Symphony No. 8 (Mahler) - Knowledge (XXG)

1229: 579: 459: 400: 47: 606:, who attended the occasion, commented that "we do not leave Amsterdam greatly envying the diet of Mahler first and every other composer afterward, to which Mengelberg is training the music-lovers of that city." The Austrian music historian Oscar Bie, while impressed with the festival as a whole, wrote subsequently that the Eighth was "stronger in effect than in significance, and purer in its voices than in emotion". Langford had commented on the British "not being very eager about Mahler", and the Eighth Symphony was not performed in Britain until 15 April 1930, when 467: 825: 1054: 441:. Mahler began composing the Veni creator hymn without waiting for the text to arrive from Vienna. When it did, according to Alma Mahler, "the complete text fitted the music exactly. Intuitively he had composed the music for the full strophes ." Although amendments and alterations were subsequently carried out to the score, there is very little manuscript evidence of the sweeping changes and rewriting that occurred with his earlier symphonies as they were prepared for performance. 1749:

The full orchestral score of the Symphony was published by UE in 1912. A Russian version, published in Moscow by Izdatel'stvo Muzyka in 1976, was republished in the United States by Dover Publications in 1989, with an English text and notes. The International Gustav Mahler Society, founded in 1955, has as its main objective the production of a complete critical edition of all of Mahler's works. As of 2016 its critical edition of the Eighth remains a project for the future.

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first appearance of the angels returns. These two motifs predominate in the trio which follows, a request to the Mater on behalf of a fourth penitent, Faust's lover once known as Gretchen, who has come to make her plea for the soul of Faust. After Gretchen's entreaty, a solo of "limpid beauty" in Kennedy's words, an atmosphere of hushed reverence descends. The Mater Gloriosa then sings her only two lines, in the symphony's opening key of

965: 5342: 4107: 714:. Despite the evident disparities within this juxtaposition, the work as a whole expresses a single idea, that of redemption through the power of love. The choice of these two texts was not arbitrary; Goethe, a poet whom Mahler revered, believed that Veni creator embodied aspects of his own philosophy, and had translated it into German in 1820. Once inspired by the Veni creator idea, Mahler soon saw the 1087: 1018: 5368: 3781: 3748: 916: 490:, Mahler's assistant at the Vienna Hofoper, was responsible for the recruitment and preparation of the eight soloists. Through the spring and summer these forces prepared in their home towns, before assembling in Munich early in September for three full days of final rehearsals under Mahler. His youthful assistant 502:). This vast hall had a capacity of 3,200; to assist ticket sales and raise publicity, Gutmann devised the nickname "Symphony of a Thousand", which has remained the symphony's popular subtitle despite Mahler's disapproval. Among the many distinguished figures present at the sold-out premiere were the composers 751: 334:, in her memoirs, says that for a fortnight Mahler was "haunted by the spectre of failing inspiration"; Mahler's recollection, however, is that on the first day of the vacation he was seized by the creative spirit, and plunged immediately into composition of the work that would become his Eighth Symphony. 1164: 1853:

It is not in fact certain that more than 1,000 performers participated in the Munich premiere. La Grange enumerates a chorus of 850 (including 350 children), 157 instrumentalists and the eight soloists, to give a total of 1,015. However, Jonathan Carr suggests that there is evidence that not all the

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Mahler recommended that in very large halls, the first player in each of the woodwind sections should be doubled and that numbers in the strings should also be augmented. In addition, the piccolos, e-flat clarinet, harps and mandolin, and the first offstage trumpet, should have "several to the part"

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Up to this time, receptions of Mahler's new symphonies had usually been disappointing. However, the Munich premiere of the Eighth Symphony was an unqualified triumph; as the final chords died away there was a short pause before a huge outbreak of applause which lasted for twenty minutes. Back at his

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remarked later on the many small changes that Mahler made to the score during rehearsal: "He always wanted more clarity, more sound, more dynamic contrast. At one point during rehearsals he turned to us and said, 'If, after my death, something doesn't sound right, then change it. You have not only a

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for the sopranos, for soloists and for choral singers. He characterises the alto solos as brief and unremarkable; however, the tenor solo role in Part II is both extensive and demanding, requiring on several occasions to be heard over the choruses. The wide melodic leaps in the Pater Profundus role

