Gustav Mahler - (Music) by Donald Mitchell (Paperback)

About the Book

This volume concentrates on the composer's vocal music, including the late Rueckert Lieder, the 8th Symphony and Das Lied von der Erde.

Book Synopsis

This volume concentrates on the composer's vocal music, including the late Rueckert Lieder, the 8th Symphony and Das Lied von der Erde.

A monument in Mahler studies, this volume concentrates on the composer's vocal music and, in particular, on some of his most famous, most original and best loved compositions: the late Rueckert orchestral songs and Kindertotenlieder; Das Lied von der Erde, one of the composer's supreme masterpieces, and the vast Eighth Symphony. Much new ground is broken but the author bases his conclusions on a meticulous examination of the principal manuscript sources, especially those for Das Lied. He offers an unprecedented exploration of the original Chinese texts for that work and indeed of the whole Oriental dimension of Mahler's last and greatest song-cycle. Time and time again, the composer's sketches back up the author's reading of these massive scores and there will be few among this book's readers who will not find a familiar passage or movement sharply illuminated by fresh insights and information. The scope of the book, despite its concentration, is immensely wide; and so is the readership it addresses: Mahler scholars, performers, and general readers.

DONALD MITCHELL was Founder Professor of Music at the University of Sussex. He is currently Visiting Professor at Sussex and York, and formerly at King's College, London.

Review Quotes

He is...an enthusiast, and his enthusiasm, which lights up every page, is reinforced by an unsurpassed knowledge of his subject. However well one thinks one knows Das Lied von der Erde, one's knowledge and understanding of it will be enhanced by reading this book.--Michael Kennedy "MUSICAL TIMES"

No book I have read on any composer brings one closer to the act of composition itself, to imagining the creative decisions that occupied Mahler, especially in Das Lied... If ever a book forced one to reconsider every detail of a masterpiece it is this.-- "NEW STATESMAN"

Anyone genuinely interested in this composer should acquire this book at the earliest opportunity. It is magnificently produced, as befits the depth of scholarship the author continues to impart to his subject.-- "MUSIC AND MUSICIANS"