Mahler was borne on 07 July, 1860, to an Austrian-Jewish tavern keeper living in the bohemian village of Kališt (German Kalischt), in the southwestern corner of modern day Czechoslovakia. He spent his childhood and youth, however, in the nearby towne of Jihlava (German Iglau), whereto they moved only a few months after his birth. Since the beginning of his life, he was tormented by racial tensions. As a part of the German-speaking Austrian minority, he was an outsider amongst the indigenous Czech population; and, as a Jew, he was sequestered from the Austrian minority. It was not required of Mahler to go far to find tension--it was very near to home.

His father was a self-educated man of fierce vitality. It came to be so that he married a woman from cultured society. He came to resent his wife's social ascendance, and resorted to physically mistreating her. His father's actions alienated him from his own son. Thus, Mahler grew extremely attached to his mother. This attachment is best exemplified by a physical manifestation. From her husband's physical abuse, Mahler's mother was lamed. Mahler, sympathetically though unconsciously, copied his mother's limp. Furthermore, he inherited, from his mother, her weak heart. A strong background of illness is evident in the eleven Mahler children.

Mahler's musical talents surfaced rather early in his life. At the age of four, fascinated by the military music at a nearby barracks and the folk music sung by the Czech working people, he reproduced bothe on the accordion and the piano and began composing pieces of his own. At the age of ten, he debuted as a pianist in Jihlava. His musical prowess secured him an opportunity to study at the Vienna Conservatory. At the age of fifteen, he accepted the offer made to him. There, he won countless pianist as well as compositional awards; eventually, he earned his diploma. He supported himself withe sporadic teaching while attempting to win recognition as a composer. Nevertheless, he did not accomplish all that he wished. After failing to win the Conservatory's Beethoven Prize for Composition withe his entry, his first significant work, the cantata, Das Klagende Lied (The Song of Complaint), he turned to conducting to support himself. He saved composing for the lengthy summer vacations.

During the next seventeen years, he would ascend the ranks of his chosen profession. He held several posts; he obtained posts at Budapest and Hamburg. In 1897, at the age of thirty-seven, he was given the post of artistic director of the Vienna Court Opera. His conducting abilities were given general acclaim. Nevertheless, his true passion, composition, did not see such success. The public found his works to be incomprehensible.

Mahler's life is marked by three creative periods. Each creative period is marked by a symphonic trilogy. His first symphonic trilogy, that of his first creative period, was founded on a programmatic basis--that is, founded on a nonmusical story or idea. The actual program, later discarded, was marked by theme of finding one's grounds in a world marked by pain, fear, destruction, and despair. It was to this end, that he followed the example of Beethoven's Symphony No. 6 in F Major (Pastoral) and Berlioz's Symphonie fantastique insofar as building symphonies withe more than the then traditional four movements; and indulging in uninhibited emotional expression; that of Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 in D Minor (Choral) in introducing texts sung by soloists and chorus; and that of certain chamber works by Schubert in introducing music from his own songs. The religious element in these works is extremely significant. For, all though he was raised in a Jewish family, his father was a freethinker. Mahler's disturbing background coupled withe the freedom of choosing his own faith resulted in a state of metaphysical torment. He decided to alleviate himself of the torment by ephemerally accepting Christianity to be his faith. His acceptance of the Christian faith facilitated his ascension to the post of artistic director of the Vienna Opera. Thus, his baptism, in 1897, expedited his receipt of the post. His newfound faith and high post contributed to his maturity. He was further stabilised by his marriage, in 1902, to Alma Maria Schindler. She bore him two daughters, one in 1902 and the other in 1904. His middle period was marked withe and unprecedented stabilisation.

During his middle creative period, Mahler went on many tours and became famous over much of Europe as a conductor. Most of the works of his middle period reflect his dynamism and vivacity--Symphony No. 4, notwithstanding, of course. His fourth symphony is more of a pendant of his early period. It was conceived in six movements, two of which were subsequently discarded, and had a Wunderhorn song finale for soprano; which, consequently, was intended as a movement for his third symphony. Further, it depicted a naïve peasant conception of the Christian heaven. His middle-period symphonic trilogy discarded all programmatic bases and are strictly orchestral. Yet, each embodies a spiritual conflict that is resolved at the conclusion. From his three symphonies, Symphony No. 5, Symphony No. 6, and Symphony No. 7, onward, he eliminates the use of his songs as full sections. Rather, he replaces them withe allusions to his songs and poems.

Mahler's Symphony No. 8, known as the Symphony of a Thousand due to the large forces it requires to perform it, showed, for the first time, Mahler's superstitious nature. Originally, the finale of this work contained three climactic blows withe a large hammer, representing "the three blows of fate which fall on a hero, the last one felling him as a tree is felled." Subsequently, he removed the final blow, for he feared that these presaged the three blows that fell on himself in 1907, the last which portended his own death. His resignation was demanded by the Vienna Opera, his three-year-old daughter, Maria, died, and a doctor diagnosed him withe fatal heart disease.

Thus began Mahler's final period. At the age of forty-seven, he was degraded back to a wanderer and was forced to make a reputation for himself as a conductor in the United States. He directed performances at the Metropolitan Opera and, later, became conductor of the Philharmonic Society of New York. Each summer he would return to the Austrian countryside to compose his final compositions. This cycle ended in Vienna when he died on 18 May, 1911.
 
 

Orchestral Works
 

SYMPHONIES: Symphony No. 1 in D Major (1888; originally subtitled Titan); Symphony No. 2, withe soprano, contralto, and chorus (1894; begins in C minor and ends in E flat major, popular title Resurrection); Symphony No. 3 in D Major (1896; originally subtitled Eine Sommermorgentraum); Symphony No. 4, withe soprano (1900; begins in G major and ends in E major, popularly entitled Ode to Heavenly Joy); Symphony No. 5 (1902; begins in C sharp minor and ends in D major, popularly entitled Giant); Symphony No. 6 in A Minor (1904; popularly entitled Tragic); Symphony No. 7 (1905; begins in G minor and ends in C major, often wrongly said to be in E minor, popularly entitled Song of the Night); Symphony No. 8 in E Flat Major, for eight soloists, double chorus, and orchestra (1907; popularly entitled Symphony of a Thousand); Symphony, Das Lied von der Erde, for tenor, baritone (or contralto), and orchestra (1908); Symphony No. 9 (1910; begins in D major and ends in D flat major); Symphony No. 10 in F Sharp Major ( full-length sketch only, realised in a performing version by D. Cooke).
 

Vocal Music
 

CANTATAS: Das klagende Lied (1880)
 

SONGS: Lieder und Gesänge aus der Jugendzeit, fourteen songs for voice and piano, mainly to poems from Des Knaben Wunderhorn (1880-1888); Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen, cycle of four songs for voice and orchestra to texts by the composer (1883-1885); Des Knaben Wunderhorn, ten songs for voice and orchestra (1888-1896); "Revelge" and "Der Tamboursg'sell," two songs to poems from Des Knaben Wunderhorn (1899-1901); Kindertotenlieder, cycle of five songs to poems by Rückert (1901-1904); Fünf Lieder nach Rückert, five songs to poems by Rückert (1901-1904).