong turnings

and tentative

speculations

are

constantly

proposed,

examined

and discarded

or

confirmed

according

to

the

researches

of Mitchell

and the numerous excellent

Mahler

scholars

who haunt his

pages.

As

a

result

the reader

cannot

ignore

the

various

editions

which his books

on

Mahler

have

gone

through.

In

its

second

edition,

The

Early

Yearsboasted

much new

material,

principally

the work of David Matthews

and Paul

Banks,

who

are

mentioned

in

numerous

places

in

the

latest

volume as authors

of individual

perceptions

and

suggestions.'

Even Mitchell's

edition of Alma's

memoirs

of her husband has

acquired

several

revisions,

additions

and

prefaces,

most of which contain at least one bit of new information or

speculation.

In

a

sense,

Mitchell

should have

been

editing

a

yearbook

or

journal

devoted to

the

dissemination

of

Mahler

research.

The

Wunderhornears ame close

to

realizing

such

a

notion

in

excelsis.2

As

a

'

Donald

Mitchell,

Gustav

Mahler:

The

Early

Years,

rev.

edn,

ed. Paul Banks

and David

Matthews

(London,

1980).

2

Donald

Mitchell,

Gustav

Mahler:

The

Wunderhorn

Years

(London,

1975).


3/11

SONGS AND SYMPHONIES OF LIFE

AND DEATH 351

result

it had a somewhat

mixed

reception.

Critics worried

over its

peculiar organization,

students

found it difficult to

read,

and it

became the property of specialists who have seldom failed to use

and

quote

it,

or,

most

valuable

of

all,

follow

up

its

many

leads

and

suggestions.

The

motivation

of

the

change

from standard 'Life and

Works'

to

'Chronicles

and

Commentaries'

and now

'Interpretations

and Annotations'

is

no

secret;

the monumental

biography

of

Mahler

by

Henry-Louis

de

La

Grange

is now

complete

in

three

volumes.3

If

La

Grange

became Mahler's

Thayer,

Mitchell has become the

Notte-

bohm

of Mahler

scholarship,

seldom

happier

than when

excavating

the

sources.

The

notes to

his volumes

are

a

fascinating

source of

Mahleriana,

many

of

which

are

worthy

of

being

pursued

at

article

length;

indeed

a note in the

present

volume on a

likely

misreading

in

'Der Abschied'

has

already

expanded

into

an

article.4

All

this

confirms the

continuing

interest

to

the

specialist

of

Mitchell's work

in

this

latest volume.

To what

extent,

though,

is it a unified

study

which can

be read

with

profit

and

pleasure

by

the

non-specialist?

The

answer

is

much

more

straightforward

than

with The

Wunderhorn

Years;

the volume has clear

themes

and

arguments,

if a

slightly

odd

chronology

whose

justi-

fication resides

more

in Mitchell's

subjective

preferences

concerning

Das Lied von der Erde and the Eighth Symphony (which this reviewer

happens

to

share)

than

in

any

particularly

striking argument.

This

is a

book about Das

Lied

approached

through

the

Riickert

songs,

to which

is

appended

a much

briefer

appraisal

of the

Eighth Symphony.

The

oddity

of

considering

the

Eighth

out

of

chronological

sequence

(and

the

lesser

oddity

of

considering

the vocal

works

outside

the

context of

the instrumental

symphonies)

is

probably

the

consequence

of Mitch-

ell's

preoccupations

with

strophic

form,

whose

relationship

with the

very

idiosyncratic approach

to

symphony

and

sonata

form

manifested

by the Eighth Symphony Mitchell may well still be considering.

Readers

of this

book, then,

should

bear

in mind the

history

of

Mitchell's

previous

publications;

there

may yet

be more

on

the

Eighth

in a

later

edition

or volume.5

All

this

tends

to make

Mitchell's Mahler

books

sound

like

a stream-of-consciousness

spread

over

many years.

Perhaps

he would

accept

this,

given

his

Freudian

preoccupations

elsewhere;

nor is

it

inappropriate

as a manifestation of structural

sympathy

with

the

object

of his

investigations

and

meditations.

Songs

and

Symphonies,

however,

has a

relatively

clear

and

traditional musico-

logical profile

in

that

it

unashamedly

addresses each work as a

diachronous

process

(digressions permitting)

in

strong

contrast to the

increasingly synchronous

view

of

modern

analytical techniques.

