Curved Air presents:

What The Universe Tells Me: A Study Of Gustav Mahler’s 3rd Symphony

“My symphony will be unlike anything the world has ever heard! All of nature speaks in it, telling deep secrets that one might guess only in a dream!”

“A symphony must be like the world…it must contain everything!”

“…to me ‘symphony’ means creating a world with all the technical means at one’s disposal.”

Composed between 1895-1896, Mahler’s 3rd Symphony is perhaps the longest symphony in the entire classical repertoire. We will not listen to it in order, nor will we listen to the entire thing, but we will learn a thing or two about it, and hear some great performances from the likes of James Levine, Leonard Bernstein, and Rafael Kubelik. Also, it is difficult to discuss the 3rd Symphony without bringing up the 4th Symphony, so we will hear some of that as well.

Mahler had originally attached titles to each movement but later decided to drop them. Nevertheless, those titles are helpful in making sense of the piece as a whole:

I. Pan Awakens; Summer Marches In
II. What The Flowers In The Meadow Tell Me
III. What The Animals In The Forest Tell Me
IV. What The Night Tells Me
V. What The Morning Bells Tell Me
VI. What Love Tells Me

…and:

VII: What The Child Tells Me
…which is a song originally titled “The Heavenly Life” This was conceived as the seventh and final movement but was eventually dropped and later used as the finale for the 4th Symphony.

This is getting complicated. Let’s just enjoy the music. Mahler was a true master of form and sound and orchestration. I invite you to explore his music further with me.

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DJbob    Curved Air    September 8th, 2018

Posted In: Music, Music Shows