Why is "Song of the Earth" a monumental crystallization of East-West cultural exchanges and fusion in the field of music, and a masterpiece of world renown? (IV)

My favorite "Song of the Earth"

No longer dare to call myself a Mahler fan, because it has been many years since I listened to the "Song of the Earth", although I was once sure that it was the favorite of this life, perhaps it was the misinterpretation of Mahler in adolescence! At that time I saw all the sadness and bitterness of life in his music, hissing and rolling, as if I had seen a savior, and could not wait to fall at his feet, or simply stuff their souls into his hands. In my opinion, he was the "Angry Young Man" of his time, breaking up real blood and flesh to bloom in his music, with loneliness and despair spreading into a luxurious landscape, while at the same time rocking up with beautiful melodies, which is much more lethal than the wailing rock music of today. I know that no matter how classical my affections and moods, Mahler's bloodlust and turmoil will always be like sweet poison, and can still leave me disheveled, war-weary, and stupefied by it after a long period of longing and isolation.

Still irredeemably list Song of the Earth as a favorite symphony. You listen to the viscous melancholy sound of the piano, really Mahler ah, temperament as the valley of the orchid, domineering ghosts are in, the sound is beautiful intoxicating, what is called "majestic", what is called "dense", probably this is it. The rich orchestral sound as always, struggling across the octave to climb high, and then torn, mashed, the remnants of the beautiful rinse clean. Streamlined down to a pounding on the piano, the sound becomes at once empty and new, the lines bubbling with irregular contours and sharp corners. Although the splendor is still there, but the inner part of the sound of a nervous disorganization, as if a handful of broken glass in a kaleidoscope, let me imagine, moved, always think of "souls come back", sighs and nostalgia in the arms of the snuggling heat. Mahler's songs can make me crazy. I am in the winter wind, boiling the blood of the whole body, listening to six songs composed of "Song of the Earth", only to hear the hot music with the mournful lyrics, the world then upside down now absurd tone, so that people have no choice but to be "touched". Tracing the connection between the music and the lyrics, one can see the sensitive Mahler's unique sense of poetry.

For me, Mahler's music and Mahler the Jew have a literary texture all over them. His own life is like a long, dismal poem, with its source in Jewish hardship and a sentimental, precocious childhood, its middle, ostracized career as a conductor as a hoarse, bleak finale to the music, and his death as an open-ended journey to heaven. The famous Mahler biographer Lagrange once tried to trace the fragments of Mahler's childhood, such as his eyes on his home, the marketplace, the church hall, the school, and the trauma left behind by the premature death of his hands and feet, and most of these can be found in his "Song of the Earth" in response. These imprints are said to have had a symbolic meaning for Mahler; they shaped the way he saw the world. He would be warm and outgoing, and could be quiet, and could laugh like a child with tears in his eyes in the middle of a conversation. His personality was full of contradictions, with delicate love and occasional rudeness sometimes hurting people as well as himself.

Mahler's "Song of the Earth" is a poem of complex imagery, full of allusions and symbols. Regardless of the present day, the poem will always refrigerate the sadness of a troubled world. When I read Mahler, he is one of those huge symphonies full of details; when I don't read it, the spirit is secretly residing somewhere, and my fingers are strumming on the piano, leading me into the enigmatic world of dreams. (anonymous)

Jewish music master Mahler was born on July 7, 1860 in Bohemia, he is the son of a brewery owner. 10 years old, he held a piano recital in his hometown, the next year, he was sent to Prague to study, but read two years because of the frailty of the school to return home. 1885, a heard Mahler's performance of the farm manager felt that his talent is extraordinary, and suggested and took him to Vienna music. In 1885, a farm manager who had heard Mahler play suggested and took him to the Vienna Conservatory of Music for piano instruction, but after winning the school's piano competition, he wanted to switch to composition, while also taking a philosophy course at the University of Vienna and privately studying Bruckner's writings. Two years later, he was teaching piano at the school and writing the libretto for his first work, which was Songs of Sorrow.