3

Henry-Louis

de

La

Grange,

Gustav

Mahler.:

Chronique

d'une

vie,

3

vols.

(Paris, 1979-84).

4

Donald

Mitchell,

'Mahler's

Abschied :

A

Wrong

Note

Righted',

The

Musical

Quarterly,

71

(1985),

200-4.

s

See also the remarks

by

Michael

Kennedy

in his review of the

present

volume,

The Musical

Times,

127

(1986),

153.

6

See,

for

example,

'Mahler and

Freud',

in Gustav Mahler: The Wunderhorn

Years,

70-8.


4/11

352

REVIEWS

Analysis

is

a

word that Mitchell

avoids

in

his

subtitle.

'Interpreta-

tions and

Annotations' establishes

fairly

clearly

that such

analysis

as

Mitchell provides will be subservient to an essentially critical perspec-

tive.

Words, music,

and the

implications

of

their

interaction

are a

dominant

theme and

tend to

relegate

matters

relating

to a

more

general

Weltanschauung

o the

margins.7

On

numerous

occasions we

are

warned or reminded of

music's

ability

to

alter

and

transfigure

meaning

in

even the

most

unambiguous

of

texts,

to

the

extent

that the

composer

may

feel

obliged

to

alter the

text under

the

pressure

of

the

musical

invention

(see,

for

example,

p.

367).

Mahler's

tendency

to

treat his

texts as cannon-fodder for

his

musical

imagination

has

already

received

much

attention

in

recent

years.8

Mitchell

goes

back

beyond

this

stage

to

investigate

the

literary

sources of Das Lied and

reveals

an

intricate

picture

of

layer

upon layer

of

material

-

Chinese

originals,

French

translations

and German

variations

thereon

-

that

reveal

Bethge's

texts as

free

variations on

Chinese

texts

(whose

attribution

poses

many

problems)

rather than

as faithful

translations.

Das

Lied

is,

in

this

light,

part

of

a

European

response

to a

half-

imagined

East,

and

Mahler's chinoiserie

belongs

with

various

related

manifestations

of

musical

orientalism in

the

hothouse of

art

nouveau,

with

Debussy's gamelan

(which

Mitchell

mentions)

and the

Japanese

and Chinese operas of Puccini (which he does not). Effectively

Mitchell

invites

us

to view Das Lied as a

technical

efflorescence of

the

Riickert

songs

evoked

by

an

emotional

landscape

communicated

by

Bethge

which

tied

in

with Mahler's

principal

themes,

the

evanescence

of

beauty,

the

transience

of

existence,

and his

framing

concepts,

the

possibility

of a

symphonic

art which

could embrace

the

external

world

(as

nature)

and

the internal

(as

sublimated

autobiography).

A

consequence

of

Mitchell's

essentially

critical

perspective

is his

frequent

reference to

Adorno,

whom

one

would

not have

thought,

from previous volumes, a kindred spirit. This is a relatively superficial

matter,

however,

beside the

necessity

for a

rather

home-spun

vocabu-

lary,

the

consequence

of

the need to

embrace

mood and

emotional

experience

as well as musical

techniques.

We are a

long way

here from

the

highly

specialized

vocabulary

of the

Schenkerians.

Some

terms are

old

friends.

Comparison

with

Debussy

inevitably

raises the

question

of

how

far Das Lied

exhibits the

style

of

an

orchestral

Impressionism

(pp.

69-72);

Mitchell

heavily

qualifies

the term in

relation

to both

composers,

though

the need to

evaluate

degrees

of

clarity,

to

describe

the

extent to

which

Debussy employs

veiled

sonorities

and Mahler

unveiled,

accurately

reveals

Mitchell's

difficulties

in

conveying

the

7

Mahler's

Weltanschauung

has

been

exhaustively

considered in another

major

work

recently

completed:

Constantin

Floros,

Gustav

Mahler,

3

vols.

(Wiesbaden,

1977-85).

8

See, for

example,

Hans

Mayer,

'Musik und

Literatur',

in Gustav

Mahler

(Tiibingen,

1966),

142-56;

Arthur

Wenk,

'The

Composer

as Poet in Das Lied von

der

Erde',

19th

Century

Music,

1

(1977), 33-47;

Susanne

Vill,

Vermittlungsformen

erbalisierter und

musikalischer Inhalte

in der Musik

Gustav

Mahlers

(Tutzing,

1979).


