Hi everyone, and thanks again for all the helpful comments I received on this board a few weeks ago. The article is complete. Here ya go... Comments and feedback will be enjoyed.
Gratefully, Mountaine
A JOURNEY WITH MAHLERBy Mountaine Mort Jonas
This year marks the 150th anniversary of Gustav Mahler’s birth. On May 15th, the Asheville Symphony is joining the global birthday party, by performing his Fourth Symphony. As you may know, many music-lovers find Mahler’s music compelling in a way unlike that of any other composer. The reason for this article, dear reader, is to prompt you to listen to some of Mahler’s music in advance, and to find ways to introduce it to others, so that you (and they) can make the most of the huge treat in store for us in May when we get to hear it “live”.
The first time I heard Mahler, at the age of 15, I felt that the music touched a part of my soul that had been dormant, waiting for a spark to awaken it. Since then, my response to Mahler has been wonderfully consistent – whenever I listen to his work in a decent performance, my spirit comes alive. Wait – did I really say that? What a statement to make! But it’s true. Mahler continues to be one of the great joys of my life, and I usually call him my favorite composer.
I admit that we Mahlerites can be a bit much! It’s a hoot to go to a Mahler concert at New York’s Carnegie Hall and see dozens of people toting dog-eared orchestral scores – partly to display their obsession for all to see, and partly to study some detail of orchestration they might notice for the first time. Harold C. Schonberg, the renowned NY Times music critic from 1950-1980, was struck by this level of dedication. “The worship of Mahler amounts to a religion,” he wrote in 1970. ”Any music critic will attest to the fact that a response of anything except rapture to the Mahler symphonies will bring long letters of furious denunciation. … Mahler stirs something imbedded in the subconscious, and his admirers approach him mystically. Mahler’s admirers find themselves talking about soul states, inner crises, ecstasy, apotheoses, transfiguration, fate, Nature with a capital N, spirit, the all-in-one and the one-in-all. Mahler’s heroic and futile struggle to make sense out of life passes through his music to the listener.”
As an experiment, I listened recently to a 15-minute movement of Mahler’s Fourth, tracking on paper the images it brought to mind. My notes included these words: “Comforting. Playful. Joyful. Wistful. Nostalgic. Childlike. Innocent. Fun. Gentle. Creepy. Threatening. Nightmarish. Confused. Confusing. Sweet. Stormy. Desperate longing. Macabre. Inexorable. Manic. Visionary. Relaxed. Unstable. Unreliable. Grateful. Celebratory.” Yes, a rich palette of feelings - and exploring them provided great pleasure and deep thought. No wonder some writers consider listening to Mahler a form of psychotherapy!
Composers of movie music, such as John Williams, have acknowledged Mahler as one of their most important influences. The epic scope and dramatic intensity of Mahler have a sound that rings familiar to film lovers, and many listeners find themselves creating movies in their minds to “go with” the music. In that writing experiment I did with Mahler’s Fourth, at one point the music invoked a picture in my mind of a small child walking entranced through an underground cave, with little birds flying around him. This could be a scene from a Disney film, or Lord of the Rings, but instead it came from my inner self, connecting me with my own creativity, as inspired by the music.
Karl Paulnack, Director of the Music Division at the Boston Conservatory of Music, gave a speech last year that has “gone viral” on the Internet, making a strong case for music as “a basic need of human survival. Music has a way,” he said, “of finding the big, invisible moving pieces inside our hearts and souls and helping us figure out the position of things inside us.” Any music that has such power is the music our deepest selves want to hear. For some, inspiration may come from the Warren Haynes Christmas Jam. For me, Mahler does it every time.
The history of Mahler’s popularity is a strange one. His major works were written between 1884 and 1911, but were not widely heard until the 1960s, when Leonard Bernstein in the USA and John Barbirolli in England became Mahler champions. If this music is so great, you might ask, why did it take so long to be well-known? The advent of CDs in the mid-1980s made listening to his music at home much more accessible and enjoyable than in the past, but that’s not the whole story.
