Gustav Mahler

640 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Music in history

Gustav Mahler was born on July 7th 1860 in a village in Bohemia called Kalischt, what is now Kaliste in the Czech Republic. His mother and father were Bernhard and Marie Mahler. Gustav was the second oldest of his twelve brothers and sisters, of which six of them died at a very young age. Mahler grew up in a town called Iglau (now Jihlava). As a child, Mahler studied music with native teachers in his village. Although Mahler loved composing music, his school reports portrayed him as unreliable and absent minded. At the age of four, Gustav discovered his grandparents’ piano and immediately fell in love with it. A few years later at the age of ten, he gave his first public performance in Iglau. Bernhard Mahler, his father, was very supportive of his son’s dreams and ambitions. Bernhard Mahler strived for his sons’ music career and agreed that he should audition for a spot at the Vienna Conservatory. Mahler suffered an unpleasant personal loss of his younger brother, Ernst, in 1874 after a long illness. He wanted to express his feelings by playing music. With help from Josef Steiner, a close friend, he began to write an opera called Ernst von Schwaben as a tribute to his lost brother. In 1875, he went to Vienna to study at the conservatory, where he stayed for a few years. After completing his studies, he took a series of producing steps throughout Central and Eastern Europe, including many cities such as: Budapest, Hamburg, and Leipzig. Then he moved to Vienna, where he conducted the state opera orchestra. Mahler succeeded in transforming the staging and performance standards of the opera house. It was nothing short of remarkable, but it came at a high personal cost. The continual work forced him to restrict his co...

... middle of paper ...

...choir, two harps, an organ and a large percussion section, along with a gigantic orchestra. He also deviated from tradition in his use of tonality. His larger works often finished in a different tone than when they began. This weakened the structural role of tonality at the same time that Schoenburg and his contemporaries were moving forward a purely atonal style. The final factor we can note in Mahler’s music is its wit, frequently touched with irony and parody. This can occur by means of the comparison of incongruous elements to create a jarring, banal, mix. Mahler died in Vienna on May 18, 1911 at the age of fifty from a blood infection. The International Gustav Mahler Institute that was established in 1955 was built to honor his life and work.

Works Cited

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gustav_Mahler
http://www.classical.net/music/comp.lst/mahler.php

Show More
Related

  • Frederic Chopin

    2247 Words  | 5 Pages

    Frederic Chopin, the Polish composer and pianist, was born on March 1,1810, according to the statements of the artist himself and his family, but according to his baptismal certificate, which was written several weeks after his birth, the date was 22 February. His birthplace was the village of Zelazowa Wola, part of the Duchy of Warsaw.

    Read More

  • Johannes Brahms

    1737 Words  | 4 Pages

    Johannes Brahms was a German Composer, Pianist and conductor of the 19th century or the Romantic period. He was one of the 3 B's or the Big three: Bach, Beethoven and Brahms. Johannes was a very self-critic man he burned many of his pieces before he could get anyone's opinion on them and he burned all of his compositions that he wrote before the age of 19.

    Read More

  • Moses Mendelssohn

    583 Words  | 2 Pages

    Moses Mendelssohn lived between the years 1729 and 1786. He was known as the " father of Haskalah " because of his contributions to the Haskalah movement. Mendelssohn was a Jewish philosopher, and got much of his education from his father, the local rabbi, David Frankel. Mendelssohn studied the philosophy of Maimonides. He had written the " Principally Leibnia ",as an attack on the national neglect of native philosophers.

    Read More

  • Beethoven Feel The Music Essay

    600 Words  | 2 Pages

    Beethoven’s early life was one out of a sad story book. For being one of the most well-known musicians one would think that sometime during Beethovens childhood he was influenced and inspired to play music; This was not the case. His father was indeed a musician but he was more interested in drinking than he was playing music. When his father saw the smallest sliver of music interest in Beethoven he immediately put him into vigorous musical training in hopes he would be the next Mozart; his training included organ, viola, and piano. This tainted how young Beethoven saw music and the memories that music brought. Nevertheless Beethoven continued to do what he knew and by thirteen he was composing his own music and assisting his teacher, Christian Neefe. Connections began to form during this time with different aristocrats and families who stuck with him and became lifelong friends. At 17 Beethoven, with the help of his friends, traveled to Vienna, the music capitol of the world, to further his knowledge and connection...

    Read More

  • A GENERAL ANALYSIS OF MOZART’S MINUET IN F MAJOR (K.2)

    918 Words  | 2 Pages

    Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was undoubtedly one of the greatest composers of not only the classical era, but of all time. On January 27, 1756 in Salzburg, Austria, Mozart was born into an already musically talented family. His father Leopold, a composer and musician, and sister Nannerl toured parts of Europe giving many successful performances, including some before royalty. At the young age of 17, Mozart was appointed Konzertmeister at the Salzburg Court. It was there that young Mozart composed two successful operas: “Mitridate” and “Lucio Silla”. In 1981 he was dismissed from his position at the Salzburg Court. He went on to compose over 600 works including 27 piano Concertos, 18 Masses (including his most famous, the Requiem), and 17 piano sonatas. Mozart was not often known for having radical form or harmonic innovation but rather, most of his music had a natural flow, repetition and simple harmonic structure.

    Read More

  • Clara Schumann's Life And Music

    792 Words  | 2 Pages

    Clara Schumann was born September 13, 1819 in Leipzig, Germany. Clara was born into a musical family in school her father Friedrich Weick studied theology but made his career in music. He later settled in Leipzig where he taught piano, opened a business selling instruments, and began a music lending library. He taught his wife Marianne and his future son-in-law Robert Schumann, he also received the reputation as a first-rate piano teacher. Wieck an and Marianne divorced after eight years of marriage when Clara was five years old, leaving Clara’s father to raise her and her four brother when her mother moved to Berlin. Unfortunately her father felt he neglected her general education but recognized her talents and saw that Clara had the finest musical education. In Leipzig, Dresden, and Berlin Clara studied piano with her father and violin, theory, and different areas of composition with the best teachers. In Leipzig she attended all of the important performances and learned about business of music.

    Read More

  • Gustav Holst

    1434 Words  | 3 Pages

    Music derived from astrology is surprisingly rare. The ancient Greek philosophers, whatever their intellectual attitudes towards astrology may have been, were certainly not ignorant of astrological teachings and ideas. It was they, after all who put forward the idea of the "Music of the Spheres", the idea that these vast objects twirling around and whirling through space, must have hummed a tone as they went along their courses, much as a ball spun on a string will whistle. They knew of seven planets: Sun, Moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn. Not surprisingly, western music evolved with seven-tone scales. Music and astrology come together again in this suite devoted to the seven planets, though Uranus and Neptune have displaced the Sun and Moon. Gustav Holst (1874-1934) was apparently fascinated by various esoteric pursuits, such as astrology and Hindu philosophy, suggesting in particular a yearning to get to grips with matters of a spiritual nature. How far he got in this pursuit is unclear, but what is quite beyond doubt is the fact that The Planets is a deeply spiritual work, reaching a level of spirit expression that is rarely experienced in other works. Even without this added strength, the whole work is a sonic spectacle and has so many wonderfully exotic harmonies. Coloration, dramatic contrast and inventiveness make this the work of a genius. It was first performed in the autumn of 1918.

    Read More

  • Ludwig van Beethoven

    941 Words  | 2 Pages

    Some of the most well known composers came to be in the in the classical music period. Ludwig van Beethoven was one of the composers, along with other greats of the time like Haydn and Mozart, which helped to create a new type of music. This new music had full rich sounds created by the new construction of the symphony orchestra.

    Read More

  • Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

    1218 Words  | 3 Pages

    Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, as he is generally known, was baptized in a Salzburg Cathedral on the day after his birth as Joannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus. The first and last given names come from his godfather Joannes Theophilus Pergmayr, although Mozart preferred the Latin form of this last name, Amadeus, more often Amadé, or the Italiano Amadeo, and occasionally the Deutsch Gottlieb. Whatever the case may be, he rarely - if ever - used Theophilus in his signature. The name Chrysostomus originates from St. John Chrysostom, whose feast falls on the 27th of January. The name Wolfgang was given to him in honor of his maternal grandfather, Wolfgang Nikolaus Pertl.

    Read More

  • Clara Machumann Biography Essay

    1101 Words  | 3 Pages

    The brilliant composer Clara Schumann was born as Clara Josephine Wieck on 13 September 1819. Even before her birth, her destiny was to become a famous musician. Her father, Friedrich Wieck, was a piano teacher and music dealer, while her mother, Marianne Wieck, was a soprano and a concert pianist and her family was very musically gifted. Her father, Friedrich, wanted to prove to the world that his teaching methods could produce a famous pianist, so he decided, before Clara’s birth, that she would become that pianist. Clara’s father’s wish came true, as his daughter ended up becoming a child prodigy and one of the most famous female composers of her time.

