GUSTAV MAHLER

Mahler was born July 7, 1860, in Kalischt, Bohemia, and died in Vienna May 18, 1911. Mahler married Alma Maria Schindler on March 9, 1902. He studied at the Vienna Conservatory with R. Fuchs and attended lectures given by Bruckner at the University of Vienna. Mahler held conducting positions at the Prague Opera, 1885-1886; the Royal Opera in Budapest, from 1888-unknown; the Hamburg Municipal Opera, 1891-1897; the Vienna Court Opera, 1897-1907; the Metropolitan Opera in New York, from 1907-1910; and with the New York Philharmonic Society, 1909-1911.

SYMPHONY NO. 8

During the summer of 1906, Mahler sketched Symphony No 8 and completed the score the following summer. Mahler, on August 18, 1906, in a letter to Willem Mendelberg, wrote the following:

‘I have just completed my Eighth - it is my greatest work to date. And so unusual in content and form that one cannot describe it in a letter. Imagine the whole universe beginning to sing and resound. These are no longer human voices, but coursing planets and suns.’ (Blaukopf, 1973, p. 211).

The first performance took place in Munich on September 12, 1910. Symphony No. 8 is known as the Symphony of a Thousand. The impresario, Gutmann, Mahler’s advertising agent, aptly named it as it took over 1,000 performers to present the work.[1] More than an orchestral work, the symphony is a major vocal/choral work uniting a sacred text, the ancient 8^th century hymn Veni, creator spiritus, and portions of Goethe’s Faust, which creates unity based on Mahler’s usage of redemptive themes.

In the first movement, through the use of the chorale form and a dense double fugue, Mahler pays homage to Johann Sebastian Bach, whom he studied relentlessly. Additionally, he employs the Venetian antiphonal style, similar to that of Monteverdi and the Gabrieli’s.[2] According to Mahler, music in its highest form, as in its lowest, reverts to homophony. The master of polyphony, and of polyphony alone, is Bach. (Bauer-Lechner, 1980, p. 116)

The symphony had originally been planned with two vocal and two orchestral movements, but the idea of orchestral movements was abandoned. Consequently we find ourselves presented with a curious kind of symphony: one that is, for all intents and purposes, sung from beginning to end, yet which observes classical traditions-such as an involved sonata form in the “Veni, Creator” and reaches further back to the baroque by placing a double fugue at the high point of the development section, along with an abridged recapitulation. (Gartenberg, 1978, p. 324)

During the summer months, Mahler took refuge and retreated to Maiernigg on Lake Worth in southern Austria to compose, study, relax and find inspiration. The summer of 1906 was no different. He believed his inspiration was failing, according to accounts by his wife, Alma. However, his intent this summer was to idle the summer away and regain his strength, which was a diversion for him.This, however, did not occur. Upon arriving at his retreat, a small building a few hundred yards from the main house in Maiernigg, Mahler was haunted by the words of the Veni, creator spiritus, the impetus for Symphony No. 8. The text of this ancient chant drove him to complete the symphony in eight weeks.[3]

VENI, CREATOR SPIRITUS

Mahler borrowed the text Veni, creator spiritus for Symphony. No. 8 from the Gregorian chant of the same name. However, according to an account by his wife, Mahler was first exposed to the Veni, creator in a translation by Goethe.[4] Although Mahler knew the Goethe translation, he chose to set the Latin. Veni, creator spiritus was composed, text and music, in 809. Written by Raban Maur or Hrabanus Maurus, a Benedictine monk and prelate living in Mainz...“Veni Creator,” celebrates the coming of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost. (La Grange, 1995, p. 892)

Symphony No. 8 was not the first time that Mahler had borrowed from sacred literature for his symphonic works.In Symphony No. 2, The Resurrection Symphony, he used a text by Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock (German, 1724-1803), which deals with ideas of the afterlife, the heavenly abode. One comparison of the Klopstock text to the Veni, creator spiritus is that the text is not a hymn of the church, but rather a sacred Ode.[5] Mahler, however, had a habit of not using texts as they were written. He tended to leave out portions of phrases and lines as to fit them into his already composed music.These omissions were not based on his lack of knowledge of the texts, but rather his incomplete recollection of them following the completion of the musical portion of the work. Mahler’s use of portions of texts, by recollection, or otherwise has created questions regarding his use of Veni, creator spiritus. Mahler relied on his memory to begin the first movement of Symphony No. 8, as he had an incomplete rendition of the text.[6] His rendition of the text is one that he created from memory. He composed the entire first movement using his version. Only later did he insert additional portions of the text as it complemented his already completed musical score.[7] He was so enamored by his own work that he could not stop composing until he had a complete copy of the text.

