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This is to certify that the

thesis entitled

Mahler, Goethe and the Striving
for the Indescribable in the closing
scene of Faust

presented by

Christopher Evan Drinfiak

has been accepted towards fulfillment
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WWI

MAHLER, GOET HE AND THE STRIVING FOR THE
INDESCRIBABLE IN THE CLOSING SCENE OF FAQST

By

Christopher Evan Drinjak

A THESIS

Submitted to
Michigan State Universtiy
in partial fullfillment of the requirements
for the degree of

MASTER OF ARTS

College of Arts and Letters

1996

ABSTRACT

MAHLER, GOETHE AND THE STRIVING FOR THE
INDESCRIBABLE IN THE CLOSING SCENE OF FAUST

 

By

Christopher Evan Drinjak

This thesis aims to provide concise information pertaining to the
influence of Goethe upon Mahler, and, in particular, discusses the text of
Faust as it relates to the structure and tonal progressions in the second part
of Mahler’s Symphony M. Beginning with an overview of the many
Faust legends, the importance that both Goethe and his Faust II had on the
nineteenth century is summarized, and related to the concept of the
sublime, as is Mahler’s unusually strong inspiration for the Symphony No.
3. Critiques of Goethe’s Faust II are compared to similar criticisms
regarding Mahler’s symphony. The form of the second movement is
shown to be generated by the text and the tonal relationships of Symphony
No_.8 are compared with those symphonies immediately preceeding it,

citing differing scholarly critiques on the subject.

Copyright by
Christopher Evan Drinjak
. 1996

Mahler, Goethe and the Striving for the

Indescribable in the Closing Scene of Faust

The Faust legend as told by Germany’s greatest poet, Johann
Wolfgang von Goethe (1749 - 1832), has been the source of inspiration for
numerous musical compositions from a variety of composers ranging from
Schumann to Wagner and Liszt. A long admirer of Goethe’s works,
Gustav Mahler (1860 - 1911) had also thought of setting the final scene
from Act V of the second part of EM to music for quite some time, but
lacked the drive to do so until he suddenly came under the influence of a
“blitzartige Vision” [lightning-like vision] and composed the entirety of
what is now known as his Eighth Symphony in the short space of ten
weeks.1 This inspiration was the catalyst for the composition of this work.
Although this inspiration led Mahler to write a work as massive and
complex as Symphony No. 8, it will be the aim of this paper to
demonstrate how aspects of the EM text provide ample explanation of the
musical devices and forms that Mahler employed in his “Symphony of a

Thousand”. Concerned as Mahler’s own music was with struggle and

 

1 Constatin Floros, W Band III. Qigjympnpmen (Wiesbaden: Breitkopf und Hartel,
1985.) p.211 [All translations, unless otherwise specifying, are my own].

2
redemption, the Faust legend had for him special meanings which he strove

to express in his symphonic composition.

Gustav Mahler, inheriting the German Romantic tradition of Wagner
and Brahms, sounded its last great utterance in the heightened levels of
expression and the formal innovations of his nine symphonies. Hovering
between the downfall of tonality and the rise of atonality with the Second
Viennese School, Mahler’s music is painfully nostalgic, ever harkening to a
time of innocence now far away. His tastes in literature were also strongly
oriented to past traditions. He never established much of an affinity to
modern literaturez, but read Goethe and other major literary figures of the
past avidly, often bringing these literary influences with him in his musical
compositions. These influences can be felt not only in those works that
actually have words to be sung, but in other compositions in more subtle
ways, such as his First Symphony subtitled after the novel The Titan by
Jean Paul (1763 - 1825).

His long-standing love for the works of Goethe has been recorded by
many sources who knew Mahler personally. Bruno Walter wrote: “It was
Goethe, though, that stood as the sun in the heavens of his [Mahler’s]
spiritual world, whom he knew in an unusually comprehensive way and

whom he quoted from memory out of sheer love.”3 Mahler’s letters are

 

2 Herta Blauk0pt, “Metaphysik und Physik bei Mahler”, in W
the Mahler VIII Symposium. Amw (Rijswijk: Universitaire Pers Rotterdam, 1992).
3ConstatinFloros, vM lr° i ii Mhlrin m i hr rt n.
(Wiesbaden: Breitkopt und Hartel. 1977.) p. 46. “Als Sonne aber stand am Himmel seiner
geistigen Welt Goethe. den er in selten umtassender Weise kannte und aus unbegrenzter
Gedachtniskratt zu zitieren liebte."

3
riddled with references and quotes from Goethe’s numerous writings, and

he loved nothing more than to engage in discussions about his favorite
author. m in particular held tremendous attention for him, and there
exist many letters, mostly to his wife, where he discusses at length the
closing scene and the last lines of Goethe’s play.4 It has even been said that
he carried copies of _Fa_us_t_ and Johann Eckermann’s Mche mit Goethe
in his pockets, and owned a large collection of Goethe’s works that he was
saving for his old age.5 From his earliest days as a student to the last
months of his life, one can find traces of Goethe in Mahler, and can use this
knowledge to elucidate the manner in which Mahler would compose music
in general, and the Eighth Symphony in particular. However, the
composition of Symphony No. 8 also took place amid a background of
tremendous changes taking place during the time in which Mahler lived.

In the Nineteenth century, Vienna had blossomed into one of
Europe’s foremost cities, rivalled only by London and Paris. It was a time
not unlike modern times in that science and technology were advancing at
such a rate that a single individual could not keep abreast of the wealth of
newly discovered knowledge. Among the list of new inventions that were
forever changing the face of the world were the x-ray machine, gas lamp,
automobile, electric street car, electronic counting machine and motion
pictures. Recent breakthroughs in communications technology brought in

even more contact from the “outside” world, and transportation made

 

4 Floros, p. 51.
5 Floros, p. 48.

4
speedy travel practically a necessity. In addition, new perspectives and

intellectual movements were poised on the verge of disintegrating
traditional values and religious views in favor of a more cooly analytical
approach to human beings and human consciousness.6 The rise and
acceptance of such diverSe philosophies as Marxism, Social Darwinism, a
proto-Nazism as well as psychoanalysis were all comtemporary theories
with Mahler; along with many artists of his time, Mahler felt that art was
one of the last vestiges of expression left open to the modern individual
where a protest was yet capable of being heard above the roar of the new
century. The optimism expressed in art during the bygone Romantic
century was no longer felt; in its place, an ever growing skepticism and
escapism were taking hold. To the tum-of-the-century Vienna, Goethe’s
concept world in Ea_ust_ seemed as far removed from daily consciousness as
the childlike innocence depicted in poems from Des Knaben Wunderhorn
that held such a strong fascination for Mahler. Mahler’s music, nostalgic
and yearning for bygone simplicity as it did, drew him to Goethe’s
masterpiece, whose expression of the certainty in human striving for
transcendence was now a memory long since buried amid the tumult of a
technological, informational, spiritual and artistic revolution.

This striving for transcendence is inherent in Mahler and his music

as well, and this could be termed the concept of the sublime, a term coined

 

6 Manfred Wagner. “Wren nach 1900 - oder: Ein Zentrum entwickelt seine Gegensatze' in A Meee
fer the Meeeee: Prmminge ef the Mehler VIII Sympeeipm, Amsterdam. 12m (FIijswijk:

Universitaire Pers Rotterdam, 1992.).

 

5
by an ancient Greek rhetorician Longinus.7 M. H. Abrams, in his book

The Mirror and the Lamp, primarily discusses aesthetic principles of
nineteenth-century literature, principles that can be applied to all arts,
including music. During the nineteenth century, a radical change took
place in the perception of both art and art criticism. Basically, classical
criticism viewed art as a mirror of life, with a function to instill placidity
and to reflect thoughts towards an ideal image. This view changed and
instead criticism viewed art romantically as a product of a powerful artistic
inspiration that projected the thoughts of the artist like a lamp into the
surrounding darkness. Abrams cites the summary of J. G. Sulzer, one of
the first to expound this new view in an encyclopedia of aesthetics
published between 1771 and 1774. “The poet is . . . put into a passion . . .
he cannot resist . . . he is transported . . . . He speaks, even if no one
listens to him, because his feelings do not let him be silent.”8 Friedrich
Nietzsche (1844 - 1900), writing almost one hundred years later in his
autobiography Ecce homo9, would say “Has anyone at the end of the
nineteenth century a distinct conception of what poets . . . called
inspiration? . . . I will describe it. . . . [O]ne would hardly be able to set
aside the idea that one is merely incarnation, merely mouthpiece, merely
medium of overwhelming forces. The concept of revelation, in the sense

that something suddenly, with unspeakable certainty and subtlety, becomes

 

7 M. H. Abrams. WWW (London:
Oxford University Press. 1953.) p. 72-73.

8 Abrams. p. 89.
9 Friedrich Nietzsche, Eece heme, (Frankfurt am Main: lnsel Verlag, 1977.).

 

6
visible, audible, something shakes and overturns one to the depths, simply

describes the fact. One hears, one does not seek; one takes, one does not
ask who gives; a thought flashes up like lightning, with necessity,
unfalteringly formed -- I have never had any choice.”10

Although the GeMan Romantic Beethoven might be considered the
first to compose under these “sublime” inspirations, Mahler, very much a
part of everything romantic, often told of sudden flashes of inspiration that
generated passages of his works. He wrote in a letter to his wife about his

struggling work on his Seventh Symphony, when he boarded a ferry to

 

take him across the lake by their summer cottage. “At the first stroke of ,
the rudder, the theme, (or, rather, the rhythm and spirit) of the

introduction to the first movement struck me -- four weeks later, and the

first, third and fifth movements were completely finished!”11 His own

comments on the composition of the Eighth Symphony, though, are

unusually strong in their descriptions of the power under which the work

was conceived. “I have perhaps never worked under such a drive, it was a

lightning-like vision -- the entirety suddenly appeared before my eyes and l

 

10 Friedrich Nietzsche, W. R. J. Hollingdale trans. (London: Penguin Books. 1988.)
pp.102-103. “Hat jemand, Ende des neunzehnten Jahrhunderts, einen deutlichen Begritf
davon, was . . . Inspiration [ist]? . . . Ich [will]’s beschreiben. . . . [man WI'ere] in der Tat, die
Vorstellung, bIoB lnkarnation, bloB Mundsttick. bloB Medium Obermachtiger Gewalten zu sein,
kaum abzuweisen wissen. Der Begrift Oflenbarung, in dem Sinn, daB plotzlich, mit unsaglicher
Sicherheit und Feinheit, etwas sichtbar, herbar wird, etwas, das einen in Tietsten erschthtert und
umwirtt. beschreibt eintach dei Tatbestand. Man hon, man sucht nicht; man nimmt, man tragt
night, wer da gibt; wie ein Blitz Ieuchtet ein Gedanke aut, mit Notwendigkeit, in der Form ohne
ZOgem -- ich habe nie eine Wahl gehabt.” Text from lnsel Verlag edition, (see Note 6).

11 Floros, p. 184. “Beim ersten Ruderschlag tiel mir das Thema (oder mehr der Rhythmus und die
Art) der Einleitung zum 1. Satze ein - - und in 4 Wochen war 1., 3. und 5. Satz tix und tertig!”

7
merely needed to write it down, just as if it were being dictated to me.

”12
This kind of passion and expression in art is not only limited to Mahler and
Romantic music. Artistic movements such as that of the Secessionists, led
by Gustav Klimt, were attempting to supplant the dying mysticism of their
time with their own artistic inspirations, “to provide in art a surrogate
religion offering refuge from modern life.”13 Mahler too was a part of
these upheavals and artistic trends; indeed, he even referred to his Eighth
Symphony as his “Mass”.14

