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The Eighth: Mahler and the World in 1910
The Eighth Symphony was going to be different from anything Mahler had ever done before. The intensely personal dramas of his earlier symphonies were a thing of the past - or rather, they were now to be seen as preludes to this new, culminating symphonic statement: he was quite sure it was the greatest thing he had ever written. The first seven symphonies were all, in their very different ways, acts of private confession, the unburdening of a hypersensitive soul, struggling to make sense of its own existence and of the thrilling and terrifying world in which it found itself. The Eighth would speak in different tones, and of a different kind of experience. It would be a bringer of joy through inspired settings of the hymn Veni, Creator Spiritus and the final scene of Goethe's Faust.
The world premiere in Munich in the summer of 1910 was the artistic breakthrough for which the composer had yearned all his adult life, filling Munich's huge Neue Musik-Festhalle on two successive evenings, to tumultuous applause. Stephen Johnson recounts its far-reaching effect on composers, conductors and writers of the time - Berg and Schoenberg and the teenage Korngold, Bruno Walter and Klemperer, and the writers Stefan Zweig and Thomas Mann (the character of Gustav von Aschenbach in Mann's Death in Venice was partly based on the impression Mahler made on him in 1910). Placing Mahler within his world - in particular the German-speaking world - Johnson re-assesses Mahler's thoughts in the context of the prevailing thought of his age, not only in relation to the artistic and intellectual movements of the time, but through consideration of political climate and historical background, and on into science, medicine, technology, mass entertainment, and even the development of modern PR. Throughout we are made aware that in that same tumultuous summer Mahler worked desperately on his Tenth Symphony, was betrayed by his wife, and consulted Sigmund Freud. It is a story like no other.
The world premiere in Munich in the summer of 1910 was the artistic breakthrough for which the composer had yearned all his adult life, filling Munich's huge Neue Musik-Festhalle on two successive evenings, to tumultuous applause. Stephen Johnson recounts its far-reaching effect on composers, conductors and writers of the time - Berg and Schoenberg and the teenage Korngold, Bruno Walter and Klemperer, and the writers Stefan Zweig and Thomas Mann (the character of Gustav von Aschenbach in Mann's Death in Venice was partly based on the impression Mahler made on him in 1910). Placing Mahler within his world - in particular the German-speaking world - Johnson re-assesses Mahler's thoughts in the context of the prevailing thought of his age, not only in relation to the artistic and intellectual movements of the time, but through consideration of political climate and historical background, and on into science, medicine, technology, mass entertainment, and even the development of modern PR. Throughout we are made aware that in that same tumultuous summer Mahler worked desperately on his Tenth Symphony, was betrayed by his wife, and consulted Sigmund Freud. It is a story like no other.
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First published March 3, 2020
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Stephen Johnson
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
January 11, 2021
I've been listening to - and loving - Mahler's music for over forty years now but, except for what my untrained ears tell me, what I know about the music and the man who created it comes from the linear notes in the CD case and the programme notes at concerts. Programme notes??? Programme notes???
At one stage in the proceedings some unfortunate person brought up the subject of programme notes. According to Schiedermair Mahler jumped up from the table and threw himself into a tirade. Programme notes gave an utterly misleading picture. Far better to let the public form its own opinions, explore its own emotional reactions to the music they were hearing. If the composer manages to make his audience feel the emotions he felt when writing it, so much the better; if not, words were no help. Music may come close to words, but of itself expresses so much more than words can. At this point, Mahler seized his glass to drain it to the dregs, and cried, 'Perish all programmes!'
One can only imagine Mahler's reaction to this book - the mother of all programme notes - which dissects the meaning of every key shift from E-flat Major to B Major with Freudian implications.
Still, Mahler was a complicated man - and there is the whole business with his wife Alma and the love triangle. And there are always, always the many mood swings in Mahler's music. It's impossible not to consider the deeper meanings, perhaps the messages.
All that is done scholarly here, but not at the expense of dramatic storytelling. After all: Good stories can often be significantly more effective than musicological analyses in opening up challenging works to apprehensive potential listeners.