Bernstein was very eloquent in describing how this music “foretold” the evils of the 20th century, and then “showered a rain of beauty on this world” to offset the atrocities. Listeners during the Cold War may have associated the extreme emotions in Mahler with the day’s headlines. Of course, the same could be said of any era, such as the 1930s and 1940s in Europe (or today, with our global economic and ecological challenges), so I think this is just a part of the picture. But there is definitely something apocalyptic in the mood of Mahler’s work, as described brilliantly by Lewis Thomas in his famous 1983 essay Late Night Thoughts on Listening to Mahler's Ninth Symphony. “I cannot listen to the last movement of the Mahler Ninth,” wrote Thomas, “without the door-smashing intrusion of a huge new thought: death everywhere, the dying of everything, the end of humanity.” Indeed, in all of Mahler’s works one can hear his obsession with death, plus a renewed inspiration to appreciate the life we have for as long as we have it. But don’t worry - when we hear the Fourth Symphony in May, we are likely to find it deep, yes, but definitely not as dark as his later works.
Daniel Barenboim, who has conducted Mahler frequently in recent years, commented on Bernstein’s views by saying he doesn’t “believe in talking about music in those terms” – his focus is on the quality and creativity of the musical composition. On the other hand, Barenboim’s close colleague, Pierre Boulez, says “[Mahler’s] vision and his method possess the epic dimension of a narrator … a novelist. How shall we listen? How shall we perceive? Is it enough to – and may we – let narration carry us away, going along with the psychological flow? … Yes, we may!”
Mahler’s Jewish background was a major obstacle to his acceptance. Anti-Semitism caused many to judge him harshly, even though he converted to Catholicism to be eligible to direct the Vienna State Opera (a shocking indication in itself of how Jews were disrespected). Perhaps this prejudice diminished after World War Two; perhaps the musical world learned to care less about composers’ personal backgrounds and more about their art.
It took major orchestras some time to get used to playing Mahler. In a rehearsal with the Vienna Philharmonic in the 1960s, Bernstein complained bitterly that they didn’t have the feel for the music – and this in the city where Mahler had his greatest successes as an opera conductor! But as audiences began to respond with enthusiasm to this not-so-new music, increasing numbers of orchestras and conductors learned to navigate the ebbs and flows of its unique style.
By the late 60s, Mahler’s music had been discovered by the “peace and love generation” – Mahler record albums and concert ads of the time often featured psychedelic artwork, and “Mahler is Heavy!” bumper stickers were seen on colorful Volkswagen buses. The emotional journey in Mahler’s music was a familiar one to people who chose to experiment with mind-altering substances, while other concert-goers were discovering that listening to Mahler “straight” was a way of having their own journeys substance-free.
Asheville has been referred to in the media as “a richly spiritual and metaphysical place,” “America’s new age mecca,” “San Francisco of the East,” etc. However you feel about this reputation, the performing of Mahler in Asheville is a great time to strengthen the connections between the Asheville Symphony and those who have chosen this area as their home because “it just felt right” – those who are working to balance their physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual selves, and have chosen Asheville as the ideal place to do it. Folks with this kind of focus are likely to love Mahler!
So, dear reader, I hope you share this article with friends and neighbors, and with the young people in your life who may relate to the journey of self-discovery which can be enhanced through Mahler’s music. I’m confident that our local celebration of his 150th birthday will become another special occasion to rejoice in the beauty of our mountain region, our lives, and our love of music.
Mountaine is a long-time Asheville Symphony friend and fan. He performs regularly with Asheville Playback Theatre (honoring personal stories through improvisation), was Director of Finance and Administration for Florida Grand Opera, and does occasional software consulting for the Met Opera in New York and other clients. Mountaine lives between Mars Hill and Burnsville, in a house with six round windows, lots of artwork made by friends, a huge wall of CDs, and two autographed photos of Maria Callas.
Topic: My article for Asheville Symphony Program (Read 3942 times)