Mahler, Gustav
Composing mainly during summers, he completed nine symphonies (the unfinished tenth has been completed by Deryck Cooke) and several songs and song cycles, mostly with orchestral accompaniment. Of the cycles, Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen [songs of a wayfarer] (1883?85), Kindertotenlieder [songs on the death of children] (1901?4), and Das Lied von der Erde [song of the earth] (1907?10) are most notable. Mahler followed Bruckner in the Viennese symphonic tradition. He added folk elements to the symphony and expanded it in terms of length, emotional contrast, and orchestral size. He used choral or solo voices in four symphonies: the Second, Third, Fourth, and Eighth; the Eighth is known as the Symphony of a Thousand because of the enormous performing forces required. The thinner texture, wide-ranging melodies, and taut, intense emotionalism of Mahler's late works strongly influenced the next generation of Austrian composers, especially Arnold Schoenberg and Alban Berg.
See his letters ed. by A. Mahler and D. Mitchell (3d ed., tr. 1973); H.-L. de La Grange and G. Weiss, ed., Gustav Mahler: Letters to His Wife (tr. 2004); N. Lebrecht, Mahler Remembered (1987); biographies by B. Walter (tr. 1941, repr. 1970), K. Blaukopf (tr. 1972), H.-L. de La Grange (tr., 4. vol., 1995?2008), J. Carr (1997), and J. M. Fischer (tr. 2011); C. Floros, Gustav Mahler: The Symphonies (tr. 1994, repr. 2003); T. W. Adorno, Mahler: A Musical Physiognomy (tr. 1996).
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