5/11

SONGS

AND

SYMPHONIES

OF LIFE

AND

DEATH

353

fine

distinctions

without

which

talk of

Impressionism

becomes rather

nebulous.

Expressionism,

by

contrast,

has the

advantage,

in

that

usage

has left it a

multiplicity

of

meanings

and

references;

here it

may

refer to a melodic

style

or to

an

'intensity

of

feeling' (pp.

199 and

451-2).

We must be

grateful

that the

old labels are

sparingly

employed.

Sometimes

the technical

discussion deals

with

perilously

general

matter.

In

particular,

the issue of direction as it refers

to

melodic

lines and

accompaniments

calls

for considerable tact

(pp.

179-80).

The issue

is raised

by

Mitchell

partly

as a

consequence

of

his

discussion

of

the

essentially

scalic

nature

of Mahler's melodic

thinking

(pp.

59-60).

More

purely

analytical

studies

of Mahler's

later

style

have tended

to confirm

this,

even

in the

middleground

of the

Schenkerians.9 Mitchell has a more

general

nettle to

grasp,

'a kind of

directional

architecture

in

its

own

right,

at times even

a directional

polyphony'

(p.

180).

This is

very

much on the

right

lines.

Contrary

motion,

above

all

mirror

forms,

fascinate

Mitchell

(who

is

particularly

interesting

on the

mirror world

of 'Von der

Jugend').

Contrary

motion

as

a

contrapuntal

ideal,

and

arches as

a melodic

norm,

however,

figure

prominently

in

most

manuals

of

composition;

they

are central

to

any

musical

pedagogics.

In

this

respect,

it

might

seem as

though

the ebb

and

flow of line and

arpeggio

in

'Das

Trinklied'

qualified

it as

the most

conventionally well-written movement of Das Lied von der Erde (though

try

telling

that to

the

tenor).

Mitchell's

subsequent

approach

to 'Der

Abschied',

with

its

emphasis

on a

dialectic

of

strict

and free

manners,

rather tends to

emphasize

this,

raising

the

question

as

to

how

the

directional theme

in the earlier

movements

of

Das

Lied

differs

from

direction

in

the

finale.

The

answer

for

Mitchell

seems to

lie

in Mahler's

highly

original

heterophony

(a

term

and

subject

that he

may

have known

from Guido

Adler,

whose

essay

'Heterophony'

is

printed

as

Appendix

C).

This is

a

subject that other writers have raised in dealing with Mahler's late

style,

but seldom

with

such

prominence

as Mitchell. What

is

perhaps

not

emphasized

is the

extent to

which

heterophony

in

Mahler at this

time

is

controlled

by

pedal

points,

as

in

Mitchell's

Example

4(c)

in

Part

I

('Es

ist

mir auch

gar

nichts daran

gelegen'

from

'Ich bin

der

Welt

abhanden

gekommen'),

or

in

that

most

hauntingly

irregular

of

Mahler's

polyphonic

complexes,

Figure

30 in 'Der Abschied'.

There

is

a

strong

case for

dealing

with

Mahler's

use of

pedal points

if

only

to

emphasize

the

even more

original

moments

in

the

outer movements

of

the

Ninth,

where

polyphony

and

heterophony

divorce

themselves

from

the

tyranny

of the

pedal

without

in

any way losing

the sense

of

stasis

peculiar

to Mahler's

late

style. Heterophony

in Mahler derives

9

V. Kofi

Agawu,

'The Musical

Language

of Kindertotenlieder

No.

2',

Journal

of Musicology,

2

(1983),

81-93;

Allen

Forte,

'Middleground

Motives

in the

Adagietto

of

Mahler's

Fifth

Sym-

phony',

19th

Century

Music,

8

(1984),

153-63;

John

Williamson,

'The

Structural Premises

of

Mahler's Introductions:

Prolegomena

to an

Analysis

of

the

First

Movement of

the

Seventh

Symphony',

Music

Analysis,

5

(1986),

29-57.


6/11

354

REVIEWS

in

Mitchell's view

from the

all-pervasiveness

of

Mahler's

techniques

of

motivic

variation,

and

he is

right

to

emphasize

the extent

to which

certain passages in Das Lied seem saturated by motivic reference.

There

is

also

a case for a

study

of

heterophony

and

polyphony

in

Mahler motivated

by

a

harmonic

approach

(which

would,

one

hopes,

be

more

sophisticated

than the views

of

Hans

Tischler).'o

Such

a

study

would

of

necessity

be more

purely analytical

than Mitchell's

volume,

but would be a valuable

appendix

to its more

traditional

motivic

standpoint.

