Favoutire Mahler-related anecdotes

[stillivor]

Place them all here, on any Mahlerian aspect

 [and note that this is Topic No.1000 !!! Yeeeeesss]


   Ivor

[stillivor]

I hope I have managed to correct the spelling in the thread-title.

   Ivor

[stillivor]

A favourite (!) of mine is at an early performance (the premiere?) of his first.

At the point where the finale bursts forth with a bang, a lady in the audience dropped her bag.

The lovely thing is that Gustav, while conducting, found that most amusing.

Next time I play no,1, at the right moment, I'll remember that story.


   Ivor

[sbugala]

One of my friends told me this one, which I have no trouble believing, given Mahler's quest for perfection:

During rehearsal, Mahler instructed the tympanist to hit the tympani harder.  He tried, and Mahler repeated the instruction. Each time saying, "Harder!" Finally, after several attempts, Mahler said something to the extent of, "Okay, that was fine. But tomorrow, I want you to hit it even harder." 

For me, it ties into Mahler seeing Niagra Falls for the first time and declaring, "At last! A true fortissimo!"

[Jot N. Tittle]

The version I have encountered (where??) has the tympanist breaking through the skin and asking Mahler "Is that loud enough?" And Mahler replies, "Almost."

I think Ben Zander tells this in one of his talks that accompany his Mahler CDs. But he adds that he doubts there was any laughter afterward. Given Mahler's sense of humor, I rather believe that he and the orchestra had a good laugh.

     . & '

[barry guerrero]

Maybe we're talking about the same one, but I've always liked the business about the special drum that was built for the "hammerstrokes" in the 6th symphony. He had some kind of giant drum built, with a huge, stretched-out hide put on it. They tried to clobber it with a giant mallet, but the thing just wasn't make much noise at all. The numerous failed attempts got everybody in the VPO laughing, and Mahler finally had to resort to just using the regular bass drum. These days, many orchestras are building their own giant wooden boxes, with sound holes cut in the front. Then they club the top of those with a huge wooden mallet. It's as visually stunning as it is musically effective.

Even more amusing, IMHO, were the great lengths that Mahler would go to, in order to get opera singers to stop using standardized arm and hand gestures. Allegedly, he would run up on stage and tie-up the opera singers' arms. And, supposedly, he would literally pick up and move opera singers around on the stage like chess pieces. If that's true, that's hilarious! I'd give anything to see that.  

[Phaedrus]

Hi everybody,

Allow me to paraphrase an article of "Mahler in Amsterdam, from Mengelberg to Chailly" regarding a huge tympani. During his Mahler campaign, Mengelberg felt the need for a bigger sized tympani, one that would not only go deeper, but also louder. Communications with Vienna based company Hans Schnellar didn't yield anything. About 1919 Mengelberg inquired at Amsterdam based van der Hoek, who promised him to look into this as they had already gained some experience. On January 12th van der Hoek proudly announced the realization of a 41 inch tympani, with 110.5cm's skin diameter. For comparison, by 1993 the RCO's biggest tympani was "only" 29 inches. Mengelberg and assistant Dopper were happy and the board offered a sum of 500 guilders for expenses for the build and for the usage by RCO. After a short while the instrument became disused and was moved to the attic of the Concertgebouw. A restructuring of the attic which included the installation of smaller doors made it stay in its place until the recent restoration. The tympani was moved downstairs and sold. Marinus Komst, tympanist and grandson of the famous solo trumpet of the RCO bought it off an instrument collector. The kettle had suffered from dents and tears, the "undercarriage" was severely affected by rust, and mice had lived in it. Also, the top was not completely straight, because van den Hoek at that time did not have the precision measuring instruments. This may have been the reason why the instrument didn't get used often from the start. Komst had the tympani restored at Goldsteen in Vught, so that it could be used again in April 1994 in Mahler's 7th after many many years. The restoration also made for a well sounding A in the counteroctave, which Mengelberg had been looking for in the first place.

Best regards,

Phaedrus

[barry guerrero]

The instrument in question was referred to as a "tympano". It was used in the Chailly/RCOA M7 for the one note in the finale that you describe. However, it's a low Db, and it's located two bars after rehearsal 286, which is marked "Feirerlich". It's also marked to begin triple forte (fff), then decrescendo. The key signature is in 5 flats, so it's temporarily in the key of Db. It then goes back to C-major at the sixth bar of rehearsal 287 (the music is soft there, just before the loud ending).

Just as an fyi, the largest timpani can't reach down to the low Db in the octave that's implied (like the double basses, timpani sound the octave below what's written). Therefore, it's normally played Db a full octave higher than what's implied. The timpano was built to reach down to that low Db, many ledger lines below the bass stave. Anyway, you can hear it on the Chailly recording. Mahler loved his percussion. 

[Phaedrus]

Thank you Barry for the correction and the clarification.

Best regards,

Phaedrus

[barry guerrero]

Details. Details. Anyway, I don't think that the "timpano" would be useful for anything but the very lowest notes. It really sounds like a cross between timps. and a bass drum. In fact, it sounds far heftier than many light weight bass drums being employed these days.

[sperlsco]

Details. Details. Anyway, I don't think that the "timpano" would be useful for anything but the very lowest notes. It really sounds like a cross between timps. and a bass drum. In fact, it sounds far heftier than many light weight bass drums being employed these days.

Perhaps this would be the right type of instrument for the finale of M10 -- albeit not struck so that it sounds like a cannon shot. 

[barry guerrero]

Perhaps. But to be effective, I think you would need to give a fairly hefty whack. Then again, that may depend on what pitch you set it to, assuming that you can adjust the pitch (maybe not).

Anyway, it must be the 41" van der Hoeck shown down lower on this link.

http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.nickwoud.com/Fuchs%2520pauken.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.nickwoud.com/page14.htm&usg=__RpMwQhvWG6lZb2DHU7AdG96foqU=&h=238&w=315&sz=57&hl=en&start=5&tbnid=g0QHGcn7S4wHKM:&tbnh=88&tbnw=117&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dconcertgebouw%2Btimpano%26gbv%3D2%26hl%3Den%26client%3Dfirefox-a%26rls%3Dorg.mozilla:en-US:official

Also, I'm guessing that "timpano" just means one timpani. I've never head anyone use that nomenclature before.

[barry guerrero]

Scott,

If you whacked it real hard, but played slightly offstage, that just might do the trick. Then again, keep in mind that timpani mallets are much smaller than bass drum mallets (and you can't use bass drum mallets on timpani heads).

[stillivor]

Errrrrrr --  thread-drift?          


   Ivor