Alma Mahler recorded the following:

He wrote the whole opening chorus with the half-forgotten text from memory. But text and music would not fit; the music had turned out more broadly than the words. In great excitement, Mahler sent off a telegraph to Vienna and had the complete text of the old Latin hymn telegraphed to him. The complete text fit perfectly. He had intuitively composed the complete verses. (Floros, 1985, p. 215)

One fabled account of how Mahler came to possess the text is most interesting. He is supposed to have plopped opened a book and the text of the Veni, creator was on the page that opened. The other, as stated earlier, is that he read it in German prose, as translated by Goethe. The latter is the more likely scenario. Following is the portion of the text which was not used in its entirety (text in parenthesis was omitted by Mahler):

Per te sciáámus da Patrem,Noscáámus (atque) Fílium,(Te utriúúsque) Spííritum Credáámus omni téémpore.

Through you may we know the Father, Through You the (Eternal) Son, And the Spirit (of them both) Blessed Three in One.

SYMPHONY NO. 8, MOVEMENT I

In addition to Mahler’s use of the Veni, creator spiritus, much of movement I is in homage to J. S. Bach, immortalized through Mahler’s chorale and fugal writing. Through homage to Bach he was attempting to achieve his own musical immortality.[8] At his summer home in Maiernigg, he had a piano and the complete works of Goethe and Kant. The only music at his summer home was the complete works of J. S. Bach.[9] Movement I has been viewed as a Bachian motet. Mahler conducted his Fifth Symphony in December of 1905, just months before he began work on the Eighth. It was at this concert that Franz Schalk conducted Bach’s motet, Singet dem herrn ein neues Lied, which was the opener of a concert that included Mahler’s Fifth. Mahler was present for this concert.[10] The following supports the influence of Bach on Mahler’s choral writing:

...I believe the model for Mahler’s opening hymn to have been Bach’s motets…. It seems to me not at all improbable or far-fetched to attribute the energy of the hymn, its flexible response to the text and above all its unceasing busy and brilliant contrapuntal invention to the influence of Bach. (One wonders too if the prominent role of the organ in the Eighth was not also Bach-derived.) ‘Veni creator spiritus’, indeed, can usefully be approached as a form of monumental motet, whose chain of strophes reflects the imagery of the hymn in the greatest variety of choral, vocal and instrumental textures: a massive invocation of, and summons to, the ‘Creator Spirit’ - to creative inspiration itself. (Mitchell, 1985, p. 533-34)

SYMPHONY NO. 8, MOVEMENT II

Although the essence of this article has been on the Veni, creator spiritus used in Movement I, one can not ignore movement II. Mahler was quick to perceive that Veni, creator spiritus was only a beginning. For the second movement he tackled the “Holy of Holies” in German literature, the last scene from the second part of Goethe's Faust. The bridge between the texts is found in the third stanza of the Veni, creator spiritus, "Accende lumen sensibus, Infunde amorem cordibus!" (Illuminate our senses, pour love into our hearts!). During Mahler’s summer retreat, he had to conduct in Salzburg. While in Salzburg, Mahler keep his zeal for the concept of the Eighth Symphony through the constant reading of a dog-eared copy of Faust that he kept in his coat pocket.

Mahler's treatment of what he regarded as the cardinal point of the text and the bridge to Faust, the Accende lumen sensibus, tells us something important about his re-ordering of the texts.[11] In addition to his manipulation of the Latin hymn, he also exploited Goethe's ‘Faust.’ His most radical change is in the telling of the story. He makes it end not in death and damnation, but in Faust's salvation. The moment of redemption is the subject of Goethe's final scene and the powerful conclusion of Mahler's Symphony No. 8. Mahler, in his own words, summarizes his use of the Goethe text in a letter he wrote to his wife in June 1909:

It is all an allegory to convey something that, no matter what form it is given, can never be adequately expressed. Only the transitory can be described; but what we feel and surmise, but will never attain (or experience as an actual event), in other words, the in transitory that lies behind all experience, that is indescribable. That which draws us by its mystic force, that which every created thing¼feels with absolute certainty at the very center of its being, that which Goethe here—again using an image—calls the Eternal Feminine—that is to say, the resting-place, the goal, as opposed to striving and struggling toward the goal (the eternal masculine)—that is the force of love, and you are right to call it by that name. There are countless representations and names for it¼Goethe himself reveals it stage by stage, on and on, in image after image, more and more clearly as he draws nearer the end¼He presents it with ever greater clarity and certainty right up to the appearance of the Mater Gloriosa, the personification of the Eternal Feminine. And so¼Goethe himself addresses his listeners: "All that is transitory (everything I have presented to you here on these two evenings) is nothing but images, inadequate, of course, in their earthly manifestations; but there, liberated from earthly inadequacy, they will become reality, and then we shall need no paraphrase, no figures, no images. What we seek to describe here in vain—for it is indescribable—is accomplished there. And what is that? Again, I can only speak in images and say: the Eternal Feminine has drawn us on—we have arrived—we are at rest—we possess what we could only strive and struggle for on earth. Christians call this 'eternal bliss,' and I cannot do better than employ this beautiful and sufficient mythology—the most complete conception which, at this epoch of humanity, it is possible to attain."

CONCLUSION

Mahler, the creator, met the Creator through the composing of Symphony No. 8. He borrowed texts from sacred and secular literature, uniting them as a unified thought. This accord seems as if it were inspired by one greater than Mahler himself. His immortality as a composer was sealed through his deep understanding of the works and homage to Bach, as is found in his Eighth. Symphony No. 8 gave him an understanding of the Christian afterlife that had eluded him to this point. Was it the ancient hymn that haunted him, or his own immortality? Either way, his place in history is sealed through Symphony No. 8, a homage to his own immortality.

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[1] Kennedy, 1990, p. 100. The first performance was September 12, 1910 in Munich with an orchestra of 171 members, and 858 singers including soloists. Mahler was the conductor.
[2] Gartenberg, 1978, p. 323.
[3] La Grange, 1995, Volume 3, p. 889. Other authors have suggested ten weeks, some less than eight. This time disagreement can be accounted for by conducting engagements that took him from his summer retreat in 1906.
[4] Goethe translated Veni creator spiritus into German and referred to it in a letter of 1821 as an appeal to the universal world genius. Alma Mahler confirmed that Mahler did not know the hymn (Veni, creator spiritus, the Latin hymn) until he read Goethe. Mahler alluded to a connection between the texts in a letter to Alma in 1910: The essence of it is really Goethe’s idea that all love is generative, creative, and that there is a physical and spiritual generation which is the emanation of this ‘‘Eros.’’
[5] Klopstock’s rhapsodic, musical Odes (1747-80) strongly influenced German song composition. Gluck, C. P. E. Bach, Beethoven, Schubert, Mahler, and many others set them to music, as did Mahler in Symphony No. 2.
[6] This handwritten copy can be viewed in Floro’s, Gustav Mahler: The Symphonies, p. 212. It is clear that Mahler had a poor rendition, and his memory left many holes in the text. Yet he was so moved that he could not stop work on the symphony.
[7] Mahler’s version from memory was such a mess that he contacted his good friend and archeologist Dr. Fritz Löhr in Vienna to send him an authentic copy of the hymn text.
[8] Mahler at this time was also obsessed with thoughts of his own death as the Eighth Symphony was the last before the Ninth. Beethoven died after his Ninth Symphony. He believed he could achieve his musical immortality through a composition that would have eternal life, such as the works of Bach.
[9] Mahler, Alma, 1968, p. 45.
[10] Although, Mahler heard the motet, Singet, dem herrn ein neues Lied (BWV225), I contend that Symphony No. 8, specifically the first movement, was influenced by Der Geist hilft Schwachheit auf (BWV226). Der Geist hilft is a double motet, in polyphonic and homophonic, antiphonal style, based on the themes of the coming of the Holy Spirit, Veni creator spiritus.
[11] Mahler had a tendency to re-order, rearrange, and omit text in order to allow the music to reign. In both his Second and Eighth Symphonies he employs a chorus, a rather large chorus, yet does not allow the chorus to end with the orchestra. To him the orchestra communicates, without the assistance of the voices.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Bauer-Lechner, Natalie. Recollections of Gustav Mahler. Trans. by Dika Newlin.
London: Faber & Faber, 1980.

Blaukopf, Kurt. Gustav Mahler. London: Penguin Books Ltd., 1973.

Blaukopf, Kurt & Zoltan Roman. Mahler: A Documentary Study.
London: Thames and Hudson, 1976.

Blaukopf, Kurt & Herta Blaukopf. Mahler: His Life, Work and World.
London: Thames and Hudson, 1976/1991.

Floros, Constantin. Gustav Mahler: The Symphonies.
Portland, OR: Amadeus Press, 1985.

Gartenberg, Egon. Mahler: The Man and His Music. New York:
Schirmer Books, 1978.

Kennedy, Michael. Mahler. New York: Schirmer, 1990.

La Grange, Henry-Louis de. Gustav Mahler: Vienna, the Years of Challenge (1897-1904), Vol. 2. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1995.

La Grange, Henry-Louis de. Gustav Mahler: Triumph and Disillusion (1904-1907), Vol. 3. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1995.

Mahler, Alma. Gustav Mahler: Memories and Letters.
London: John Murray, 1968.

Martner, Knud. Selected Letters of Gustav Mahler.
London: Faber and Faber, 1979.

Mitchel, Donald. Volume III: Gustav Mahler: Songs and Symphonies of Life and Death.
Los Angles: University of California Press, 1985.

Mitchell, Donald, & Andrew Micholson. The Mahler Companion.
Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999.

Walter, Bruno. Gustav Mahler. London: Quartet Books, 1958.

Thomas R. Vozzella © 2009