'Freedom',

as Mitchell defines

it,

has a formal

dimension, too,

that

renders 'Der

Abschied'

unique

within

Das

Lied:

If symmetry (and the disruption of symmetry) were indeed the principal

factor

regulating

the

strophic

forms of movements

1-5,

then it

is

unprofit-

able

to

attempt

to

identify

the same

compositional process

at work

in

'Der

Abschied'. It is

precisely

here,

one

finds,

that Mahler abandons

it,

or at

least the

systematic

strophic

method

he has used

hitherto.

Yet,

as

we

shall

see,

he

found

a

way

of

brilliantly

preserving

in

'Der Abschied'

the

dichotomous

principle

that had served the forms of the

preceding

five

movements,

while

also

introducing

the

strophe

itself into

the

subsidiary

architecture of the movement

(pp.

340-1).

It is striking that Mitchell should thus seek to define formal differen-

ces and

characteristics

in

Das

Lied without the traditional

references to

sonata

form. Until this

volume,

the extent to

which

the work was

bound

to

the

strophe

was but

indifferently

recognized.

On the other

hand,

that

the

strophic

form of 'Das Trinklied' had sonata

aspects

had

been

noted,

suggesting

a

compromise

between two formal

prin-

ciples. '

There is no limit to the

way

in which

forms

may

be

crossbred,

at

least

in

the

eye

of the

analysts.

As an

example,

one

might

take the

Lorenzian idea of a

Reprisenbar,

definable as

AAB

with the

Abgesang

containing

a

reprise

of

A.'2

Was

Adorno

thinking

of

this

type

of Bar

when

discussing

'Das

Trinklied'?'3

If

so,

then Mitchell's

'sympho-

nic

or

sonata

parallel,

i.e.

exposition-repeat-development-

recapitulation'

is

already

to some

extent

present

in

the Lorenzian

ancestry

of

Adorno's

comments

(see

pp.

443-4).

The

'dichotomous

principle'

is,

of

course,

a notion

that

flourishes

in

sonata

terminology,

but

Mitchell is

curiously

resistant to

employing

it as

anything

other

than

a

parallel

or

occasionally

as

an

analytical

conceit,

as when he

describes the funeral march

in

'Der Abschied' as

'a

displaced expo-

sition'

(p.

397).

There is

unquestionably

good

reason

for

treating

1o

Hans Tischler,

'Mahler's Impact on the Crisis of Tonality', Music

Review, 12 (1951), 113-21.

Fritz Egon

Pamer, 'Gustav

Mahlers

Lieder',

Studien

zur

Musikwissenschaft,

16

(1929),

135.

12 Alfred

Lorenz, Das

Geheimnis der Form bei

Richard

Wagner,

4

vols.

(2nd edn,

Tutzing,

1966),

i,

107-8;

the substance

of

Lorenz's remarks here

and elsewhere is that the

layout

of a

Reprisenbar

will

resemble a

sonata

form

with

repeated exposition

if the Stollen have more than one theme. If

there

is no

exposition

repeat ('modern

sonata

form',

according

to

Lorenz),

then

sonata

form

resembles

Bogenform

(see,

for

example,

iii,

186).

'3

Theodor

Wiesengrund

Adorno,

Mahler:

Eine

musikalische

Physiognomik

(Frankfurt, 1962),

60-1.


7/11

SONGS AND SYMPHONIES OF LIFE AND

DEATH

355

sonata

terminology

and its

underlying

concepts

with

some

restraint

in

later

Mahler.

To what

extent

do works like Das

Lied and

the

Eighth

Symphony

move

in

sonata

categories

or

merely

exhibit

the

ghosts

of

dead

forms

dimly

perceived

through

radically

new

polyphonic

and

structural modes of

perception?

In

the case

of

'Der

Abschied',

the

sonata

parallels

are

too obvious

to

cope

adequately

with

the task of

describing

the

movement

unless blended

with

elements

appropriated

from

elsewhere

to a

degree

that

offends

against

Occam's

razor.

'Free'

will

does

just

as well

in

that

it

clears the

mind of

several

conceptions.

For

Mitchell,

'freedom'

in

Mahler is bound

up

with

the

asymmetrical

in

'Der Abschied'

with the

rider that

asymmetry

is

to

be

equated

with

'the

idea

of the most

personal '

(p.

