Chapter 60

Vienna at the Turn of

the 20th Century: Gustav and Alma

Mahler

The Life of Gustav Mahler (1860–1911)

• 1860 - born in Kalist, a Bohemian village northwest of Vienna

• 1875 - attends Conservatory in Vienna

• 1880 - begins career as conductor

• 1897 - appointed music director of the Vienna Opera

• 1902 - marries Alma Schindler

• 1907 - leaves the Vienna Opera for the Metropolitan Opera in New York

• 1911 - dies in Vienna

Characteristics of Mahler’s Music

• New music flourishes in Vienna at the time of Mahler.

• His career is divided between conducting and composing

– primarily songs and symphonies

• Early songs are drawn upon folk poetry

– primarily the anthology (Des knaben Wunderhorn)

– later from the works of Friedrich Rückert.

Mahler’s Symphonies

• First four symphonies are autobiographical programmatic works – though later published as absolute music with the

programmatic connotation removed.

• Later symphonies are even more absolute in character.

Principal Compositions of Gustav Mahler

• Orchestra: symphonies (10), song-symphony Das Lied von der Erde

• Songs: about 45 including cycles – Songs of a Wayfarer– Kindertotenlieder

Gustav Mahler, “Um Mitternacht,” 1901

Through-composed form

• Example of a song with literary emphasis - the music clearly interprets the text.

• Accompanied by an orchestra of unusual make-up.

Gustav Mahler, Symphony No. 5, 1902, movement 4

(Adagietto)Rounded Binary form

The Life of Alma Mahler (1879–1964)

• 1879 - born in Vienna to the family of a painter

• 1900 - lessons in music with Alexander Zemlinsky

• 1902 - marries Gustav Mahler and gives up composing

• 1910 - returns to music and publishes a collection of early songs

• 1929 - after a brief marriage to Walter Gropius, marries the writer Franz Werfel

• 1940 - arrives in California for duration of World War II

• 1945 - moves to New York

• 1964 - dies in New York

Principal Compositions by Alma Mahler

• Songs: 16, composed c1900–1924

Alma Mahler, song “Die stille Stadt,” c1901

Through-composed form

• This particular song is remarkable for its advanced harmonic thinking and intense expressivity.