    Read More

  • Biography of Franz Schubert

    687 Words  | 2 Pages

    Many prominent musicians produced major works during the romantic period. Among these are Beethoven, Strause, and Bach. But the musician that I think had the most impact, was Franz Schubert. Franz Peter, born on 31 January 1797 was one of fourteen children born of Franz Theodore Schubert and Elisabeth Vietz, four of which survived. He grew up in an apartment that daily converted to a classroom in which his father taught several elementary school classes. He received a thorough basic education; his father being a good teacher, and son being a bright student. From his father Franz also learned to play the violin, and from his brother he learned the piano. The family, indeed, was a very musical one; family "String Quartet Parties" were well known in the part of Vienna in which they lived. But soon young Franz learned all that his family had to teach him. Later, any neighbors who could play any instruments were drawn in and the quartet became a little orchestra. At nine years old, this inquisitive little boy auditioned and was accepted for a position as a chorister in the Royal Court Chapel Choir (which would later become the 'Vienna Boys' Choir). The young chorister gained the attention of Antonio Saliere, who saw to the nurture the young boy's education. After leaving the choir, he continued as a student at the school for one unhappy year. Schubert returned to live at home where it was decided that he would help his father teach. This did not last long. A disastrous episode with an unruly pupil was the last straw and Schubert at age nineteen left teaching and his home to pursue what he loved, composing. He moved in to the...

    Read More

  • Johann Sebastian Bach

    1458 Words  | 3 Pages

    Johann Sebastian Bach was born into a family of musicians. It was only natural for him to pick up an instrument and excel in it. His father taught him how to play the violin and harpsichord at a very young age. All of Bach’s uncles were professional musicians, one of them; Johann Christoph Bach introduced him to the organ. Bach hit a turning point in his life when both of his parents died at the age of ten years old. Bach’s older brother Johann Christoph Bach took him in and immediately expanded his knowledge in the world of music. He taught him how to play the clavichord and exposed him to great composers at the time. At the age of fourteen, Bach and his good friend George Erdmann were awarded a choral scholarship to the prestigious musical school St. Michael’s in Luneburg. From then on, Bach began to build his career in the music industry. His first two years at the school he sang in the school’s a cappella choir. Historical evidence has shown that Bach at a young age would visit Johanniskirche and would listen to the works of organ player Jasper Johannsen. This was thought to have been the inspiration to Bach’s Toccata and Fugue in D minor. Studying at the prestigious musical school has help Bach network his way around and become acquaintances’ with some of the best organ players at the time such as Georg Böhm, and Johann Adam Reincken. Through his acquaintance with Böhm and Reincken Bach had access to some of the greatest and finest instruments.

    Read More

  • Analysis of Mendelssohn’s Italian Symphony

    1038 Words  | 3 Pages

    Mendelssohn was born in Hamburg in 1809. His father Abraham Mendelssohn was a banker, while his mum Lea Mendelssohn was a highly educated artist and musician. Mendelssohn first had his piano lesson from his mum, but soon he was sent to study with the best teachers at that time such as Marie Bigot and Ludwig Burger. He also took composition lessons with Karl Zelter, who was the professor of the University of Berlin. Under their proper guidance, he completely showed his music talent- he first appeared as pianist at nine and as a composer at ten. At his age of twelve, he already composed nine fugues, five symphonies for strings, two operas and a huge number of smaller pieces. When he was sixteen, the publication of his Octet in E-flat Major for strings and Overture to A Mid Summer Night’s Dream marked his full maturity.

    Read More

  • Arnold Schoenberg

    753 Words  | 2 Pages

    Arnold Schoenberg was born on September 13, 1874, to a Jewish family in Vienna. He taught himself composition, with help in counterpoint from the Austrian composer Alexander Zemlinsky, and in 1899 produced his first major work, the tone poem Verklärte Nacht (Transfigured Night) for string sextet. In 1901 he married Zemlinsky's sister Mathilde, with whom he had two children. The couple moved to Berlin, where for two years Schoenberg earned a living by orchestrating operettas and directing a cabaret orchestra. In 1903 Schoenberg returned to Vienna to teach. There he met his most successful students, the Austrian composers Anton Webern and Alban Berg, who became his close friends.

    Read More

  • Gustav Mahler

    1053 Words  | 3 Pages

    Mahler's early career was spent at a serious of regional opera houses (Hall in 1880, Laibach in 1881, Olmutz in 1882, Kassel in 1883, Prague in 1885, Liepzig in 1886-8, Budapest from 1886-8, and Hamburg from 1891-7), a normal career path, until he arrived as head of the Vienna Opera in 1897. Mahler ended some of the more slovenly performance pra...

    Read More

More about Gustav Mahler

Open Document