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finds much of the symphony "bland", lacking the tension and resolution present in the composer's other symphonies. Deryck Cooke, on the other hand, compares Mahler's Eighth to Beethoven's Choral (Ninth) Symphony. To Cooke, Mahler's is "the Choral Symphony of the twentieth century: like Beethoven's,

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With its use of vocal elements throughout, rather than in episodes at or near the end, the work was the first completely choral symphony to be written. Mahler had no doubts about the ground-breaking nature of the symphony, calling it the grandest thing he had ever done, and maintaining that all his

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Only one autograph score of Symphony No. 8 is known to exist. Once the property of Alma Mahler, it is held by the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek in Munich. In 1906 Mahler signed a contract with the Viennese publishing firm Universal Edition (UE), which thus became the main publisher of all his works.

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Thereafter the key changes frequently as a chorus of penitent women petition the Mater for a hearing; this is followed by the solo entreaties of Magna Peccatrix, Mulier Samaritana and Maria Aegyptiaca. In these arias the "love" theme is further explored, and the "scherzo" theme associated with the

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Two notes in Mahler's handwriting dating from June 1906 show that early schemes for the work, which he may not at first have intended as a fully choral symphony, were based on a four-movement structure in which two "hymns" surround an instrumental core. These outlines show that Mahler had fixed on

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The fusion of song and symphony had been a characteristic of Mahler's early works. In his "middle" compositional period after 1901, a change of style led him to produce three purely instrumental symphonies. The Eighth, marking the end of the middle period, returns to a combination of orchestra and

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Mahler had been convinced from the start of the work's significance; in renouncing the pessimism that had marked much of his music, he offered the Eighth as an expression of confidence in the eternal human spirit. In the period following the composer's death, performances were comparatively rare.

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The first phase of development begins as a women's chorus of the younger angels invoke a "happy company of blessed children" who must bear Faust's soul heavenwards. The blessed boys receive the soul gladly; their voices are joined by Doctor Marianus (tenor), who accompanies their chorus before

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The earliest commercial recording generally available came from a performance at Ahoy Hall in Rotterdam for the Holland Festival of 1955. It was conducted by a Mahler pioneer, Eduard Flipse, who came from the Dutch Mahler tradition. This recording was much beloved of a previous generation of

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The first children's chorus follows, in a joyful mood, as the music gathers force and pace. This is a passage of great complexity, in the form of a double fugue involving development of many of the preceding themes, with constant changes to the key signature. All forces combine again in the

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breaking into a rapturous E major paean to the Mater Gloriosa, "Queen and ruler of the world!". As the aria ends, the male voices in the chorus echo the soloist's words to an orchestral background of viola tremolos, in a passage described by La Grange as "emotionally irresistible".

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to finance the American premiere, which took place on 2 March 1916. The occasion was a great success; the symphony was played several more times in Philadelphia before the orchestra and choruses travelled to New York, for a series of equally well-received performances at the

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in 1951. A Carnegie Hall performance under Stokowski in 1950 became the first complete recording of the symphony to be issued. After 1950 the increasing numbers of performances and recordings of the work signified its growing popularity, but not all critics were won over.

1111:" theme from Part I. This is followed by a demanding and dramatic aria for bass, the voice of Pater Profundus, who ends his tortured meditation by asking for God's mercy on his thoughts and for enlightenment. The repeated chords in this section are reminiscent of 317:

collection as the primary influence; the songs are less folk-related, and no longer infiltrate the symphonies as extensively as before. During this period Symphonies No. 5, No. 6 and No. 7 were written, all as purely instrumental works, portrayed by Mahler scholar

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in a combination of styles. La Grange comments: "To give expression to his cosmic vision, it was ... necessary to go beyond all previously known limits and dimensions." The orchestral forces required are, however, not as large as those deployed in

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Here, what Kennedy calls "the unmistakable presence of twentieth-century Mahler" is felt as a solo soprano introduces a meditative theme. She is soon joined by other solo voices as the new theme is explored before the choirs return exuberantly, in an

773:. This is the first of his works in which familiar fingerprints—birdsong, military marches, Austrian dances—are almost entirely absent. Although the vast choral and orchestral forces employed suggest a work of monumental sound, according to critic 1214:

A short orchestral passage follows, scored for an eccentric chamber group consisting of piccolo, flute, clarinet, harmonium, celesta, piano, harps and a string quartet. This acts as a transition to the finale, the Chorus Mysticus, which begins in

1121:. The mood lightens with the entry of the angels and blessed boys (women's and children's choruses) bearing the soul of Faust; the music here is perhaps a relic of the "Christmas Games" scherzo envisioned in the abortive four-movement draft plan. 445:

previous symphonies were merely preludes to it. "Try to imagine the whole universe beginning to ring and resound. There are no longer human voices, but planets and suns revolving." It was his "gift to the nation ... a great joy-bringer."