My own preferences for Mahler's music have been on the Second, Third, Fourth, Fifth, and Ninth Symphonies. In fact, I never warmed much to the Eighth. That's certainly changed now.
The author, a writer and composer, clearly thinks of the Eighth as a pinnacle. His elucidations have brought new meaning and new appreciation for me for this work.
The last quarter of the book, however, deals with Mahler's Tenth Symphony. I confess to never having heard the Tenth, following the conventional wisdom that the work was an unfinished scrap, its finished form the work of others. The author here convincingly undoes that notion, and demands that it be heard and studied. If it was possible to express the extinction of the absolute end of everything in music, Mahler has done it here.
Imagine reading about a long, complicated piece of classical music, one that you've never heard before, the writing which includes musical descriptions beyond your ken and psychoanalytical dissection, and yet you find yourself on the edge of your reading seat. Well, that was me.
At one stage in the proceedings some unfortunate person brought up the subject of programme notes. According to Schiedermair Mahler jumped up from the table and threw himself into a tirade. Programme notes gave an utterly misleading picture. Far better to let the public form its own opinions, explore its own emotional reactions to the music they were hearing. If the composer manages to make his audience feel the emotions he felt when writing it, so much the better; if not, words were no help. Music may come close to words, but of itself expresses so much more than words can. At this point, Mahler seized his glass to drain it to the dregs, and cried, 'Perish all programmes!'
One can only imagine Mahler's reaction to this book - the mother of all programme notes - which dissects the meaning of every key shift from E-flat Major to B Major with Freudian implications.
Still, Mahler was a complicated man - and there is the whole business with his wife Alma and the love triangle. And there are always, always the many mood swings in Mahler's music. It's impossible not to consider the deeper meanings, perhaps the messages.
All that is done scholarly here, but not at the expense of dramatic storytelling. After all: Good stories can often be significantly more effective than musicological analyses in opening up challenging works to apprehensive potential listeners.
My own preferences for Mahler's music have been on the Second, Third, Fourth, Fifth, and Ninth Symphonies. In fact, I never warmed much to the Eighth. That's certainly changed now.
The author, a writer and composer, clearly thinks of the Eighth as a pinnacle. His elucidations have brought new meaning and new appreciation for me for this work.
The last quarter of the book, however, deals with Mahler's Tenth Symphony. I confess to never having heard the Tenth, following the conventional wisdom that the work was an unfinished scrap, its finished form the work of others. The author here convincingly undoes that notion, and demands that it be heard and studied. If it was possible to express the extinction of the absolute end of everything in music, Mahler has done it here.
Imagine reading about a long, complicated piece of classical music, one that you've never heard before, the writing which includes musical descriptions beyond your ken and psychoanalytical dissection, and yet you find yourself on the edge of your reading seat. Well, that was me.
March 7, 2022
Strongly mixed feelings about this book. I'm a little ashamed to be giving a negative review, actually, given that this book was a gift that I'd specifically requested - but I do owe it to the truth to do so.
Not all of this book is bad. Johnson's fervent advocacy for Mahler's neglected 10th is admirable, for example, and convinced me to give that work another go (very worth it, by the way); so too is his clear passion for Mahler's late works, especially the Eighth, and the composer himself.
The trouble comes when Johnson attempts to translate this passion into words. He is, I am sure, a fine speaker, and if this book were a transcription of a lecture much of its stylistic lacunae could probably be forgiven (reading it as such makes the book a lot more tolerable). But a book is simply not a lecture, and over time, Johnson's overuse of rhetorical questions (But what exactly did Mahler mean by this quotation?), excessive signposting (the phrase "But before..." appears more times in a single chapter than should be allowed in a book), and beating of many, many dead horses (Beethoven's quotation "Sometimes the opposite is true." is effective in small amounts. In large quantities, the opposite is always true.) makes the reading experience something to be tolerated, not enjoyed. Add to this Johnson's frequently outlandish postulations - one especially egregious one posits that, since they were in Vienna contemporaneously for a few days, Mahler may have seen the young Hitler selling his paintings on a Viennese bridge - and the temptation to close the book and just listen to the music becomes overwhelming.
