Hello. I borrowed a copy of "Rethinking Mahler" (Barham) through an intra-library loan program that my local library participates in. This particular copy came from Claremont College in southern California. In general, I do not think it's a great book and wouldn't pay the nearly $75 price that it goes for. However, . . .
However, there's an outstanding monogram in the book, on the relationship between "Die Meistersinger" and Mahler's 7th symphony, authored by Anna Stoll-Knecht (she teaches at Jesus College at Oxford, UK). If you have even an inkling of understanding of music harmony and theory, this chapter of the book is of great interest. If you don't know harmony and theory, but have solid knowledge of Wagner's "Die Meistersinger", this monogram would still be of great interest. Without any extra padding or useless academic jargon (take a clue, Seth Monahan), Ms. Stoll-Knecht lays out both obvious and subtle musical examples that show the specific relationship between these two monumental works. In the process of doing so, S-K. studied Mahler's sketch-book for the seventh symphony, which resides at the Austrian Theater Museum in Vienna. Her viewing of that sketchbook paid big dividends.
Ms. Stoll-Knecht has a forthcoming monogram that sounds equally fascinating: one simply titled "Mahler's Seventh Symphony", in which she will discuss the sketchbook further, and look at the musical connections between M6 and M7. Good stuff!
This is precisely the sort of 'detective work' that's needed - using real and straight forward musical 'forensics' (and not more academic jargon and useless speculations with an agenda behind them). If your local library can do a intra-library search to find this book, I think it's worth the trouble.
https://www.jesus.ox.ac.uk/people/dr-anna-stoll-knecht
Topic: from "Rethinking Mahler": "Die Meistersinger in M7" by Anna Stoll-Knecht (Read 6527 times)