It is a common presumption that those who have an outstanding musical talent must also be exceptional human beings and we must therefore forgive them their foibles and faults. We presume that they have superior insight into the human condition , an insight and understanding not given to ordinary mortals.

The question to be addressed is how much of the personality of a gifted composer shapes a composer’s works and how much is shaped by the society and times in which he/she lives.We are going to delve a little into Mahler’s mind,into some aspects of his personal and cultural life.

Mahler’s symphonies have acquired a huge following in which the audience response is almost the “culture vulture” equivalent of being a Beatles groupie. I myself have cooled to the symphonies. My reaction to recently hearing his 3rd Symphony was that the musical discourse reminded me of someone unburdening  himself of all his troubles,pains,thoughts and aspirations, at vast length ,many repetitions,and speaking in a sophisticated language full of rhetoric,in an overly emotional tone. Such a voice becomes wearying .

My mother in law was a feisty and witty woman who had overcome many hardships in her life but didn’t carry an emotional chip on her shoulder. On the contrary she was always full of fun and ready for a laugh. I can imagine her confronting Mahler and saying to him” Get a hold of yourself Gustav, there are many people much worse off than you.” But we all,at some time or other have negative feelings , and Mahler is very good at expressing those feelings. What disturbs some listeners is the emphasis on pain and sorrow,the self pity which pervades so many of his songs.The choice of texts which he has set to music speaks for itself but not everyone likes this indiscriminate baring of the soul .

Here are some of Mahler’s statements which  we must treat with caution because they are the utterances of a highly emotional man and might not reflect reality.He does what the law warns against , in that through his own mouth he incriminates himself.Of course  he has not committed any crime but his words – one could almost call them  confessions -help us understand and enter into the complexities of his personality. You  are not obliged to like his music out of pity, although one gets the feeling that Mahler craves acceptance .Although highly regarded by some , there are many who  do not approve of composition being a substitute for the psychoanalyst’s couch. But now let  Mahler have his say. Here are some of his statements.

1. I have to write large works if I want to go down to posterity.

2.   In 100 years there will be great folk festivals devoted to my symphonies , in 

       gigantic halls  seating twenty to thirty thousand people.

3.    The motto for this movement is “ Father,see these wounds of mine. Let not be 

        lost one creature of thine.”

The following quote is from the memoirs of Mahler’s wife Alma.

4.      Mahler and I were badly shaken by the terrible San Fransisco earthquake, but 

         on the same day Professor Curie,the great discoverer of radium was run over

          and killed by a carriage in Paris . Mahler and I knew of his hermit like 

          existence and his life which was wholly dedicated to science. We

          unanimously agreed that this misfortune was the greater one. The

          discoverer and great benefactor of mankind, who sought and found

          this substance – versus the nameless mass of people swallowed up

          like a large  question mark.

 I have saved the most revealing quote for the last.  Mahler had this to say about his parents and their marriage.

My father married my mother – who did not love him,and hardly knew him before the wedding. He was all obstinacy,she gentleness itself.Yet but for this union neither I nor my 3rd Symphony would exist.I find that quite remarkable.

Your typical Aussie would have some choice words to say about that last quote.

It’s interesting to note that in all of Beethoven’s many writings or Mozart’s numerous letters there is never any thought of the reception which future audiences might give to

either composer’s compositions. Mahler was self obsessed and worried about future fame and acceptance. Unfortunately for him he was a mixture of his father’s forceful personality and his mother’s sensitivity.

The violent contrasts in his symphonies attest to a continual fight going on in his personality. Yet the father encouraged Mahler’s ambitions so we must take Mahler’s almost vitriolic words about his father with caution. The vehemence of his emotional musical outbursts are not  the utterances of a tenderly sensitive nature. 

This program includes two of Mahler’s song cycles and three excerpts from his 

THE SONG OF THE EARTH.  You are welcome to listen to the whole of this enormous work but my comments will focus on three shorter sections which give us a picture  of pre-war Viennese society transferred into a Tang Dynasty Chinese setting. There is the same upper class decadence,gilded youth with lots of leisure time on their hands,living a life of luxury,self indulgent navel gazing,obsessed with beauty and love . But it is a life without purpose, going nowhere , without a thought for the future.Those who do stop to reflect and question seem not to have the will and energy to change direction and so the only course left open to them is to escape  into drink or,  as in the last section of the work”The Farewell”, into a sort of spiritual oblivion , the oblivion of a society which doesn’t know or care where it is going. Some say that Mahler was predicting the 1st World War- Europe tearing itself to pieces , Mahler in the guise of a turn of the century Jeremiah. He was a troubled and difficult man , the product of a racist and dying society.

 The three sections in question are- TO YOUTH- TO BEAUTY- THE DRUNKARD IN SPRING.  You should read the poetic text , which will give you a good idea of the hothouse atmosphere of two decadent societies so marvellously depicted by Mahler.