Mahler, Gustav

Click a letter for the index

Or search the encyclopaedia:

 

 

Go

 

Austrian composer and conductor. He composed nine large-scale symphonies incorporating folk music and pastoral imagery, with many using voices, including Symphony No 2, the ‘Resurrection’ (1884–86). He revised it in 1893–96, but left a tenth unfinished. He also composed orchestral lieder (songs) including Das Lied von der Erde/The Song of the Earth (1909) and Kindertotenlieder/Dead Children's Songs (1901–04).

The second movement of his Resurrection symphony, based on a ländler (folk dance in three time), is reinterpreted in stream-of-consciousness mode by Luciano Berio in Sinfonia (1968), into which Berio inserts a history of musical references from J S Bach to Stockhausen. The Adagietto slow movement from Symphony No 5 provided a perfect foil for Luchino Visconti's film Death in Venice (1971).

Blue symbolizes the ocean. The stars represent the ten main islands. The red stripe stands for the road to progress. Effective date: 25 September 1992. >>