Page 240 - Vinkler, Jonatan, in Jernej Weiss. ur. 2014. Musica et Artes: ob osemdesetletnici Primoža Kureta. Koper: Založba Univerze na Primorskem.
P. 240
musica et artes
Many interpretations of the significance of all the music of this symphony
have been proposed. None have suggested that there is programme for the
work in the sense that it tells a descriptive story.37 Nevertheless there are so
many clues, both musical and personal, that it is very difficult to avoid the
idea that Mahler was making an extra-musical point in this symphony. How
one can proceed is somewhat controversial. The composer’s widow, Alma,
said that the symphony was a personal love letter to her, with possible impli-
cation that she was not too happy to make the work known. Certainly some
intimate details could have been concealed. Mahler, however, made a great
many annotations to the score which give some indication of his thoughts
and probably his state of mind as he was composing the work. Much of this
derives from the implications of his discovery of his wife’s affair with the
architect Walter Gropius. The details are fairly well known even if some facts
are disputed. The excellent account given by Henri-Louis de La Grange can
be relied on.38
Another connection came from David Matthews, reporting the re-
searches of Knud Marner who discovered that Mahler was very fond of the
poetry of Siegfried Lipiner (1856–1911), notably his collection entitled Purga-
torio. Matthews, following Marner’s studies, singled out one of the poems for
its suspected relevance.39 It is poem no. XII:
Ich kan dir nicht in’s Auge seh’n,
Ich müsste ja vor Scham vergeh’n;
Vor Scham? Und hab’ doch nichts getan!
Ach, wer’s gethan, was liegt daran?
Wer’sauch gethan, es ist gethan, es ist gescheheh’n!
Ich kann dir nicht in’s Auge seh’n;
Du schämst dich nicht – drum schäm’ ich mich;
Weh’ mir, noch immer lieb’ ich dich!
The final clue to this movement consists of various annotations above
the score which may have some relevance to Mahler’s state of mind at the time
of composition.
37 See, however, La Grange, “The Unfinished Tenth Symphony in F sharp (1910),” 1489–1490, in
which some of the issues involved are discussed.
38 La Grange, “The Tenth Symphony: Purgatory or Catharsis?,” 154–164.
39 David Matthews, “Wagner, Lipiner, and the Purgatorio”, in The Mahler Companion, eds. Donald
Mitchell and Andrew Nicholson (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999), 508–516. An English
translation by Berthold Goldschmidt of the poem XII is on page 509 of Matthews’s article.
238
Many interpretations of the significance of all the music of this symphony
have been proposed. None have suggested that there is programme for the
work in the sense that it tells a descriptive story.37 Nevertheless there are so
many clues, both musical and personal, that it is very difficult to avoid the
idea that Mahler was making an extra-musical point in this symphony. How
one can proceed is somewhat controversial. The composer’s widow, Alma,
said that the symphony was a personal love letter to her, with possible impli-
cation that she was not too happy to make the work known. Certainly some
intimate details could have been concealed. Mahler, however, made a great
many annotations to the score which give some indication of his thoughts
and probably his state of mind as he was composing the work. Much of this
derives from the implications of his discovery of his wife’s affair with the
architect Walter Gropius. The details are fairly well known even if some facts
are disputed. The excellent account given by Henri-Louis de La Grange can
be relied on.38
Another connection came from David Matthews, reporting the re-
searches of Knud Marner who discovered that Mahler was very fond of the
poetry of Siegfried Lipiner (1856–1911), notably his collection entitled Purga-
torio. Matthews, following Marner’s studies, singled out one of the poems for
its suspected relevance.39 It is poem no. XII:
Ich kan dir nicht in’s Auge seh’n,
Ich müsste ja vor Scham vergeh’n;
Vor Scham? Und hab’ doch nichts getan!
Ach, wer’s gethan, was liegt daran?
Wer’sauch gethan, es ist gethan, es ist gescheheh’n!
Ich kann dir nicht in’s Auge seh’n;
Du schämst dich nicht – drum schäm’ ich mich;
Weh’ mir, noch immer lieb’ ich dich!
The final clue to this movement consists of various annotations above
the score which may have some relevance to Mahler’s state of mind at the time
of composition.
37 See, however, La Grange, “The Unfinished Tenth Symphony in F sharp (1910),” 1489–1490, in
which some of the issues involved are discussed.
38 La Grange, “The Tenth Symphony: Purgatory or Catharsis?,” 154–164.
39 David Matthews, “Wagner, Lipiner, and the Purgatorio”, in The Mahler Companion, eds. Donald
Mitchell and Andrew Nicholson (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999), 508–516. An English
translation by Berthold Goldschmidt of the poem XII is on page 509 of Matthews’s article.
238
