Gustav Mahler: The Wunderhorn Years - Chronicles and Commentarie

Donald Mitchell´s second book on the life and work of Gustav Mahler focuses principally on Mahler´s first settings of Wunderhorn texts, volumes I and II of the Lieder und Gesaenge; his first song-cycle, the Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen; and the later orchestral settings of Wunderhorn poems. The central section of the book explores the extraordinary and often eccentric chronology of the First, Second and Third Symphonies´ composition, an often minute exploration which reveals the interpenetration of song and symphony in this period of Mahler´s art, emphasizes the significance for these works of imagery drawn from the Wunderhorn anthology, and calls attention to the ambiguous position occupied by much of Mahler´s music at this time, suspended as it was between the rival claims - and forms - of symphony and symphonic poem. The final section of the book not only looks at the Fourth Symphony as the final, perhaps most perfect, flowering of Mahler´s Wunderhorn symphonies, but also investigates such fascinating topics as the relationship between Mahler and Berlioz, Mahler´s addiction to the E flat clarinet, and the influence of Bach on Mahler´s later masterpieces.