Meet a Composer: Gustav Mahler

 Meet a Composer: Gustav Mahler

Years Lived: 1860-1911
Period of Composing: Romantic
Country: Bohemia

 

The Columbia Orchestra is offering a free virtual concert series on Facebook Live and on our website. The 3rd concert in this series is this Saturday, August 15 at 7:30pm featuring the Orchestra's professionally filmed performance of Mahler's "Resurrection" Symphony, a short documentary on the piece, and a live discussion with Music Director Jason Love, two soloists, and a member of Columbia Pro Cantare who performed at the 2016 concert. Let's learn a little more about Mahler.

Gustav Mahler was born in Bohemia (modern day Czech Republic) to German speaking Jewish parents which made them outcasts at that time. Mahler was very drawn to music and was influenced by the music he heard growing up—street songs, dance tunes, folk melodies, and the trumpet calls and marches of the local military band. At the age of four he started playing a piano he found in his grandparents' attic. He enjoyed making music and at the age of ten, he gave his first public piano performance. He was considered a child prodigy! Mahler lived a very sad life—many of his siblings died before even turning a year old, his marriage was unhappy, his younger brother died when he was fifteen, and one of his daughters died at a young age. Mahler used music to express his feelings. 

 

Mahler wrote symphonies requiring very large orchestras. The picture below is of the Columbia Orchestra's 2016 performance with Columbia Pro Cantare. This was one of the biggest events in Columbia Orchestra's history! There were over 200 musicians performing. Several rows of seats in the theater had to be removed and a special extension was added to the stage so that all the musicians would fit. Even with the extended stage space, it was still crowded! 

 Did You Know:

While Mahler was alive, he was known more as a conductor than as a composer. 

 

Mahler's music was not popular in his lifetime. Fifty years after his death a revival of his music brought the respect it receives today. Mahler actually predicted this when he once commented: "Would that I could perform my symphonies for the first time 50 years after my death!"

At 95 minutes long, Mahler's 3rd Symphony is the longest in the orchestral repertoire. 

 

Mahler's Symphony No. 8 is nicknamed 
"Symphony of a Thousand" because the 1910 world premiere involved 1,028 musicians! Mahler did not like the nickname, but it stuck. Pictured here is the 1916 American premiere which included a chorus of over 800 singers and over 150 Philadelphia Orchestra members.

 

Mahler's music is heard in over 100 television shows and movie soundtracks including The Simpsons and Star Trek: Voyager.

Try your hand at playing the cymbals in Mahler's 5th Symphony. 

Learn what else was happening in the world in 1902 when Mahler's 5th Symphony was composed and listen to the first movement.

This short video and article from ABC Classic talks about Mahler and includes examples of his music.

Visit Classics for Kids for a short biography about Mahler and Classic FM for 15 pictures and facts about him.