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and, in the manner of an operatic overture, anticipates several of the themes which will be heard later in the movement. The exposition begins in near-silence; the scene depicted is that of a rocky, wooded mountainside, the dwelling place of

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Mahler made arrangements with the impresario Emil Gutmann for the symphony to be premiered in Munich in the autumn of 1910. He soon regretted this involvement, writing of his fears that Gutmann would turn the performance into "a catastrophic

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However, from the mid-20th century onwards the symphony has been heard regularly in concert halls all over the world, and has been recorded many times. While recognising its wide popularity, modern critics have divided opinions on the work;

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and No. 4, which all employ vocal as well as instrumental forces. From about 1901, however, Mahler's music underwent a change in character as he moved into the middle period of his compositional life. Here, the more austere poems of

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for nine years. Throughout this time his practice was to leave Vienna at the close of the Hofoper season for a summer retreat, where he could devote himself to composition. Since 1899 this had been at Maiernigg, near the resort town of

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major returns with a variation of the opening theme. The section is interrupted by a short orchestral interlude in which the low bells are sounded, adding a sombre touch to the music. This new, less secure mood is carried through when

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poem as an ideal counterpart to the Latin hymn. The unity between the two parts of the symphony is established, musically, by the extent to which they share thematic material. In particular, the first notes of the Veni creator theme —

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Mahlerites (not least for the unforgettable sound of the boys choruses—like a parliament of street urchins straight out of Fagin's kitchen) since it was, for some time, the only recording you could get and still has much to tell us.

1249:" from Part I. Finally, as the chorus concludes with "The eternal feminine draws us on high", the off-stage brass re-enters with a final salute on the Veni creator motif, to end the symphony with a triumphant flourish. 407:

From Mahler's later comments on the symphony's gestation, it is evident that the four-movement plan was relatively short-lived. He soon replaced the last three movements with a single section, essentially a dramatic

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voice in a symphonic context. The structure of the work is unconventional: instead of the normal framework of several movements, the piece is in two parts ("1." and "2. Teil"). Part I is based on the Latin text of

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found the piece weak, "a giant symbolic shell"; this most affirmative work of Mahler's is, in Adorno's view, his least successful, musically and artistically inferior to his other symphonies. The composer-critic

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Mahler arrived at Maiernigg in June 1906 with the draft manuscript of his Seventh Symphony; he intended to spend time revising the orchestration until an idea for a new work should strike. The composer's wife

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The Eighth Symphony's two parts combine the sacred text of the 9th-century Latin hymn Veni creator spiritus with the secular text from the closing passages from Goethe's 19th-century dramatic poem

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The sound rises in a gradual crescendo, as the solo voices alternately join or contrast with the chorus. As the climax approaches, many themes are reprised: the love theme, Gretchen's song, the "

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as 85 minutes. This performance was the last time that Mahler conducted a premiere of one of his own works. Eight months after his Munich triumph, he died at the age of 50. His remaining works—

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elements which had appeared in his most recent works. The symphony's key is, for Mahler, unusually stable; despite frequent diversions into other keys the music always returns to its central

1949:), pp. 5 and 79 (of the digital object – the author uses the spelling "Theil") and the first edition (Wien, 1911), pp. 3 and 75; also, the program for the American premiere showed below, 498:

For the premiere, fixed for 12 September, Gutmann had hired the newly built Neue Musik-Festhalle, in the Munich International Exhibition grounds near Theresienhöhe (now a branch of the

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In the late 20th century and into the 21st, the symphony was performed in all parts of the world. A succession of premieres in the Far East culminated in October 2002 in Beijing, when

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hotel Mahler received a letter from Thomas Mann, which referred to the composer as "the man who, as I believe, expresses the art of our time in its profoundest and most sacred form".

