During a conversation with Jean Sibelius, Mahler insisted that his symphonies were “whole worlds” embracing his literary tastes, his neuroses, responses to nature and, most especially, the inexorable cycle of life and death.
His four great song collections – Des Knaben Wunderhorn (Youth’s Magic Horn), Lieder Eines Fahrenden Gesellen (Songs Of A Wayfarer), Kindertotenlieder (Songs On The Death Of Children) and the five Rückert Lieder – all dwell on these very subjects, and also acted as a vital melodic repository for his symphonies.
Right at the end of his life Mahler fused song and symphonic form together in an epic Lieder-symphony entitled Das Lied Von Der Erde (The Song Of The Earth).
Each of Mahler’s nine symphonies (and the unfinished Tenth) requires the highest degree of orchestral virtuosity and sensitivity. He expanded the scale of music to near-bursting point – there are single movements in his works that last longer than an entire symphony by Mozart or Haydn.
He also stretched the traditional system of major and minor keys to its limits, taking music to the very brink of atonality (keylessness). Even 40 years ago, Mahler was still dismissed by many as a “fringe” composer, but now he is widely considered the last great symphonist in the tradition of Beethoven.
Mahler was born on July 7, 1860, in the Bohemian village of Kalischt, to a poor family of Moravian Jews. His father, Bernhard, ran a ramshackle distillery, and regularly thrashed his children and Mahler’s mother, Marie. She bore Bernhard 14 children in all and, despite suffering from a limp since birth and a heart condition, was made to work like a slave.
During a session with the pioneering psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud, the deeply traumatised Mahler recalled running screaming from the house in agony to the strains of a hurdy-gurdy playing outside.
It is somewhat ironic that the physical scars left by his father amounted to little more than a severe bruising, whereas those left by his mother were to plague him to the end of his days. He suffered from a psychosomatic nervous tic in his right leg, which made his movements slightly ungainly, and he inherited his mother’s heart defect, the deciding factor in his death.
Although Mahler’s performance was only average in most of his school subjects, by his early teens he was already marked out as a pianist prodigy. At 13, he gave a sensational public recital that included a virtuoso note-spinner by Sigismond Thalberg, and as a student at the Vienna Conservatory he performed Xaver Scharwenka’s ferociously difficult Piano Concerto No.1, apparently without batting an eyelid.
Mahler’s blazing talent unwittingly contributed to the great Lieder composer Hugo Wolf’s decline. The two shared lodgings as students, and formed a kind of mutual admiration society.
Sadly, by the end of his life, Wolf’s unstinting admiration for Mahler had dissolved into spiteful resentment at the latter’s success. Wolf’s descent into madness was marked by his wild claim that he had been appointed Director of the Vienna Opera and that his first job was to sack Mahler (by now the real director). Following a bungled suicide attempt, he spent the rest of his life in a Vienna lunatic asylum.
For a while, it seemed as though Mahler would make his way in the world as a concert pianist yet, following a series of whirlwind appointments in the provinces, he emerged as a conductor of visionary genius. His pioneering methods of concert preparation and opera production were to set the standard for the rest of the 20th century, exerting a profound influence on conductors from Herbert von Karajan to Leonard Bernstein.
Meticulous down to the last detail, a performance under Mahler was – like his music – all-encompassing. During his tenure at the Vienna Opera (1897-1908), he presided over 52 new productions of established repertoire, and introduced no fewer than 32 new works, including Puccini’s La Bohème and Madama Butterfly. As a result, composing became a part-time activity during the summer months between concert seasons.
Yet, if Mahler was universally hailed as a conductor, his music excited bewilderingly contrasting reactions, ranging from idolatry to near-revulsion. As early as the 1889 premiere of his First Symphony, opinion was already sharply divided.
A report that appeared in the Nemzet newspaper positively glows with enthusiasm: “This symphony is the impassioned work of a youthful, unquenchable talent, barely containing its seemingly inexhaustible ideas within a traditional framework... wild applause broke out at the end of every movement.”
Yet the New Pest Journal was altogether less enthusiastic, suggesting that audiences will “always be pleased to see him [Mahler] with baton in hand, just as long as he’s not conducting one of his own works”.
If the First Symphony caused problems, many of the following eight symphonies left audiences aghast – most particularly the Sixth with its chilling hammer blows of fate from the timpani.
Following the premiere, one critic noted painfully: “Where music falls short, the hammer falls.”
Yet not all was doom and gloom, by any means. The Resurrection Symphony No. 2 won many fervent admirers, while the 1910 Munich premiere of the massive Eighth, the so-called Symphony Of A Thousand, was perhaps the single greatest triumph of Mahler’s career: “There was this extraordinary moment when, with thundering applause all around him, Mahler appeared in front of a thousand performers,” recalled the conductor Bruno Walter in his 1936 biography of the composer. “He mounted the steps of the auditorium towards where the children’s chorus was positioned... and shook every one of them personally by the hand.”