Mahler was a hard-working musician who, in addition to being a busy conductor of orchestras and theaters, spent the rest of his time composing, with few breaks. He began his conducting career in 1880 in a small theater in northern Austria, and from 1883 to 1885 he moved to another location, where he had an inconclusive affair with a female singer. He left in disgrace and went to work in Prague, at which time he also wrote a set of songs for the singer's girlfriend, even the lyrics were written by him. While in Prague, he performed in Mozart and Wagner's operas, which were greatly appreciated by Brahms. At the age of 31 Mahler became conductor of the Hamburg Opera Orchestra, and then assistant conductor to one of the most prestigious conductors of his time in Leipzig, and conductor of the Vienna Opera for ten years, which was the most brilliant and active period of his life. Mahler's bold use of his originality led to many historic performances of Mozart, Beethoven and Wagner operas. He fought against conservative stereotypes in opera conducting. After a decade of struggle, in which Mahler suffered constant opposition and had to leave the Vienna Opera, he was hired in 1909 as conductor of the New York Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra, as well as the Metropolitan Opera. He returned to his hometown in February 1911 after a heart attack. On May 18 of that year, Mahler died in Vienna of a serious blood infection due to his heart condition and was buried in Grinzinger Cemetery.

Mahler had great respect for the previous generation of musicians. 1875, the famous symphony composer Bruckner's "Symphony No. 3," the first performance of the symphony, at that time Bruckner did not have as much fame, the orchestra members do not appreciate the symphony's authors, so the entire performance was full of "perfunctory" flavor, the first performance of the failure can be imagined. Failure of the first performance can be imagined. During the performance, the audience booed and whistled. In the end, there were only 25 people left on stage. Mahler, who was 17 years old at the time, was one of those 25. At the end of the show, they gave Bruckner a standing ovation and congratulated him.

Mahler's symphony was magnificent, bringing this form of music to an unprecedented level of grandeur. Mahler is a hugely important figure in the history of symphonic music. His symphonies, for more than 100 years, have been staged at an extremely high rate, and some even consider Mahler to be the greatest symphonic composer after Beethoven. However, many music critics believe that Mahler's works, though grand, are permeated with pessimism and misanthropy, and that each symphony is like a sad song. This is not an unreasonable statement. Music is indeed a reflection of the composer's own worldview, and Mahler's life was not a smooth one, but full of ups and downs, disappointments and misfortunes. His friendship with Freud was based on this foundation. The ill-fated Mahler was tormented by all the anguish of life, and for this reason he turned to the psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud. At that time, it was the time when Freud's theories were misunderstood by people, Freud was naturally delighted that someone came to ask for advice. The two men talked very much, and Freud found that Mahler was able to comprehend the principles of psychoanalysis very quickly, which surprised him.

The longest surviving symphonies are by Mahler, whose Third Symphony has six movements, the first of which is 45 minutes long. The Eighth Symphony is known as the "Symphony of a Thousand" because that's how many people were on stage at its premiere in Munich.

The Resurrection Symphony is an alternative name for Mahler's Symphony No. 2, written between 1890 and 1894. c minor, ****5 movements. The fourth movement utilizes a song from his songbook The Magic Horns of Youth, Primal Light, and the fifth movement features a soprano, chorus and orchestra setting of the German poet Klopstock's poem Resurrection. The author was friendly with the German musician Piolo, and had submitted a draft of this piece to Piolo for review and received enthusiastic encouragement. When the author wrote the last movement, he struggled to understand it, and when he heard the chorus of "Ode to the Resurrection" at the funeral of Piolo in 1894, he suddenly realized it, and wrote the last movement without any difficulty, so he named the whole piece "Resurrection".

The Fourth Symphony is one of the smallest and simplest of Mahler's symphonies, known as the "Junior Magic Horn Symphony" along with the Second and Third Symphonies, with lyrics and a part of the theme melody taken from the "Junior Magic Horn Songs" folk song collection. This collection of folk songs includes medieval legends, tales of the 30 Years' War and the Seven Years' War, and satirical tales of people suffering in purgatory, starving, waiting to be shot, or being banished. These stories thrilled Mahler, who seemed to find his roots in this collection of folk songs. The score takes the form of focusing on the fourth movement and thematically keeping the previous movements related to the fourth, using poetry and music to express the joy of heaven. Moreover, the orchestration of this symphony is smaller in scale than in the past. In terms of appearance, the instrumentation does not use heavy sounding instruments such as trombones or tuba horns, so it has a watercolor-like and light feeling.