343),

an

important qualification

since the element of the

autobiographical

in the work

emerges

strongly

in

Mitchell's consideration

of

the texts and the

modifications

that

Mahler

made to them.

Das Lied von der

Erde,

then,

has

the

aspect

of

an internal

drama

in

Mitchell's

account,

moving

from the strict

(strophic,

symmetrical,

human,

transient)

to the

free

(dissolving

those

categories

into the

nirvana

of

the

'distant

horizon',

the endless C

major

of the

close with

its

undulating

echoes

of old motives

and

ostinati).

Drama as a musical

concept

is all

too often

linked with the

ubiquitous

sonata

principle,

both in real formal terms and in the metalanguage of the analysts.

Hence the need

in

Mitchell

for

heavy

qualification

of

drama. Here he

seems to be

tracing

a

historical

progression:

This

gradually

evolving change

in

method,

like all

the other

changes

in

Mahler's

music

that

developed

at

this

time,

may

be

attributed,

I

believe,

to

the

switch

from

the

outwardly

dramatic to the

lyrical

(and

the

ecstatic);

to

the

progressive

interiorization

of

a

dramatic

principle

that had

hitherto

been

made

programmatically

explicit;

and,

not

least,

to

the

basic

modifi-

cation of the nature

of the inner drama itself

(pp.

76-7).

How

such notions

as drama affect the

Eighth

Symphony

is an

interesting

case.

It is

precisely

the lack of

anything

dramatic

in

that

strange

work which makes its formal construction so difficult to

describe.

Mitchell does

not like the 'ancient

prop'

of Part

II

as

combined

Adagio,

Scherzo

and Finale

any

more than Redlich or

(implicitly)

Newlin;14

when

he hints at its role as

'positive impedi-

ment'

to

understanding,

one can

only

applaud (p.

533).

He is also

dubious

about the

utility

of sonata

concepts

in

'Veni Creator

Spiritus',

suggesting

that

they

offer less

to

the

understanding

than his

own

picture of it as a descendant of the Bachian motet. If the notion of

'Veni Creator

Spiritus'

as a sonata form is to be examined with

the

rigour

it

deserves,

there are two

possible starting-points.

The first

is

the

assumption

that here is a rather

special

kind of sonata

that

re-adjusts

our ideas of

thematic,

tonal and dramatic contrast and

'14

Dika

Newlin,

Bruckner-Mahler-Schoenberg

(New

York,

1947),

192-4;

Hans

Redlich,

Bruckner

and

Mahler (rev.

edn,

London,

1963),

216.


8/11

356

REVIE\'WS

ultimately

comes

close

to

refining

them

out of

existence;

again

we

are

left with

the

ghosts

of forms and

processes

rather than their

sub-

stance. Mitchell's point of origin is to question their utility and seek

alternative modes

of

organization.

It is hard not to feel

that

in

this

sense there is a

lot more still

to

be

said. As someone who

has written

on

the

problems

of the first

method,'

I

tend to see Mitchell

as

someone

climbing

the same

mountain

from

the

opposite

side,

though

the

peak

remains

obstinately

invisible.

In

a

volume

of this size

and

importance,

it would be remarkable

if

there were

not

points

of

disagreement, questionable interpretations

and

errors.

In

fact

there are

remarkably

few of the last. Mitchell

comments on

p.

72:

He

wanted,

naturally,

to

have the wash of

silvery

colour

...

that the

celesta

supplies.

But

what other

composer

would have made sure we hear

exactly

where that

patch

of colour ends

by

having

the

harp lightly

strengthen

and

articulate

the

top

of the acciaccatura?

Here he seems to overlook the fact

that the

harp

and celesta

in

the first

bar

of 'Ich

atmet'

einen linden Duft' do not end on the same

upper

limit;

this

may

not be

quite

his

point,

but there seems to be an

ambiguity.

I

am not sure about

the

validity

of

implicitly

withholding

the description 'tonic' from Figure 16 of 'Das Trinklied' (p. 187); in

Mahler of

all

composers,

a

tonic

is a

tonic,

whatever the mode.

The

conceit of the

two-part

canon

on

p.

262

does not survive the fourth

bar. On

p.

279

there

is a reference

to bar

134

that should be

133.

The

joint

editor of Cosima

Wagner's

diaries seems

permanently

to have

become G.