Other successes included an early Berlin performance of the enchanting Fourth Symphony, which Mahler himself conducted. Richard Strauss was so in awe of it that he sent Mahler his complete published works.
Mahler’s Fifth – from which the famous Adagietto comes – took longer to establish itself, but finally enjoyed an ovation in St Petersburg during Mahler’s tour of 1907. In the audience that night was the young Igor Stravinsky, himself on the verge of creating a sensation with the first of his great ballets, The Firebird.
Having conquered Europe, towards the end of his life Mahler was appointed Music Director at the Metropolitan Opera in New York. His constant battle with bouts of depression and neurosis had recently placed an appalling strain on his marriage to Alma Mahler (née Schindler), who was 19 years his junior, and he had never recovered from the death of their first daughter, Maria Anna, at the tender age of five.
Yet his new-found acclaim had a positive effect on Mahler almost immediately, and he began living for every hour.
In February 1909, Mahler agreed to revive the New York Philharmonic as a full-time professional outfit, typically insisting on the highest playing standards. On April 1, he conducted its inaugural concert, including a performance of Beethoven’s Seventh Symphony that had the critics in raptures. He was immediately signed up as director, and given carte blanche to hire and fire.
Just as it seemed that Mahler might at last be coming to terms with the psychological problems that had plagued him all his life, he was diagnosed with a serious bacterial infection. The combination of his heart condition and the lack of antibiotics in those days meant there was no hope of recovery.
Mahler expressed a wish to die in Vienna and, having only just survived the transatlantic boat crossing, travelled by train to Vienna on a stretcher. Five days later he died, six weeks short of his 51st birthday. His last words, according to his wife Alma, were “Mozart – Mozart!”
He never saw Das Lied Von Der Erde or the Ninth Symphony performed and, despite the fame he had won against all the odds, he reflected despondently: “I am condemned to homelessness thrice over: as a Bohemian among Austrians, as an Austrian among Germans, and as a Jew throughout the world.”
Blicke mir nicht in die Lieder
Gustav Mahler Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Meine Augen schlag' ich nieder
Wie ertappt auf böser That
Selber darf ich nicht getrauen
Ihrem Wachsen zuzuschauen
Deine Neugier ist Verrath
Bienen, wenn sie Zellen bauen
Schauen selber auch nicht zu
Wenn die reichen Honigwaben
Sie zu Tag gefördert haben
Dann vor allen nasche du
Dann vor allem nasche du
The lyrics of the song "Blicke mir nicht in die Lieder" by Gustav Mahler convey a sense of vulnerability and personal introspection. The singer urges someone not to look into their songs, as if their eyes were being lowered in shame, caught in the act of some wicked deed. However, they acknowledge their own reluctance to witness the growth of their own songs, suggesting a lack of self-confidence. The line "Deine Neugier ist Verrath" (Your curiosity is betrayal) hints at a feeling that the other person's curiosity is a form of betrayal or intrusion into their innermost thoughts and emotions.
To further illustrate the singer's emotional state, the metaphor of bees building cells is employed. Just as bees do not allow others to watch them building their cells, they themselves do not look at their own work. It is only when the rich honeycombs are brought to light that one can indulge in them. This metaphor suggests that the singer views their songs as something precious and delicate, not to be examined in the process of creation but only to be enjoyed once they are completed.
The repeated phrase "Dann vor allem nasche du" (Then above all, you should devour) emphasizes the singer's desire for the other person to partake in the enjoyment of their songs. By using the metaphor of indulging in honey, the singer implies that their songs, when finished, contain something delightful and satisfying that should be savored by others. This line can also be interpreted as a plea for validation and acceptance of their creative expression, as if their songs are a part of their soul that they want others to appreciate and embrace.
Overall, these lyrics depict the complex and sometimes contradictory emotions that artists may experience during the creative process. The singer yearns for their work to be understood and enjoyed, but also feels a sense of vulnerability and hesitancy to reveal the inner workings of their creative mind. It highlights the delicate balance between protection and sharing that artists often navigate when exposing their art to the world.
Line by Line Meaning
Blicke mir nicht in die Lieder
Do not look into my songs
Meine Augen schlag' ich nieder
I lower my eyes
Wie ertappt auf böser That
As if caught in an evil act
Selber darf ich nicht getrauen
I myself dare not trust
Ihrem Wachsen zuzuschauen
To watch them grow
Deine Neugier ist Verrath
Your curiosity is betrayal
Bienen, wenn sie Zellen bauen
Bees, when they build cells
Lassen auch nicht zu sich schauen
Also do not allow to be watched
Schauen selber auch nicht zu
They do not watch themselves either
Wenn die reichen Honigwaben
When the rich honeycombs
Sie zu Tag gefördert haben
They have brought to light
Dann vor allen nasche du
Then you shall taste above all
Dann vor allem nasche du
Then you shall indulge above all
Lyrics © Music Hub O/B/O GEMA
Written by: Friedrich Rückert, Gustav Mahler
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind