Wednesday, March 11, 2009
So just what is it about Mahler that’s so special?
I don’t know that this can be easily summarised, but to me there is just something deeply profound and sublime about much of his music.
Mahler’s music is not without its’ challenges.
For one thing, his works are long – and not every bar is sublime, and/or profound. But perhaps, after decades of being subsumed in our ever shrinking time-frame society, I had reached the point where there is something wondrous, luxurious, about letting a work of art take its time to unfold, letting yourself get lost in the process. When I allow myself to do this, I find my whole body breathing in rhythm with his music, in a completely enveloping way.
There are section that on the surface can seem a bit weak, even ‘twee’. How could this be, from such a great composer? There are several theories here, which I won’t get into now. The thing is, for me, even when the music seems a little ‘trite’, I have still found it absolutely compelling. Why? What’s going on here? I have two suggestions. Firstly, that his work as a master conductor, led to his becoming a master orchestrator, and even the simplest of melody & harmony in his hands can sound fresh and invigorating through the incredibly original and creative orchestration. He really was a ‘weaver of sound’, which is of course much more than just notes. Secondly, you can’t have black without white, happy without sad – Mahler, more than any composer I can think of, attempted to put all of life into his work, and to do that, he needed to cover all aspects of human emotion and existence. I think he does that in his music.
Actually, I’ll add a third idea: as I’ve alluded to above, Mahler had the most incredible talent for representing humanity in music. And in his life, for all his undoubted genius, there was an aspect of naivety. A simplistic view of artistic endeavour, of love, of beauty in nature. I have no doubt that it is elements of this simplicity, this naivety, that underpin the profoundly sublime nature of so much of his music. And yes, sometimes that naivety rises to the surface of the music itself, and the unprepared, or unresponsive, perhaps just see the surface simplicity, but if understood in the context of the larger work, and of Mahler’s life, the poignancy comes through.
Well, that’s what I think anyway!
Mahler’s music is not without its’ challenges.
For one thing, his works are long – and not every bar is sublime, and/or profound. But perhaps, after decades of being subsumed in our ever shrinking time-frame society, I had reached the point where there is something wondrous, luxurious, about letting a work of art take its time to unfold, letting yourself get lost in the process. When I allow myself to do this, I find my whole body breathing in rhythm with his music, in a completely enveloping way.
There are section that on the surface can seem a bit weak, even ‘twee’. How could this be, from such a great composer? There are several theories here, which I won’t get into now. The thing is, for me, even when the music seems a little ‘trite’, I have still found it absolutely compelling. Why? What’s going on here? I have two suggestions. Firstly, that his work as a master conductor, led to his becoming a master orchestrator, and even the simplest of melody & harmony in his hands can sound fresh and invigorating through the incredibly original and creative orchestration. He really was a ‘weaver of sound’, which is of course much more than just notes. Secondly, you can’t have black without white, happy without sad – Mahler, more than any composer I can think of, attempted to put all of life into his work, and to do that, he needed to cover all aspects of human emotion and existence. I think he does that in his music.
Actually, I’ll add a third idea: as I’ve alluded to above, Mahler had the most incredible talent for representing humanity in music. And in his life, for all his undoubted genius, there was an aspect of naivety. A simplistic view of artistic endeavour, of love, of beauty in nature. I have no doubt that it is elements of this simplicity, this naivety, that underpin the profoundly sublime nature of so much of his music. And yes, sometimes that naivety rises to the surface of the music itself, and the unprepared, or unresponsive, perhaps just see the surface simplicity, but if understood in the context of the larger work, and of Mahler’s life, the poignancy comes through.
Well, that’s what I think anyway!
Labels: classical music, Mahler, symphonies, symphony
# posted by memarkiam @ 6:53 pm 
