Wednesday, May 18, 2011

Mahler - Das Lied von der Erde: Der Abschied 1/2



Der Abschied translated into English is 'The Farewell'. It is the last movement of his un-numbered symphony. Fearing he would die after writing his ninth symphony(as Beethoven did) he wrote this symphony after completing the eighth symphony. He chose to not number this work to outsmart fate itself. He went on to write his ninth and unfinished tenth. In his mind when he got to the tenth he was actually starting his eleventh. What he didn't know was that there were other composers who died after writing nine symphonies: Vaughan Williams, Dvorak, Glazunov(ninth was unfinished). Bruckner could be added to the list but he did write two early study symphonies that we now count as No.'s '0' & '00'. In this case we find a real similarity between the two composers as they both wrote a total of eleven symphonies and the last ones were left unfinished.

I feel that in this movement he was initiating his departure from this world. On May 18,1911 he did depart this world.

1 comment:

  1. Hi:
    I dedicated my post on July 1st to Canada and you.

    haven't heard from you much lately, is everything ok?

    saludos,
    raulito

    ReplyDelete