Inside Mahler's Second Symphony

Description

This guide introduces concertgoers, serious listeners, and music students to Gustav Mahler's Second Symphony, one of the composer's most popular and most powerful works. It examines the symphony from several perspectives: Mahler's struggle to create what he called the New Symphony; his innovative approaches to traditional musical form; how he addressed the daunting challenges of writing music on a monumental scale; and how he dealt with the ineluctable force of Beethoven's symphonic precedent, especially that of the Ninth Symphony.

• Offers a holistic presentation of Mahler's Second Symphony, which approaches the work from many vantage points besides its central focus on the music itself: the composer's biography, his avant-garde leanings, his use of musical quotation for symbolic purposes, and his personal eschatology
• Features audio exemplification: 185 short examples, in addition to full movements
• Taps into the rich font of experiential knowledge concertgoers bring to their encounters with music, using examples meant to prod this latent store of musical awareness and move it closer to the level of intellectual consciousness
• Includes a glossary that explains technical terms clearly, avoiding cluttering the text with such explanations

About the Author(s)

Lawrence F. Bernstein, Emeritus Rose Professor of Music, University of Pennsylvania

Lawrence F. Bernstein is the Karen and Gary Rose Emeritus Term Professor of Music at the University of Pennsylvania, where he received several awards for distinguished teaching. He also taught at Columbia University, New York University, Princeton University, and Rutgers University, and at the University of Chicago. His specialty is Renaissance music, in which field he concentrated on the French chanson and on the music of Jean d'Ockeghem. He served as Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of the American Musicological Society and as Founding Editor of AMS Studies in Music. Bernstein was a fellow of the Guggenheim Foundation and of the National Endowment for the Humanities. In 2009, he was elected an honorary member of the American Musicological Society.

Table of Contents

List of Figures and Tables
List of Music Examples
List of Audio Examples
Acknowledgements
Preface
The Recording
How to Use this Book
Part One: Preliminaries
Chapter 1 Setting the Stage for the Second Symphony
Part Two: The Five Movements
Chapter 2 First Movement: The Opening and a Two-part Exposition
Chapter 3 First Movement: Development and Recapitulation
Chapter 4 The Second Movement
Chapter 5 A Song Serves as a Study for the Third Movement
Chapter 6 The Third Movement: Scherzo and Trio
Chapter 7 The Fourth Movement: "Urlicht"
Chapter 8 How to Complete the Symphony
Chapter 9 The Last Movement, Part 1: References to Judgment and the Airing of Themes
Chapter 10 The Last Movement, Part 2: Judgment in Action, Musical Development, and Some Continuing Enigmas
Chapter 11 The Last Movement, Part 3: Collapse, Climactic Resolution, a Stunning Reversal, and Celebration
Appendices
Appendix 1 The Formal Template for the First Movement: Sonata Form
Appendix 2 Second-Movement Forms
Appendix 3 The Origins, Character, and Form of the Scherzo
Appendix 4 Complete Performances of Each Movement
Glossary
Bibliography
Index

Reviews

"Readers can prepare for an enlightened appreciation of the whole symphony in performance." - M. Dineen, CHOICE

"This book offers an intriguing, engaging and provocative account of a monumental masterpiece. At one and the same time, Bernstein has written a closely argued guide to the work, helpful to the first-time listener, and also a sophisticated and often unconventional interpretation that can inspire the scholar and connoisseur to reflect not only on Mahler, but on how music creates and conveys meaning and helps to fashion beliefs, faith and values. This is a novel and valuable contribution to our understanding of an icon within the symphonic repertoire." - Leon Botstein, President, Bard College; Music Director, American Symphony Orchestra

"It is as if the author were looking over Mahler's shoulder while he composed his extraordinary second symphony. I have never read such an illuminating, so detailed, yet always accessible analysis of this universal masterwork on life, suffering, death, and resurrection. Bernstein is able to convey his profound love for the piece majestically, revealing the true meaning of the music while sharing its composer's most intimate creative process. He is indeed the ultimate guide who, with the use of many audio examples online, invites everyone on a fascinating journey, to climb Mahler's formidable mountain and see the primeval light at the summit." - Stéphane Denève, Music Director, St. Louis Symphony Orchestra and Brussels Philharmonic

"Bernstein proves an authoritative and engaging guide through Mahler's epic work. His book will be of great value to any listener or performer seeking a deeper appreciation of this keystone of the symphonic repertory." - Walter Frisch, Gumm/von Tilzer Professsor of Music, Columbia University