Besides Johnson's writing, though, there is a deeper issue with the teleological coherence of his text. At the outset Johnson states his intention to examine Mahler's 8th through the prism of the age in which Mahler lived; this he does, if slightly tediously. But halfway through the text, when Johnson attempts to finish the narrative he has started by examining Mahler's later symphonies (Das Lied von der Erde, the 9th, and the 10th), he seems to lose focus both on the 8th symphony, which is passingly and usually awkwardly mentioned, and his aim of allowing the Zeitgeist to illuminate the works he discusses. Instead we are left with fairly general descriptions of the late works and Mahler's personal circumstances when writing them. Fascinating, to be sure; but they leave the work a muddle without much coherence. (Perhaps Johnson could have considered splitting his book into Parts I and II, as Mahler did for his gigantesque 8th.)
So it is a curate's egg we are left with. What is enlightening and enriching in this book is too often let down by dodgy writing and distracting tangents for The Eighth to be seriously recommendable.
Not all of this book is bad. Johnson's fervent advocacy for Mahler's neglected 10th is admirable, for example, and convinced me to give that work another go (very worth it, by the way); so too is his clear passion for Mahler's late works, especially the Eighth, and the composer himself.
The trouble comes when Johnson attempts to translate this passion into words. He is, I am sure, a fine speaker, and if this book were a transcription of a lecture much of its stylistic lacunae could probably be forgiven (reading it as such makes the book a lot more tolerable). But a book is simply not a lecture, and over time, Johnson's overuse of rhetorical questions (But what exactly did Mahler mean by this quotation?), excessive signposting (the phrase "But before..." appears more times in a single chapter than should be allowed in a book), and beating of many, many dead horses (Beethoven's quotation "Sometimes the opposite is true." is effective in small amounts. In large quantities, the opposite is always true.) makes the reading experience something to be tolerated, not enjoyed. Add to this Johnson's frequently outlandish postulations - one especially egregious one posits that, since they were in Vienna contemporaneously for a few days, Mahler may have seen the young Hitler selling his paintings on a Viennese bridge - and the temptation to close the book and just listen to the music becomes overwhelming.
Besides Johnson's writing, though, there is a deeper issue with the teleological coherence of his text. At the outset Johnson states his intention to examine Mahler's 8th through the prism of the age in which Mahler lived; this he does, if slightly tediously. But halfway through the text, when Johnson attempts to finish the narrative he has started by examining Mahler's later symphonies (Das Lied von der Erde, the 9th, and the 10th), he seems to lose focus both on the 8th symphony, which is passingly and usually awkwardly mentioned, and his aim of allowing the Zeitgeist to illuminate the works he discusses. Instead we are left with fairly general descriptions of the late works and Mahler's personal circumstances when writing them. Fascinating, to be sure; but they leave the work a muddle without much coherence. (Perhaps Johnson could have considered splitting his book into Parts I and II, as Mahler did for his gigantesque 8th.)
So it is a curate's egg we are left with. What is enlightening and enriching in this book is too often let down by dodgy writing and distracting tangents for The Eighth to be seriously recommendable.
March 15, 2022
Gustav Mahler'in insan ötesi 8. senfoninin ilk bölümü Veni creatus ilahisi, 2. bölümün metinleri de Goethe'nin Faust'unun 2. bölüm sonudur. Bu da işleri baya karışık yapıyor. 8. Senfoni bilindik bir senfoni ötesinde değeri tam layıkını 'henüz' bulamamış kapsayıcı ve sofistike bir eser. Onu anlamaya çalıştığımız harika bir kitap. Meraklısına değil dinleyin, açın okuyun 🤗
June 1, 2021
I was excited about this book. By halfway, I almost didn't finish, but I decided to go ahead and do so. Mahler was a great conductor, composer and historical figure. His life story doesn't need any "assists". But the author insists and giving them to us, over and over again. I was reminded of the 70's tv show, "In Search Of.." narrated by Leonard Nimoy. My memory of that show is Nimoy saying, "could it be, that_________" (martians exist or Bigfoot or whatever). The author is clearly a fan and is Very knowledgeable about his subject, but I found all of his what-ifs to be annoying, more so as the book went on. IMHO, the most egregious example is found near the end of the book when he discusses Mahler's meeting with Freud. Then this happens, beginning on page 281: "Imagine for a moment though if, by means of some kind of historical time-shift, Mahler had been able to consult with Jung instead of Freud. Would Freud's apostate pupil have been able......features in Jung's teaching that might.....perhaps even offered....Jung would probably.....but it is also possible....may have helped Mahler....it might have....could have significantly eased the strain.....presuming that Mahler.....Jung might also have.....could also be a..... " Give me an Eff-ing break. I cannot be the only person who does not care one whit about the authors alternate history speculations. All those weasel-words on a couple short paragraphs: might, perhaps, probably, possible, may, could etc etc. Please. Just stick to the man and his story. When the author just narrates what happens, it is interesting and readable. Also, for the fans of the 8th, he breaks down the piece in great detail, both the music and the lyrics. It would be fun to study up on that and listen to the symphony a couple times with the information in the back of my mind. Five stars for Gustav, one for Stephen. Boom.