(as

opposed

to

M.)

Gregor-Dellin

(p.

438

and

index,

p.

654).

The editor

of Mahler's letters

to

Oskar Fried is described as the

addressee on

p.

459.16

These

are minor matters. More

interesting

is

Mitchell's

interpretation

of a letter to Nina

Spiegler

of 18

August

1900:

Now,

I

must

admit,

it comes rather

hard to be here

[in Vienna]

again,

taking

up

the old

struggle;

I am

still

half

living

in

the world of

my

Fourth.

-

This one

[the Fifth]

is

quite

fundamentally

different

from

my

other

symphonies (pp.

131-2).

The German text is as follows:

Jetzt

kommt es

mir

allerdings

etwas

hart

an,

hier wieder

anzupacken;

so

halb

und

halb lebe

ich immer noch

in der

Welt

meiner IV.

-

Sie ist so

grundverschieden

von meinen

anderen

Symphonien.'7

The second set of brackets

in

Mitchell's version

(otherwise

the

translation of Wilkins and

Kaiser),18

amounts to a

reinterpretation

of

'

John

Williamson,

'Mahler

and

Veni Creator

Spiritus',

Music

Review,

44

(1983),

25-35.

'l

Gustav

Mahler:

Unbekannte

Briefe,

ed. Herta

Blaukopf

(Vienna

and

Hamburg,

1983),

47-59

(esp. p.

52).

'7

Gustav

Mahler:

Briefe,

ed. Herta

Blaukopf

(Vienna

and

Hamburg,

1982),

248.

'18

Selected Letters

of

Gustav

Mahler,

trans.

Eithne Wilkins and

Ernst Kaiser

(with

Bill

Hopkins),

ed.

Knud Martner

(London, 1979),

242.


9/11

SONGS

AND SYMPHONIES OF LIFE AND DEATH

357

the

letter at odds

with Knud

Martner,

Kurt

Blaukopf19

and

others,

and

indeed with the traditional

(if

vague) chronology

of the

Fifth

Symphony. Why Mitchell should wish to do so is as yet unexplained

and

may

be a matter for his

next

volume.

By

comparison

with the Fifth

Symphony,

the

chronology

of

the

Eighth

has

always

seemed

straightforward;

in

spite

of

(or

because

of)

the

dearth

of sketch

material,

the traditional

picture given by

most

writers

(including

the editor of the work for the

complete

edition)20

has

been of a

work written

in

a

single

burst

in

summer 1906.

Mitchell

clouds this

picture

slightly

by

suggesting

(with

reason)

that

substan-

tial

preparation

went into

the work of

precisely

the

kind that

is

documented for other works

(pp. 523-6).

But he also

gives

1906-7 as

the date for the work's

composition,

which

adds a

new dimension

to

the

traditional

picture (p.

57).

This seems

misleading.

Such work

as

Mahler did on the

Eighth

in

1907 must have been

tidying

up,

perhaps

the

preparation

of a fair

copy. Quite

apart

from

the familiar

material

on

its

chronology,

there exist

more

recently

published

documents

such

as

the letter

to

Oskar Fried dated

by

Rudolf

Stephan

to

probably

August

1906,

with

its statement 'Meine

8.

ist

fertig.'21

Mahler

would

then

have written down the dedication of

the

sketch of

the

first

inspiration

to

Alma

presumably

on

completion

of

the

work

(p.

530).

Mitchell is not the

only

writer

recently

to ascribe the

Eighth

to

1906-7,22

leaving

the

suspicion

that the

chronology

of

the work

still

has

some research left

in

it.

As a footnote to

the

matter,

it should

be

observed

that La

Grange

deals with

this work of

1906

(as

he

accepts

it)

in

the

volume

of

his

biography

that

begins

with

1907.23

It

must

be said that Mitchell's

command of

sources is

impressive

in

the

extreme.

Occasionally

one

longs

for

consideration of

the

second-

ary

literature over small

points.

Perhaps

his

comments on

Mahler's

use

of

the tam-tam

(pp.

475-7)

could

have been

complemented by

reference to Floros's 'Tamtam als funebrales und makabres Klang-

symbol

bei

Mahler,

Wagner,

Liszt,

Strauss,

Tschaikovskij,

Sch6nberg

und

Berg'.24

But this is a

detail beside the

wealth of

new

material

pertaining

to

autograph

sources and the

Chinese

background

to

Das

Lied.