168:", although the work is normally presented with far fewer than a thousand performers and the composer disapproved of the name. The work was composed in a single inspired burst at his 563:

On the day following the Munich premiere Mahler led the orchestra and choruses in a repeat performance. During the next three years, according to the calculations of Mahler's friend

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outline that was discerned by early analysts. The structure of Part II is more difficult to summarise, being an amalgam of many genres. Analysts, including Specht, Cooke and

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The three note "creator" motif is immediately taken up by the trombones and then the trumpets in a marching theme that will be used as a unifying factor throughout the work.

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Given the scale of the movement and its complexity, the suggestion that it was composed in its entirety in advance of the words is, in Mitchell's view, impossible to accept.

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but in a different way, it sets before us an ideal which we are as yet far from realising—even perhaps moving away from—but which we can hardly abandon without perishing".

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recapitulation of the Veni creator section in shortened form. A quieter passage of recapitulation leads to an orchestral coda before the children's chorus announces the

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Since the symphony was first recorded, at least 70 recordings have been made by many of the world's leading orchestras and singers, mostly during live performances.

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The symphony is scored for a very large orchestra, in keeping with Mahler's conception of the work as a "new symphonic universe", a synthesis of symphony, cantata,

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Sir Adrian Boult's 1948 broadcast performance with the BBC Symphony Orchestra was recorded by the BBC, but not issued until 2009 when it was made available in

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After their first declamatory statement the two choirs engage in a sung dialogue, which ends with a short transition to an extended lyrical passage, the plea "

756:— dominate the climaxes to each part; at the symphony's culmination, Goethe's glorification of "Eternal Womanhood" is set in the form of a religious chorale. 479: 164:

is one of the largest-scale choral works in the classical concert repertoire. As it requires huge instrumental and vocal forces it is frequently called the "

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found its optimism unconvincing, and considered it artistically and musically inferior to Mahler's other symphonies. Conversely, it has been compared by

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The second part of the symphony follows the narrative of the final stages in Goethe's poem—the journey of Faust's soul, rescued from the clutches of

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At the Amsterdam Mahler Festival in May 1920, Mahler's completed symphonies and his major song cycles were presented over nine concerts given by the

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epic to music, "and to set it quite differently from other composers who have made it saccharine and feeble." In comments recorded by his biographer

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show". Preparations began early in the year, with the selection of choirs from the choral societies of Munich, Leipzig and Vienna. The Munich

5413: 4406: 3706: 3634: 3599: 3548: 3529: 3510: 3422: 3392: 3359: 3242: 3220: 3194: 3050: 1893: text are based on the translation by David Luke, published in 1994 by Oxford University Press and used in La Grange, pp. 896–904. 789: 5403: 4069: 5033: 376:. The four-movement plan is retained in a slightly different form, still without specific indication of the extent of the choral element: 1156:

In the second part of the development, the entry of the Mater Gloriosa is signalled in E major by a sustained harmonium chord, with harp

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on 12 March 1912, and the first Prague performance, given on 20 March 1912 under Mahler's former Vienna Hofoper colleague,

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The final development episode is a hymnlike tenor solo and chorus, in which Doctor Marianus calls on the penitents to "Gaze aloft".

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the idea of opening with the Latin hymn, but had not yet settled on the precise form of the rest. The first note is as follows:

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In Part II the soloists are assigned to dramatic roles represented in Goethe's text, as illustrated in the following table.

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the Eighth Symphony received a further 20 performances across Europe. These included the Dutch premiere, in Amsterdam under

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A performance of Mahler's Eighth in Vienna in 2009 illustrates the scale of the instrumental and vocal forces employed.

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has suggested that the formal scheme for Part II, after the orchestral introduction, is a sonata plan without the

3681: 3156: 2406: 4049: 688: 683:, to mark the 400th anniversary of the city's foundation. In London on 16 July 2010 the opening concert of the 172:

villa in southern Austria in the summer of 1906. The last of Mahler's works that was premiered in his lifetime, the

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Mahler's manuscript score for the Chorus Mysticus, which provides the triumphant conclusion to the Eighth Symphony

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The symphony's publishers, Universal Editions, give the duration as 90 minutes, as does Mahler's biographer

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English quotations from the Veni creator text are taken from the translation in Cooke, pp. 94–95

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and Finale "movements" within the overall scheme of Part II, though others, including La Grange and

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The years after World War II saw a number of notable performances of the Eighth Symphony, including Sir

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Viennese choristers reached the hall and the number of performers may therefore not have reached 1,000.