May 31, 2020
I have always been fascinated by Mahler's 8th Symphony and this book helped me understand why.
January 27, 2024
I wanted to like this book--I really did. Mahler's symphonies were and still are among my favorite music, even though my dear wife has likened the symphonies to movie music.
In the present volume, Johnson starts out promisingly enough. He sets out to provide a biography of Mahler through the lens of roughly three years from when he wrote his 8th symphony--the Symphony of the Thousand--named so for the numerous choirs, large brass section, multiple soloists and the introduction of exotic instruments in addition to the supersized orchestra. He details how Mahler is inspired to write the symphony in 8 weeks--writing in the Alpines as is his summer wont, given his activities all during the year directing the Vienna Opera.
Johnson reveals that while Mahler is writing his heart out, his darling wife, Alma, is having an affair with the chief apostle of the Bauhaus architectural movement, Walter Gropius. Further, shortly before all this, Mahler's darling 6 year old daughter died of scarlet fever and complications. And--later buttressed with a jumbled up discussion of how Vienna was in fact not really that sophisticated as far as its music appreciation was--especially not, Johnson reports--music written by the modern vanguard/elite versus Brahms and the Strauss family, and always lurking in the background, those elite with a Jewish background, even if like Mahler, converted to Catholicism.
Johnson goes further--seeking to describe the context of pan German cultural nationalism, the importance of Nietzsche's "Gid is dead" philosophy and Freud's repression and sex as the answer counselling in the midst of a prudish and male chauvinist milieu. He reports about the jealousies between composers, and comments on Goethe as the ambiguous Christian/humanist hero of pan German culture.
As if that were not enough--Johnson then begins a tediously long analysis of the words and music of the Eighth symphony. In doing so he mistranslates numerous passages--not dramatically awful but all too frequently slipping in a word or leaving out a word in the English, or just missing the meaning, as when for example he translates "Dort ziehen Frauen vorbei" as "There women are drawing near..." (in the German, "there women are moving past" instead of "drawing near". Or, as another of many examples, "Beim Gefaesse, das so reinlich tropfte Wohlgeruch hernieder.." he translates "By the vessel that so richly poured down sweet fragrances.."---confusing "pure drops of sweet fragrances in the German with "richly poured..."?? I found myself constantly comparing with translations that were just not right.
On the music--often bar by bar-- Johnson's genuine enthusiasm nevertheless permits him frequently to import extravagant meanings into the shifting minor and major keys, only all too frequently concluding the two page rant--whether it be that the god Eros is the "creator god and not the Christian God"or that Mahler's paean to Goethe's "ewig-weibliche" was a desperate attempt by Mahler to retain his wife--with a repeated reference to Beethoven's statement "Sometimes the opposite is true"--probably cited by Johnson more than 15 times in the book.
Increasingly strongly as I read on, all this Kauderwelsch/hotpotch diminished my faith in what Johnson writes--what seemed by the weight of his pedantry to be solid all too often was undercut by alternative and inconsistent theories and the refrain that the "opposite can be true", or by mistranslations, or by a host of distinctions the author made without really making a difference.