That

Bethge

knew no

Chinese

puts

his

role

in

new

perspective.

The

projected

use of

mandoline and

guitar

in

'Von

der

Sch6nheit' is a

fascinating

detail. As often with

Mitchell,

such

references

tend to

spill

beyond

the

immediate frame of

reference,

trailers for

the

next

volume

perhaps.

Thus the

Adagietto

of the

Fifth

Symphony

is

a

declaration

of

love

for Alma, a kind of love letter, according to a note in Mengel-

19

Kurt

Blaukopf,

Gustav

Mahler:

A

Documentary

Study,

trans. Paul

Baker et al.

(London,

1976),

224.

2

Gustav

Mahler:

Siimtliche

Werke, viii:

Symphonie

Nr.

8,

ed. Karl

Heinz

Fiissl

(Vienna,

1977),

Foreword.

21

Mahler:

ULnbekannte

riefe,

55.

22

See

David

B.

Greene,

Mahler:

Consciousnessand

Temporality

(New

York,

1984),

199.

23

La

Grange,

Gustav Mahler, iii,

1079.

24

Floros,

Gustav

Mahler,

ii,

311-17.


10/11


11/11

MAHLER'S

UNKNOWN

LETTERS

Mahler's

Unknown

Letters

Mahler's

Unknown

Letters,

edited

by

Herta

Blaukopf,

translated

by

Richard

Stokes.

London,

Gollancz,

1986.

241

pp.

ISBN

0

575 03644 3.

One

thing

made

abundantly

clear

by

this volume is

that

a

complete

edition of Mahler's letters

is still

a

long way

off.

The fact that

the

subject

himself seems to

have

kept

incoming

correspondence only

as

long

as it took

for

him

to

reply

to it

poses

one set of

problems

for

any

editor. That Mahler's

own letters were

and

continue to be

scattered

haphazardly

across the

world

by

collectors,

dealers and

accident-

prone

exhibition

organizers

(letters

to Reznicek were lost

during

the

1960 Mahler exhibition in Vienna) poses another set. In her Introduc-

tion,

Herta

Blaukopf expresses

justifiable

pride

in

the

'years

of

groundwork

and

collecting

by

the International

Gustav Mahler

Society'

that

have facilitated

this collection.

Nevertheless,

the non-

scholarly

Mahler enthusiast

for whom this volume seems to

some

extent to have

been

designed

might

well be

disappointed

by

what

all

this

work has so

far

unearthed,

particularly

when the

commentary

on

four

letters

from Mahler to

his sister

Justine,

for

example,

reveals

that

nearly

100 more remain

inaccessible

in

a

Canadian

archive.

The policy of selection here is generally not particularly clear or

consistent. The

12

unknown

letters from Mahler to

Ludwig

Strecker,

for

example, published

in

1977

in

the

Archiv

fur

Musikwissenschaft

(34,

pp.

287-97),

might

at least have been included in the

English

edition,

whereas there is

nothing

in

this book to indicate their

existence.

Herta

Blaukopf

is

certainly

not

to be

blamed,

however,

for

otherwise

including many

short

and

relatively

insubstantial

communications,

written

almost

always

'in

Eile',

in

what

is

arranged

as

a

kind of

interim

supplement

to her

own

expanded

edition

(1982)

of Alma

Mahler's

first

1924

selection of her husband's letters or

Knud

Martner's revised

English

edition of

1979

-

although

we must also

remember

the letters

to

herself included

in

Alma's first

volume

of

autobiography

and,

now,

Herta

Blaukopf's

own

edition

of

the

composer's

correspondence

with

Richard Strauss

(1980;

English

edition,

1984).

The

letters are

grouped

in

this

new collection under the name

of

their

addressee,

the

groups

being organized

alphabetically,

each with an

introductory essay

by

a

scholar

knowledgeable

in

the relevant

period

or location of

Mahler's

activities.

There

are 15

'introducers'

to 17

groups

of

letters.

359

possibly

be a distant reflection of the battle

that

Mitchell,

Deryck

Cooke

and

others

had to

wage

on

Mahler's behalf.

Obviously

the

stylistic residue of such a battle may imply a defensiveness that may

not

be to

everyone's

taste.

But it cannot

detract from a

volume

that is

fundamental

and

illuminating

reading

for

anyone

interested

in

Mah-

ler's

music.

John

Williamson

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Mahler Songs and Symphonies of Life and Death

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