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Gustav Mahler Volume III: Songs and Symphonies of Life and Death: Interpretations and Annotations

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as "more stern and forthright ..., more tautly symphonic, with a new granite-like hardness of

296:("The Youth's Magic Horn"), which he had first encountered around 1887. The music of Mahler's many 177: 144: 5057: 4470: 4171: 3489: 3458: 2607: 2542: 2260: 1416: 1235: 1204: 1170: 1131: 1093: 1024: 999: 971: 922: 898: 878: 809: 290:

Until 1901, Mahler's compositions had been heavily influenced by the German folk-poem collection

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The Neue Musik-Festhalle, venue of the premiere, now part of the transportation centre of the

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A solemn baritone solo, the voice of Pater Ecstaticus, ends warmly as the key changes to the

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form. The first commercially issued recording of the complete symphony was performed by the

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celebrated the 150th anniversary of Mahler's birth with a performance of the Eighth, with

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Mahler's composing hut at Maiernigg, where the Eighth Symphony was composed in summer 1906

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as far as he had carried the composition of the hymn at the time when the text arrived.

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whose utterances are heard in an atmospheric chorus complete with whispers and echoes.

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The work was written at a frantic pace—"in record time", according to the musicologist

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The symphony's duration at its first performance was recorded by the critic-composer

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Mahler had joined the Hofoper as a staff conductor in April 1897, and had succeeded

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At the end of this episode another transition precedes the "unforgettable surge in

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Program for the US premiere of Mahler's Eighth Symphony, Philadelphia, March 1916

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The second note includes musical sketches for the Veni creator movement, and two

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played over a pianissimo violin melody which La Grange labels the "love" theme.

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A ticket for the premiere of the Eighth Symphony, Munich, 12 September 1910

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Gustav Mahler Volume II: The Wunderhorn Years: Chronicles and Commentaries

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Die Achte Symphonie von Gustav Mahler. Konzeption einer universalen Symphonik

1145:" ("Rejoice!") before the exposition ends in a postlude which refers to the " 1034:

Thereafter the music moves swiftly and powerfully to its climax, in which an

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In the U.S., Leopold Stokowski persuaded an initially reluctant board of the

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The Creating of the Eighth (in booklet accompanying DGG recording 445 843-2)

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in the first performance of the work in the People's Republic of China. The

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through the power of love, a unity conveyed through shared musical themes.

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major, sounded on the organ, before the entry of the massed choirs in a

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Final rehearsal for the world premiere in the Neue Musik-Festhalle in

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The performance at the Auditorio Nacional de España in 2023 with the

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Gustav Mahler Volume 3: Vienna: Triumph and Disillusion (1904–1907)

2603: 854:("Sing to the Lord a new song"). The symphony begins with a single 4166: 1581: 1537: 1532: 1486: 1287: 1052: 837: 823: 577: 465: 457: 398: 192:, and Part II is a setting of the words from the closing scene of 3666: 2474:"Story of a Musical Masterpiece and of its Distinguished Author" 1575: 1514: 1408: 1331: 1291: 679:

led 200 instrumentalists and a choir of 800 in a performance in

261:. In these restful surroundings Mahler completed his Symphonies 4125: 3670: 695:. This performance was its eighth in the history of the Proms. 257:, southern Austria, where Mahler built a villa overlooking the 1765: 939:

episode in which the soloists compete with the choral masses.

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In composing his score, Mahler temporarily abandoned the more

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in August 2000 opened with a performance of the Eighth by the

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in Tokyo in December 1949, and the Australian premiere under

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and choruses, under Mengelberg's direction. The music critic

526:. Also in the audience was the 28-year-old British conductor 188:("Come, Creator Spirit"), a ninth-century Christian hymn for 4075:

Gustav Mahler's orchestration of Beethoven's Symphony No. 9

486:

provided 350 students for the children's choir. Meanwhile,

180:

in its first performance, in Munich, on 12 September 1910.

3069:. The International Gustav Mahler Society. Archived from 1647:

Una poenitentium (a penitent formerly known as Gretchen)

1234: