That shattering, joyous noise
you're hearing back there is the music of Gustav Mahler. It's the end of his First
Symphony, the starting place in a lifelong symphonic quest
that's made him in the minds of many people today
a supreme symphonist. His pieces are big and
overwhelming and lots of fun to perform. What's not to like about
a standing ovation? But the quality of his music
that first attracted me and still does is something else,
something that would still be there were I never to play
another note of his ever again. It's what I experienced the
first time I heard his music. I was 13 years old
and by accident listened to the introduction of a song
called “The Farewell,” part of his cycle
“The Song of the Earth.” The edgy little melody cut
through me. The loneliness and desolation
of it stopped me in my tracks. And strangely, it all seemed
familiar. It seemed to describe the sad
and beautiful questions of my own life, which at that
age, I hadn't even put into words. One thing I know is,
his music made me a different person. I think many people have had
this experience with Mahler's music. I mean, Mahler takes
the heart and just squeezes it like this. And this is what I felt
from the very first time I ever heard his symphony,
Because it--he has such a rhythmic impulse,
but also there's such a tenderness and at the same
time, this kind of tension and resolution. And I love that. It certainly has an emotional impact. It makes--brings one to tears. It brings one to joy. It's exciting. It's engaging. I need to listen to it. I was at once drawn in
to the power of this music but in a way that i'd not
Expected. What I found in the music
Was a huge calm. I was 15 years old
when I first heard Mahler's First Symphony in San Francisco. And it just hit me
like a bolt of lightning. For a teenager, when you're
trying to figure out who you are and how you fit in the world,
that piece of music just opened a whole universe. Somehow he includes us
in his voyage of self-discovery that tries and tests
every possible route toward some kind of conclusion. Sometimes it's a blaze of glory,
or sometimes it's a sigh of resignation,
of gratefully letting go. Who was this man? Where had such music come from? So here it is,
Mahler's life's work: 45 songs,
Ten symphonies. In fact, the symphonies and
the songs are inseparable. [man singing in German] Together they form one work,
witnessing his life's journey. It took Mahler around 25 years
to write all of this, And he wrote it basically
in his spare time, because you see, Mahler had a day job. [man singing in German] He was a world-famous conductor,
the hands-on music director of companies like the Vienna
State Opera, the Metropolitan Opera, and later the New York
Philharmonic. Most of his life was spent
in rehearsals in orchestra pits or on rehearsal stages
like this. [man vocalizing in German] [birds chirping]
It was only in odd stolen moments between rehearsals
and a few months of summer vacation that Mahler had
the time to compose. Throughout his career,
he withdrew to small composing huts in the Austrian
countryside. He needed the solitude
to reconnect with the real source of his inspiration,
the sounds of his childhood growing up in a small
Moravian town. screechy string-like music] Mahler was raised in Jihlava,
Or Iglau, as it was known in the 1860s during his boyhood. Now a part of the Czech
Republic, Iglau was a provincial way station on the road
from Vienna to Prague. In Mahler's day, it was
a major military encampment, defending the Austrian Empire
against Prussian aggression. [military-style brass music] So just imagine this place
In Mahler's time, filled with thousands of soldiers. Each regiment has its own band. The Austrians, the Hungarians,
the Romanians--they play music in different flavors. And young Mahler can't stay
away from it. He's compelled to come here
and follow behind the bands with his accordion,
imitating whatever music he hears. Mahler knew when the troops
were marching, since he lived above his father's tavern
just half a block off the town square. So this is the view Mahler had
from the front rooms of his parents' house. If you look down there,
you can see that just a few steps away is the parade grounds. That means that with the windows
open, all that racket military music would have been coming in here. And there was other music too,
the sounds of the tavern musicians below us,
which would have been filtering up the courtyard. [mournful trumpet melody] The tavern catered to soldiers
and a rough crowd from a town that was a stew pot of different
social classes and origins. Jews like the Mahlers lived next
to native Moravians and Bohemians, all trying to hang on
to their own culture and customs. [men shouting in native languages]
[spritely woodwind music] [man whistling]
[clapping] Jews were periodically resettled
throughout the Austro-Hungarian Empire. That's how Mahler’s family,
like Freud's and Kafka’s, ended up in small towns,
never knowing what capricious edict might come down next
from imperial Vienna. [man vocalizing melodically] Mahler was raised in an
observant family in Iglau, part of a small, insular
Jewish community. on an early visit to the
synagogue, the precocious young Mahler brought the prayers
to a standstill by shouting, "Be quiet; be quiet. It's horrible." Then he began to sing one of his
favorite songs at the top of his voice, the knapsack polka. [jaunty brass music] The memories of the old tunes
Would haunt Mahler, but so would music from
a more surprising source. [choir singing in harmony] As a boy, Mahler may have sung
in the choir of the St. Jacob's church. A family friend was the choirmaster. And here he was introduced
to the great masters like Bach and Handel.
[all singing “Hallelujah” Chorus] Young Mahler would have probably
sat here someplace amongst the choristers. As he sat here, he could look up past here,
and there, right in the center, he could see an angel
pounding away on two of his favorite instruments,
timpani and lots of trumpets and trombones and harps accompanying. [dramatic timpani and brass] These were sounds he would
feature as his symphonies reached their heaven-storming climaxes. I've always known about this
town, but it didn't occur to me until I actually came here
and began walking around How much the situation
is like the kinds of shapes we encounter in one of Mahler's symphonies--
This enormous great square right in the middle of it,
and then down every street, another little destination
of his life with its own special flavor: The synagogue that way,
his parents' house and tavern that way, the church where he was
a chorister that way, the school he attended
every day that way, and of course, in this space,
all of the richness of all the military music,
the drills, the parades, the different bands competing
with one another. This made for a huge jumble
of sounds, a kind of sonic Goulash echoing down the narrow
streets of the town and bouncing off the walls of the parade grounds. [birds chirping] There were two main ways
Mahler could go back and forth between the locations of his daily life. The most direct one was back
there by the parade ground, but another one he loved
was this way, past the city walls
and out here into this great green space, an enormous ravine. People loved to promenade here
in his day, and they still do. This was the final piece
of his symphonies' sound world, The serenity of nature
to which he always returned. And it may well have been
in this ravine that mahler's father used to find him
lost in a trance, simply staring and listening
In the big forest. [birds chirping]
What was he listening for? Well, of course there were
the cries of birds and animals, Bit of distant weather. But it was mostly the silence
itself that attracted him, that wonderful shimmer that
seems to come into our ears When it's absolutely quiet
that connects everything in nature. The ravine was a microcosm
of the wider natural world surrounding Mahler's boyhood. Much of his family lived
deep in the Czech countryside, in villages that dotted the meadows. Mahler was born in one of them,
Kaliste, a mere crossroads surrounded by open fields. What you still experience here
is this vast space from horizon to horizon. It's empty. It's quiet--
Only a few little domestic or agricultural cluckings
and squeakings from around the corner, and from far
in the distance, maybe a sound of a horn or a bell
or a barking dog. It's this huge sonic horizon. This sense of the wideness
of acoustic space made an enormous impression
on Mahler: The breadth of vast space...
[birds chirping] The stirrings of life
within it... One word summed it all up
for him like a musical Abracadabra:
Naturlaut. When it came time for Mahler
to write his First Symphony, he decided to begin it
with this essential experience of his childhood. He invites us right into
his dream space in an introduction he called
Naturlaut: nature sound. We're inside his skin,
listening as he listened, and what we first hear
is an arc of “A” naturals Spanning over six octaves. It hovers around us like
a wide horizon, suggesting the world awakening after winter. Little bits of sound
begin to float in. They're not melodies
but motives, wispy fragments of half-remembered music
from which the mighty symphony will be built. Mahler already has the big plan
in his mind, and now slowly he begins to reveal it to us. [pensive woodwind music] First we hear woodwinds
quietly calling and answering to another. [lower woodwind call]
Their call has the shape of a falling fourth. [piano mimicking descent] The calls arrange themselves
into a kind of falling chain that seems to lead questioningly
onward. [quietly galloping woodwinds] The chain leads us to new
vistas of sound made of Mahler's collection of musical souvenirs. Mahler asks for everything
to be played as if it is in the extreme distance,
Suggesting the sound comes from far away and from long ago. [stately trumpet calls] It's mysterious. You're not quite sure
what is coming in the future, and it adds that, you know,
extra element of tension and suspense. [spritely clarinet solo] All of a sudden,
there's this cuckoo coming out of the clarinet that seems
to wake the whole world up. It's something that says,
"Hey, guess what, world. This is a big piece,
and you're gonna be taken through an amazing experience here." [spritely clarinet instrumental] You may have noticed that
Mahler has given his cuckoos a musical makeover,
changing their actual call... [rough cuckoo sound]
to this. [sustained cuckoo sound]
A perfect fourth. [plays fourth on piano]
Why? So that Mahler's cuckoos
will chirp like the fourths that unify this symphony. [cuckoo call and response] So far, time has been suspended,
but now a fatalistic bass line begins, relentlessly moving
us on out of the dreamscape. [dissonant bass line] [orchestra joins in] The music twists and turns
as Mahler makes his way toward the main theme
of the first movement. he based much of it
On a song cycle he had written three years earlier at age 23,
the songs in which he really became himself:
The songs of a wayfarer. [spritely woodwind music]
[singing in German] The wayfarer was an
archetypal character who'd appeared in Romantic literature
for at least 100 years. On the one hand, he was
a journeyman, seeking a place to master his trade. [man singing in German]
On the other, a poet escaping into nature
to forget his shattered dreams and lost loves. Since age 20, Mahler had been
a wanderer, knocking around provincial opera houses
As a low-ranking staff conductor. He never knew what was coming
next and lost himself in learning the next show
or flirting with its leading lady, who sometimes broke
his heart. [singing in German]
from one of these heartbreaks, these lonely songs
emerged. The “Songs of a Wayfarer”
are deft masterpieces of simplicity,
using only a few small gestures. [lightly twirling woodwinds] Mahler realized his audience
would fill in the rest. [quietly dissipating music] But one of these songs starts
with a cheerful, confident stride. [singing in German] Mahler used this carefree
Tune as the main theme Of his First Symphony. [dancing string music] The Symphony at first follows
the shape of the song, but we've soon walked past
its boundaries, until everybody's belting out the tune
or cuckooing like crazy. [dancing orchestral music] And then suddenly we've lost
our way. We're back in timeless space,
an even scarier space than the one we heard
at the beginning of the symphony. Low tuba and bass drum
add an ominous quality as the cellos get down
to considering the essential question: How's it gonna go? Are we going to be happy...
[gentle piano line] [gentle string line]
Or sad? [dissonant piano line]
What's going to happen? Well, once again, the menacing
bass line comes back in, Insisting you must move on. you must decide. [ascending piano line]
[pensive woodwind music] And then miraculously,
A new solution appears. It's a new version of our
walking tune, starting with those same
two notes... [plinks two piano notes]
but now reconceived as an ensemble of horns
