Re: Mahler and Schoenberg

Hi Kelly,

--- In tuning@yahoogroups.com, "traktus5" <kj4321@h...> wrote:
>
> Hi Monz - I read you were at a Mahler symposium,

It's not just a symposium, it's MahlerFest XIX, the
19th annual festival held each January in Boulder, Colorado,
celebrating one major work of Mahler.

http://mahlerfest.org/

The Symposium is part the festival, occuring on the Saturday
morning and afternoon of each festival. But there's a lot
more than that too:

* two identical chamber concerts, featuring smaller Mahler
pieces and also compositions by other composers which are
related in some way to the Mahler;

* two identical orchestral concerts (the big attraction
of the festival, along with the Symposium) featuring the
main work of that year's festival;

* open rehearsals of the orchestral program ... this year
i even got to sit on stage next to Dick Olberg, the great
1st Horn player who seems to know Mahler's works as well
as i do;

* "Visualizing Mahler": exhibits of art all over the
Boulder and Longmont areas, inspired by the featured work
for each year's festival;

* dinners and lunches with the 15 or so hardcore
"Mahler family" people;

* a party every night at the hotel;

* the huge banquet (with open bar and great food) held
at the end of the festival for the orchestra, all of whom
donate their time and travel to Boulder just because
they love Mahler's symphonies as much as the rest of us.

> and recall you know a lot about Schoenberg.

Not as much as about Mahler, but yes, quite a bit.

> I play his (the latter's) op 19 piano pieces, and
> heard that the last one (soft and chordal) may have been
> inspired by the bells the composer had just heard at
> Mahler's funeral. -Kelly

Yes, that's true.

Mahler believed strongly in Schoenberg's gifts as a
composer, and he gave collegial and financial
support to Schoenberg at a time when Schoenberg really
needed it. (One time, Schoenberg sent a letter begging
Mahler to lend him money to pay the rent -- Mahler sent
him several months rent and refused to be paid back.)

So Mahler's death had a profound affect on Schoenberg,
as it did on all of Schoenberg's students as well (Berg,
Webern, etc.).

They all attended Mahler's funeral, and Schoenberg wrote
that piece as a tribute to Mahler, and as an expression
of his sadness over Mahler's death.

My webpage in the link below has lots of details about
all of this.

-monz
http://tonalsoft.com/enc/v/vienna.htm
"A Century of New Music in Vienna"