I think the book tries to do too much and has a severe problem of balance. It is either too sweeping and speculative or too bogged down in musicology (eg "which of the many completions of Mahler's posthumously released 10th symphony is the most correct") to be worth reading. This book could really have benefitted by a good editor.
Instead we are left with the author's many speculations and rabbit trails.
Mahler enthusiasts will doubtless find nuggets of interest and shared enthusiasm in the book, but it seemed to me to be an odd mixture of facts and gossip, speculations and footnotes. A 2.7.
In the present volume, Johnson starts out promisingly enough. He sets out to provide a biography of Mahler through the lens of roughly three years from when he wrote his 8th symphony--the Symphony of the Thousand--named so for the numerous choirs, large brass section, multiple soloists and the introduction of exotic instruments in addition to the supersized orchestra. He details how Mahler is inspired to write the symphony in 8 weeks--writing in the Alpines as is his summer wont, given his activities all during the year directing the Vienna Opera.
Johnson reveals that while Mahler is writing his heart out, his darling wife, Alma, is having an affair with the chief apostle of the Bauhaus architectural movement, Walter Gropius. Further, shortly before all this, Mahler's darling 6 year old daughter died of scarlet fever and complications. And--later buttressed with a jumbled up discussion of how Vienna was in fact not really that sophisticated as far as its music appreciation was--especially not, Johnson reports--music written by the modern vanguard/elite versus Brahms and the Strauss family, and always lurking in the background, those elite with a Jewish background, even if like Mahler, converted to Catholicism.
Johnson goes further--seeking to describe the context of pan German cultural nationalism, the importance of Nietzsche's "Gid is dead" philosophy and Freud's repression and sex as the answer counselling in the midst of a prudish and male chauvinist milieu. He reports about the jealousies between composers, and comments on Goethe as the ambiguous Christian/humanist hero of pan German culture.
As if that were not enough--Johnson then begins a tediously long analysis of the words and music of the Eighth symphony. In doing so he mistranslates numerous passages--not dramatically awful but all too frequently slipping in a word or leaving out a word in the English, or just missing the meaning, as when for example he translates "Dort ziehen Frauen vorbei" as "There women are drawing near..." (in the German, "there women are moving past" instead of "drawing near". Or, as another of many examples, "Beim Gefaesse, das so reinlich tropfte Wohlgeruch hernieder.." he translates "By the vessel that so richly poured down sweet fragrances.."---confusing "pure drops of sweet fragrances in the German with "richly poured..."?? I found myself constantly comparing with translations that were just not right.
On the music--often bar by bar-- Johnson's genuine enthusiasm nevertheless permits him frequently to import extravagant meanings into the shifting minor and major keys, only all too frequently concluding the two page rant--whether it be that the god Eros is the "creator god and not the Christian God"or that Mahler's paean to Goethe's "ewig-weibliche" was a desperate attempt by Mahler to retain his wife--with a repeated reference to Beethoven's statement "Sometimes the opposite is true"--probably cited by Johnson more than 15 times in the book.
Increasingly strongly as I read on, all this Kauderwelsch/hotpotch diminished my faith in what Johnson writes--what seemed by the weight of his pedantry to be solid all too often was undercut by alternative and inconsistent theories and the refrain that the "opposite can be true", or by mistranslations, or by a host of distinctions the author made without really making a difference.
I think the book tries to do too much and has a severe problem of balance. It is either too sweeping and speculative or too bogged down in musicology (eg "which of the many completions of Mahler's posthumously released 10th symphony is the most correct") to be worth reading. This book could really have benefitted by a good editor.
Instead we are left with the author's many speculations and rabbit trails.
Mahler enthusiasts will doubtless find nuggets of interest and shared enthusiasm in the book, but it seemed to me to be an odd mixture of facts and gossip, speculations and footnotes. A 2.7.
March 12, 2022
This book didn't work for me. I enjoy listening to Mahler's music. My wife and I have a subscription to the Dallas Symphony where we are excited whenever they perform one of Mahler's symphonies. I was hoping this book would provide me greater insights to his work and I could better appreciate his talents.
