David Hurwitz's THE MAHLER SYMPHONES: An Owner's Manual

[john haueisen]

If you haven't yet read David Hurwitz's THE MAHLER SYMPHONIES, you've been missing something real lovers of Mahler can appreciate.

Here is John's Amazon review of Hurwitz's book, which sadly I must confess that I didn't get around to reading until this week.  (But at least I now know what I was missing!)  Hope you haven't missed reading this unique (yes, really) book.



David Hurwitz's THE MAHLER SYMPHONIES is aptly subtitled "An Owner's Manual." The book is intended for people who already know they like Mahler's music, and want to know more about it.

Have you ever met a birder--one of those unusual people so devoted to the study of birds that they can look up into the trees and spot several different birds, where you and I would be lucky to see even one? Well, that's what Hurwitz is for Mahler devotees. He looks beyond a simple introduction to each symphony, and tells us what is going on--from the instruments involved, to the ideas or feelings being painted in sound.

At first I thought it might be "kinda hokey" that the book comes with a CD inside the back cover. But bless his soul, Hurwitz was right to do it this way. Using the CD tracks, he points to things like "a sinister little tremolo (18:36)" that might have been overlooked without the CD accompaniment to illustrate the written word.

What really delighted me were the tables at the end of the book's discussion of Mahler's symphonies. In these tables, Hurwitz categorizes the symphonies according to their content of:

"Marches and Dances,"
"Screams, Crashes, and Thuds,"
"Appearances of the 'Aspiration' or 'Redemption' Theme
"Mahlerian Humor"
"Large-scale Structure"

If you are an admirer of Mahler's music, these tables will indicate to you that David Hurwitz "gets it"--he understands that Mahler's music is much more than sounds, or a simple concert performance by an orchestra. Mahler left behind the form-fitting rules of "Classical Music" because he had something bigger to say about life. David Hurwitz will help you appreciate Mahler even more than you already do! 

[barry guerrero]

Actually, I like Dave's Dvorak book - "Romantic Music's Most Versatile Composer" - even more. Perhaps it just illuminated more stuff that I wasn't knowledgeable previously.

Barry

[Wolfbane]

I can heartily recommend this book to anyone.  Well written, easy to read and not too technical.  The only disappointment for me was that it wasn't long enough    I wanted more in each chapter, but obviously you can't look at every piece of minutiae without losing some of your readers.

As a result of using this book while listening to Mahler, I now have DH's books on Dvorak, Sibelius and Shostakovitch waiting on my Amazon wishlist.

[Damfino]

I should get the one on Dvorak. I've always felt he was shamefully under-rated. Some composers, like Beethoven, really agonized over their melodies. Melodies seemed to tumble from Dvorak's pen. He "threw away" more melodies than most composers ever composed. And he was an awesome orchestrator. I have most of Dvorak's music on CD (aside from his operas) and it is all damned good. Of his symphonies, 3-9 are almost all masterpieces. His cello concerto is probably the all-time greatest, his violin concerto is no slouch, and his piano concerto is great as well. I am pleased that DH saw fit to term him "Romantic Music's Most Versatile Composer". Dvorak is easily in my top 5 of composers.

[Leo K]

I am know inspired to grab some Dvorak LP's on my next vinyl hunt.

I'm really REALLY looking forward to DH's Brahms book.

--Todd

[Jot N. Tittle]

I agree, John, Hurwitz's book is a great addition to a Mahlerite's holdings. It had not occurred to me before that it is more useful to a reader already somewhat familiar with Mahler than it would be to a neophyte, but I can see that that is so.

My only disappointment is not with the book but with the CD: it samples only M1, M2, M5, and M7. The selected movements take only 65:27 minutes. Would a meaningful movement from another symphony fit? Or are all of the other "meaningful" movements too long? All of the recordings are from the Gielen set issued by Hänssler.

I got the Dvorak and Shostakovitch books for my wife, who follows those composers more closely than I do. No, make that "has followed." That is, count me in.

     . & '

[Dave H]

I want to thank all of you very, very sincerely for your enthusiastic response to my books. It means so much to me to be able to share my enthusiasm for these great composers with you. It may interest you to know that the Mahler book was substantially longer originally, but the length had to fit within the series as a whole, so I had to cut it down. There was much more on the Sixth, for example, and a whole section on Mahler's influences (including my personal favorite--Verdi and the Italians). Also, the charts in the back originally came with much more detailed explanations of examples from the various works. All of this extra material is still sitting around on my computer somewhere and who knows? Maybe I'll get to use it sometime. I wanted to put more on the CD too, but I was limited by being only able to use a single disc, not include music with words (it was logistically difficult to have to deal with texts and translations for this first book in the series), and also have it be representative. It would have been great to be able to feature something from Das Lied.

I also have to thank Barry (and others) for recommending Dvorak--my personal favorite of the books so far, along with Haydn. I regard Dvorak/Mahler/Sibelius as a sort of trilogy dedicated to composers who I loosely call "outsiders"--growing out of the German tradition but able to take music in new directions as the classical style in Germany itself was slowly asphyxiating thanks to its own restrictive notions of stylistic and cultural purity. There's an interesting discussion here--"music history" as it's taught follows the strict German line, leading from the "death of the symphony" after Mahler to atonality, as if this is the most progressive and important line of development. I don't think so. I believe that Germany basically tanked after Brahms and Wagner, and the most innovative (never mind popular and attractive) work was being done elsewhere--in France, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Russia, Finland, England, and even the USA. But the true value of this line of development has always been dismissed by most scholars (other than crazy nationalists in their respective countries) because of the sad preeminence of the academic serialist tradition. These three books, in their modest way, try to set the record straight in this respect.

Finally, in answer to your implied question, Brahms is coming along well, but I need to sit down and just finish it, hopefully this month. It will be preceded by a book on Beethoven's Fifth and Seventh (this is a different series/publisher).

Thank you all again!

Kindest regards,

Dave H

[sbugala]

I've enjoyed the ones I've read, especially the Dvorak one.  I suggested my library acquire a few of them, and I'm pleased to see that out of the four our system carries, all four are out.