playing very cheerfully, sounding as if they're just
down the road a bit. [distant spritely horns] They sound so friendly
that the cellos do decide to be happy,
breaking into a new, confident theme that says, "Let's go." [mellifluous cello music] All goes well,
But typically of Mahler, there's one final confrontation. The menacing bass line
hasn't gone away. now it comes back at a new level
of insistence, and the happy mood veers
into terror. [tense string music] Then the trumpets take
their final stand. up to now, their fanfares
have been mostly in the distance. Now they're right on top of us,
Coming to our rescue. [cymbals crash]
[triumphant brass music] Things get faster and faster
as we rush forward to a recklessly happy ending. [racing string music] The whole orchestra,
even the timpani, is cuckooing itself into happy exhaustion. [flitting orchestral music] Now that we've heard this music,
let's look again at how much it suggests the soundscape
of Mahler's hometown. Perhaps you can see it more
clearly on this map. Here's the ravine,
where Mahler lost himself in the sounds of nature. [gentle flute music]
♪ ♪ The distant fanfares would have
Been coming from over here In the center of the town
From the parade grounds. And down here, just off
The parade grounds, Was mahler's house. [dancing string music]
♪ ♪ From his bedroom window,
Mahler could hear the dance Music coming up from his
Father's tavern below. At the time, taverns were one
Of the few businesses jews Were allowed to run. And bernard mahler owned
His own place, like his father Before him. Night after night,
Rustic dance music filled Mahler's young ears. [racing fiddle music]
It was music like this That inspired many of his
Scherzos, including the second Movement of his first symphony. [lilting string music]
♪ ♪ The tavern was a popular spot
For soldiers to drop in For a drink, make music,
And dance with the local girls. Mahler would have seen them
Swaying to dances like the Laendler or the styrian,
Country cousins of the waltz. And he very likely heard them
Singing songs like the popular Song of the postillion. [stately trumpet music]
>> [singing in native language] ♪ ♪
>> mahler's experience of this Music couldn't have been
More direct or varied. Customers would have constantly
Come into the tavern, Many with their own instruments,
Singing and playing the music Of their districts
Their own way. [trumpet call]
♪ ♪ [stately string music]
♪ ♪ Mahler remembers the rustic
Quality of the music-making And represents it with
Affectionate humor, Using the full forces
Of the symphony orchestra To imitate the tipsy
Country bumpkin style Of the folks downstairs. [lilting orchestral music]
♪ ♪ >> there are these repeated
Eighth notes that we play In a style that's called
Stopped horn. [punchy brass music]
Basically, we just jam our hand In the bell and we make this
Really kind of gnarly, Nasty sound:
♪ rah-rah-rah-rah-rah ♪ [thrumming bass line]
♪ ♪ >> the whole empire moved
To the 1-2-3, 1-2-3 pulse Of these dances,
And every officer, clerk, Or farmer glided or stomped
His way across the dance floors. [dancing orchestral music]
♪ ♪ [ominous string music]
♪ ♪ There was another, darker
Influence on mahler's music. It came from his experience
Of loneliness, isolation, And death. Eight of mahler's 13 brothers
And sisters died before They reached adulthood. It's no surprise that his works
Deal with death so often. The death of so many of his
Siblings, the constant presence Of death in the military world
Surrounding him-- Many of these heavy ideas
Were in his mind When he set out to begin
This weird and deceptively Simple movement. [mournful bass solo]
♪ ♪ >> it would have been pretty
Shocking to the audience Of his day, this eerie sound
Of the bass playing Frere jacques but in
The minor key. He may have chosen the bass
Because he wanted it to sound A little bit labored
And a little bit strained. [buzzing bass fiddle music]
>> he was evoking the bass Fiddles he had heard growing up
In iglau. [grating string sound]
But he transformed their sound Into something beautiful
Yet eerie and foreboding. [mournful woodwind music]
♪ ♪ This movement is short,
Yet mahler tells us the most About it. He tells us it's a funeral march
In the style of callot, A 17th-century artist famous
For grotesque caricatures And scenes of war and circuses. [dancing oboe music]
♪ ♪ We then learn that the subject
Of the movement would be Familiar to any child
Who had seen the famous Engraving by moritz von schwind,
The huntsman's funeral. What mahler doesn't tell us,
What he assumes his audience Will already know,
Is that the words in the manner Of callot would bring to mind
The work of the author E.t.a. hoffman,
Who published his first Collection of stories
In the early 1800s. They were called
Fantasy pieces In the manner of callot. [dancing oboe music]
♪ ♪ As freud later pointed out,
They are explorations Of the unconscious. The stories tell how frightening
Moments of childhood can cast Menacing shadows on an entire
Life. [mournful string music]
That's what's at the heart Of this movement. The measured tread of a march,
Specifically a funeral march Like this, is essential raw
Material for mahler. He heard so many of them
As a boy. [man commanding in german]
[stately brass music] In his time, two pieces
Were used for such funerals: Either chopin's funeral march
Or this one from donizetti's Last opera, dom sebastian. [reverent brass music]
♪ ♪ This march bears a striking
Resemblance to much of mahler's Music. ♪ ♪
In fact, the last of the Wayfarer songs quotes this
Phrase from donizetti's march. ♪ ♪
>> [singing in german] ♪ ♪
>> there's also an echo of the March and the song at the
Loneliest point of the third Movement. [lilting flute music]
♪ ♪ Death isn't the only subject
Of this movement. As is so typical of mahler,
There's relief in the form Of comedy and grotesque
Entertainment. Mahler said this weird
Juxtaposition came from A particular childhood memory. During an ugly quarrel
Between his parents, He ran in terror out the door,
Right into the street musician Who was playing
Ach du lieber augustin. >> ♪ ach du lieber augustin ♪
♪ augustin, augustin ♪ ♪ ach, du lieber augustin ♪
>> a lifetime later, He told sigmund freud
That it was this incident That compelled him to mix
The sad and tragic With the ironic and grotesque. [pensive string music]
♪ ♪ That's just what he does
In the third movement, When he interrupts the funeral
March with the sounds Of tavern music. [mournful music speeds up]
♪ ♪ So here, right in the middle
Of a funeral march, Not one but two dance bands
Come in... [upbeat dance music emerges]
Just the kind of groups That might have spelled one
Another in the mahler family's Tavern. [music slows]
♪ ♪ To some people, these bands
Sound jewish, To others, gypsy. But we're hearing these bands
Through mahler's ears, And he's combining styles
From the countless pickup groups He heard over the years. [dancing orchestral music]
♪ ♪ >> mahler started understanding
That the clarinet was something That could be used not just to
Express something melancholy But even something
Saucy or sassy Or kvetchy or whiny. [swooning string music]
♪ ♪ >> the march comes back
And rambles into a beautiful Musical oasis. It's another part
Of songs of the wayfarer. The words speak of the beauty
Of the linden tree and the Peacefulness of forgetful
Sleep under its branches. >> [singing in german]
♪ ♪ [gentle string music]
♪ ♪ >> the music is so beautiful,
So beautiful, it can make you Cry. ♪ ♪
Why do we cry when we hear Something beautiful? It's because we fear
It's too beautiful, Too beautiful to last. ♪ ♪
This is an essential quality Of mahler's music:
Remembering that sense of beauty And wonder, the wonder he tells
Us that, in spite of life's Bitterness and sorrow,
We must always hold on to. [stately brass music]
♪ ♪ The march comes back. It weaves in and out
As ever wilder dance bands Break in, suggesting
Slamming windows or closing Doors. But in the end,
It's the march that remains. [mournful marching music]
Mahler ends the movement Like a suspenseful storyteller. Nothing is left
But a few ironic whimpers And sighs as the timpani
Marches off into oblivion. [timpanI fades quietly]
♪ ♪ [train whistle blows]
[steam hissing] In 1875, at the age of 15,
Mahler left iglau. [train hisses and clicks]
He went to vienna, Where he was thunderstruck
By the revolutionary music Of wagner. He studied at the vienna
Conservatory and then, at age 20, set out to seek his fortune. He got himself an agent
And a three-month contract As music director
In the spa town of bad hall. [woman singing in german]
♪ ♪ Bad hall offered its visitors
Diverting operettas and Melodramas in the afternoons. [woman yodeling]
Mahler's duties included Not only conducting
But also putting out the music, Dusting off the seats,
And even walking the theater Director's daughter in her
Stroller. A different show was offered
Nearly every day, And mahler had to suffer
Through some of the most Sentimental and second-rate
Music of the era. >> yoo-hoo-wha!
[train whistling] >> and so began the years
In which mahler was a wanderer, A journeyman. He slowly climbed the ladder
Of success as a conductor And music director,
Crisscrossing the Austro-hungarian empire
And beyond. [man singing in german]
♪ ♪ From the provincial towns
Of olmutz and laibach, He moved to bigger,
More important opera houses In kassel, prague,
And then leipzig. [man singing in german]
By his late 20s, Mahler was already much
In demand and well on his way To becoming music director
In a major city, Budapest. By the end of summer 1888,
Gossipy music lovers Of budapest cafes had heard
A hot new rumor. An odd, thin young man
Had been seen brusquely tromping In and out of the opera house's
Stage door. Who was he? Some said the opera's new
Music director. But how could this be? He was clearly young, unknown,
Foreign, jewish. Budapest was about to encounter
Gustav mahler. [flowing string music]
♪ ♪ [woman vocalizing operatically]
♪ ♪ Mahler spent weeks taking
The measure of this wonderful Place. It was the second biggest house
In the empire and had A budget measured in millions
Per year. Mahler couldn't wait
To take control of it all. He had a bridge built right here
So he could jump from the pit To the stage. He was everywhere at once,
Cautioning, encouraging Bassoonists and percussionists,
Moving to adjust the position Of chorus members,
Telling the soloists what to do. He had something to say
To everybody. It was specific. It was constructive. But there was something about
The way he said it That irritated people. Two of the singers even
Challenged him to a duel. [dramatic brass flourish]
But even as he obsessed Over every detail of the opera
House, what was really On his mind was that in his
Briefcase, he had the manuscript Of his completed first symphony
That was crying out For a premiere. [dramatic orchestral music]
♪ ♪ ♪ ♪
One of the greatest screams In all music has thrown us
Right back to the scariest Confrontational moment
Of the first movement. [jaunty piano music]
[ominous orchestral music] Now it's back,
Back with a vengeance. [cymbal crashes]
[dramatic orchestral music] ♪ ♪
[stately brass band music] ♪ ♪
Mahler takes his childhood Memories of military music
And cleverly twists them Into a threatening and scornful
March, suggesting an enormous Battle scene, like a musical
Armageddon. ♪ ♪
There seems no way out of this. The orchestra thrashes itself
Into complete exhaustion. [torrid orchestral music]
♪ ♪ [music slows]
♪ ♪ And then, just when it seems
Like there's nowhere to go, Somehow mahler begins
To feel his way haltingly Toward a precious memory. [romantic piano melody]
♪ ♪ [serene orchestral music]
♪ ♪ It's all very beautiful
And touching, but mahler still Has his symphonic mission
To complete. Too much unfinished business
Is left. [seething bass line]
♪ ♪ The old menacing bass line
Creeps in again, And we're thrown right back
Into the fray. [stately trombone cue]
[thunderous orchestral music] ♪ ♪
>> mahler is like an entire Universe in a symphony. >> he combines everything,
Happiness and sadness Or anxiety and hope. >> he is committed to give you
The ride of your life. [cymbal crashes]
[roiling orchestral music] ♪ ♪
[jaunty woodwind instrumental] ♪ ♪
[stately brass cue] ♪ ♪
>> finally, the storm seems To have passed. But musically, we're nowhere
Near where we need to be. This is mahler's first symphony
In "d" major. And "d" major...
[plays chord] Is where we got to get. And mahler gets there by pulling
Off a stunt that made him Very proud. Instead of working out some
Traditional way of modulating To the key he needs,
He just goes for it, Making a daring leap home
In a way that still makes The audience gasp. [stately piano chords]
[whirling orchestral music] ♪ ♪
[key changes thunderously] ♪ ♪
But even after this triumphant Vault, mahler has parts
Of his big plan to complete. He wants to bring all the
Motives of the symphony Together and joyously
Transfigure them. [stabbing strings]
♪ ♪ He can't resist showing off
His compositional chops, Even throwing in a devilish
Fugue. [nimble string music]
♪ ♪ It all builds to something dark
And tense before reaching The final turning point. [music builds steadily]
♪ ♪ [cymbal crashes]
[galloping brass music] Now at last, the scary bass
Line, the achy fourths, Sound like a part of handel's
Hallelujah chorus. [choir vocalizing]
[stately brass music] ♪ ♪
>> all of a sudden, you see This marking in your music
Asking the entire horn section To stand up. And you feel like you've just
Been on this ride, and then Finally that last page,
You have this glorious call. And it's like riding home
On your white stallion. [dramatic orchestral music]
♪ ♪ [cymbal crashes]
[cymbal crashes] >> mahler's first symphony
Premiered at budapest's Redoutensaal in 1889. None who attended the
Performance realized What a historic event
They had witnessed. [dramatic orchestral music]
♪ ♪ At 28, mahler already possessed
The raw material and creative Genius that would mark
All of his symphonies And weave them together
Into a single vision, A symphony
of life. [thundering timpani]
[music cuts abruptly] [gentle string music]