This book had two faults. The first is that Stephen Johnson's analysis of Mahler was far beyond my understanding of music. One would have to be a music major or a professional musician to keep up with his critique. Secondly, Johnson meanders in his writing style as he often discussed irrelevant topics of minor figures in the arts.
Others may enjoy this book but I did not.
This book had two faults. The first is that Stephen Johnson's analysis of Mahler was far beyond my understanding of music. One would have to be a music major or a professional musician to keep up with his critique. Secondly, Johnson meanders in his writing style as he often discussed irrelevant topics of minor figures in the arts.
Others may enjoy this book but I did not.
February 22, 2023
Despite my love for the amazing piece of music behind this book, I finally stopped reading around page 70. It was all over the place and lacked a coherent narrative. Maybe I’m spoiled, but it just fell way way short of the great history writers I’m used to (David MuCullough, Joseph Ellis, Doris Kearns Goodwin, Hampton Sides, etc.).
My college film studies professor once told us he’d never watched a bad movie. Because he could tell within the first 5 minutes if the makers new what they were doing…if not, he just turned it off. For better or worse, I’ve applied the same philosophy to books….life is just too short for mediocrity.
Now you all can tell me I should have hung in there :)
My college film studies professor once told us he’d never watched a bad movie. Because he could tell within the first 5 minutes if the makers new what they were doing…if not, he just turned it off. For better or worse, I’ve applied the same philosophy to books….life is just too short for mediocrity.
Now you all can tell me I should have hung in there :)
May 19, 2021
Stephen Johnson's book is highly informative and interesting, but there are lengthy sections of musical analysis as well. For some, this might be the highlight of the book; for others it can be a bit of a drudge. Still, Johnson takes a look at the politics, culture, and historical figures of Mahler's era and weaves it all together into a truly interesting read. Mahler's relationship with his wife Alma was what interested me the most.
April 16, 2022
A fascinating study of this monumental work of the late romantic period. Contains detailed analysis of the work as well as the events around the composer as he was writing this work as well as after the premier. It goes a little overboard in the last few chapters, attempting to show Mahler's place in the progression of the symphony and symphonic works. Overall a very good view of Mahler and the world at this time.
November 26, 2020
I found it interesting to read this and think about the 8th Symphony and what goes on in it, the meaning of the texts, and what they and it could possibly mean, rather than just wallowing in the sound. Some inreresting thoughts on the 10th Stmphony too.
September 9, 2024
Brilliant indeed, but perhaps only for Mahlerians.
September 26, 2023
I first read this book last year and expected to love it. I have always had huge respect for Stephen Johnson and found him an insightful critic, whose tastes I share. I didn’t review it then but it was a disappointment. I came to the book again in the last week, having listened to a couple of performances of Mahler 8, hoping to find more in it than the first time but I was still underwhelmed.
I suppose the main issue for me is that there is really almost nothing new in the story that Johnson tells: the intense rehearsals and triumphant performance in Munich, the Alma/Gustav/Walter (Gropius) triangle if I can call it that, the retelling for the umpteenth time of the meeting between Mahler and Sibelius (I really think there should be a ban on anyone writing about this encounter until there is something new and original to say) and so on. But more than that, his writing on the texts and related literature is unfortunately rather pedestrian and uninspired and even when he talks about the music - which one would think would be Johnson’s strength - it’s dutiful, flat and ultimately fails to convey what was truly extraordinary about the fusion Mahler wrought. It all feels rather like a missed opportunity.
I suppose the main issue for me is that there is really almost nothing new in the story that Johnson tells: the intense rehearsals and triumphant performance in Munich, the Alma/Gustav/Walter (Gropius) triangle if I can call it that, the retelling for the umpteenth time of the meeting between Mahler and Sibelius (I really think there should be a ban on anyone writing about this encounter until there is something new and original to say) and so on. But more than that, his writing on the texts and related literature is unfortunately rather pedestrian and uninspired and even when he talks about the music - which one would think would be Johnson’s strength - it’s dutiful, flat and ultimately fails to convey what was truly extraordinary about the fusion Mahler wrought. It all feels rather like a missed opportunity.
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews