Gustav, Mahler (1860 - 1911)
Kaliste, Czech

Although the quantity of Mahler's compositions is few in number when compared to other composers, his nine chief symphonies and seven song cycles take an hour or more to perform each with a large orchestra requirement and even chorale accompaniment. He was not famous in his time, yet scholars view him now as a glimpse of the Romantic era. Mahler was a perfectionist and sometimes his works alienated audiences and certain musicians. As a child, he was exposed to a plethora of folk music and art, these melodies, which heavily influenced his own music later on. As a segment of his education, Mahler studied in Vienna and in 1880 Mahler completed his first composition. Mahler wished his music to carry the timeless touches of the past, such as Beethoven or Wagner. He traveled from various opera houses to conduct, from Budapest to Leipzig, yet he settled back to Vienna and conducted there. Mahler's only composition for the stage, a completion of Weber's sketches for the opera Die Drei Pintos, was produced in 1888. He emigrated to the United States and became the conductor for the Metropolitan Opera and eventually, the New York Philharmonic. In 1901, Mahler married Alma Schindler, herself a talented composer--although Mahler required her to give up her own work in order to provide him with a secure environment in which to compose. Although 19th-century European composers all contributed to the symphonic tradition, Mahler alone can be said to have taken up the challenge to expand the symphonic form that Beethoven laid down in his Ninth Symphony. He did so by infusing the symphony with the poetic, psychological, and religious content of vocal music, especially the German Lied. Unsurpassed as an orchestrator, he was also, in his later works, a prefigurer of atonality. Nevertheless he remains a controversial figure with concertgoers. The naked emotionalism of his music is greatly prized by some and repellent to others.

Works
Orchestral
- Symphony No. 1 (1888)
- Symphony No. 2 "Resurrection" (1894)
- Symphony No. 3 (1896)
- Symphony No. 4 (1900)
- Symphony No. 5 (1902)
- Symphony No.6 (1905)
- Symphony No. 7 (1905)
- Symphony No.8 'Symphony of a Thousand' (1907)
- Song-symphony Das Lied von der Erde (1909)
- Symphony No.9 (1909)
- Symphony No.10, unfinished (1910)
Songs
- Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen (Songs of a Wayfarer, 1885)
- Das knaben Wunderhorn (The Youth's Magic Horn, 1888)
- Kindertotenlieder (Songs on the Death of Children, 1904)
- Das Lied von der Erde (The Song of the Earth, 1908)

Additional Information
More about Mahler - http://www.netaxs.com/~jgreshes/mahler/

Sources:

Sony Classical. Sony Music Entertainment. 2001. <http://www.essentialsofmusic.com/eras/romhist.html>