Goethe may seem far removed from such times, but, in actuality, he

 

was alive during the very time that this dramatic alteration in artistic views
was coming about. He even helped to change the perspective. Peter Salm,
writing about Goethe’s artistic views, wrote “[p]oetry was for [Goethe] not
a selection of impressions from nature, nor was it a mirror to nature.
Rather than imitate, art should compete with nature’s processes, and great
art, though illuminated by nature, should transcend it.”15 Thus Goethe, in
his poem The Metamopphosis of Plants, written in 1798, years before _Fa_us_t_
Iwas begun, writes of an unspeakable mystery that lies within the plant,

ineffable in its very nature, and in doing so, offers a stunning parallel with

 

12 Floros, p. 211. “lch habe auch vielleicht noch nie unter einem solchen Zwange gearbeitet; es
war eine blitzartige Vision -- so ist das Ganze sotort vor meinen Augen gestanden und ich habe es
nur autzuschreiben gebraucht, so. als ob es mir diktiert worden ware.”

13 Carl Schorske, Fin - de - Siecle Vienna: Pelitiee egg Cuttere, (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1980.)
p. 254.

14 Constantin Floros, “Die 'Symphonie der Tausend' als Botshcatt an die Menschheit" in A “Mees'

ter the Megee: Preewinge Qt the Mahler ylll §ympeeigm. Amgergem, 1988. Jos van Leeuwen,
Hrsg. p. 121.

15 Peter Salm, The Peem ee Plant: A SQME el View gt geethe’e Faust, (Cleveland: The Press of
Case Western Reserve University, 1971 .) p. 3-4.

8
the closing stanza of Faust II with its own evocation of the indescribable

sublime. “Overwhelming, beloved, you find all this mixture of thousands, .
. . many names you take in, and always the last to be spoken drives out the
one you heard before, barbarous both to your car. All the shapes are akin
and none is quite like the other; so to a secret law surely that chorus must
point, to a sacred enigma. Dear friend, how I wish I were able all at once
to pass on, happy, the word that unlocks!” [Italics mine]l6 [
It is sometimes difficult for non-Germanic people to appreciate fully

the profound significance of Goethe’s poetic accomplishment in his Faust.

 

 

Scholars can literally devote their lives to the analysis of Eg_u_st, and the I:
thousands of publications on the subject have not exhausted its content.
Shakespeare’s Hinge; is usually cited as the English-language equivalent of
ms; in terms of its modernity and its influence upon future authors,
among them Goethe. But one would perhaps need to mention John Milton
(1608 - 1674) and his Paradise Lost to come into contact with an English-
language text that deals with a similar thematic material in a similar degree
of complexity. The Divine Comedl of Dante (1265 - 1321) makes for
another philosophical parallel, and one that also requires a life long
commitment on the part of scholars to know the text thoroughly.

Goethe’s Eggs; contains such a wealth of knowledge that readers of
many faculties can find information pertinent to their own field. Part of

this stems from Goethe’s own personal wealth of knowledge; when he was

 

16 Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Seiecjedjieeme. Christopher Middleton ed. (Boston:
Suhrkamp I lnsel Publishers Boston, Inc., 1983.) p.155.

9
not writing brilliant plays, novels, poems and autobiographies, he was

publishing studies of plant morphology, a theory of colors, and studies of
weather, as well as numerous other examinations in the natural sciences. It
was this background that Goethe brought with him in his non-scientific
writings, giving them a depth and realism seldom matched. This led the
Goethe scholar Peter Salm to remark that “{i}n many of Goethe’s prose
passages, and indeed in some of his poetry, the borderline between science
and poetry is vague . . . .”17 In EM this interplay among disciplines
comes into its most developed form in what is regarded as one of the most
complex of Faust legends. However, it should be borne in mind that
Goethe, as towering an intellect as he was, did not invent all of this
complexity at once, but was instead already building upon a rich tradition
of Faust legends by the time he himself first began working on a Faust
drama.

From the first publications of the Teufelsbiicher and the first
Faustbuch published by Johann Spies in 1587, there had been a marked
trend towards the intellectualization of the Faust legend. What had once
been a petty charlatan who consigned himself to the Devil essentially to
dedicate himself to the playing of pranks, to the necromancer and sorcerer
who conjured up the spirits from the dead, Faust acquired with time more
of the traits now typically identified as Faustian. His original function in

the Spies book was as a warning symbol to all in post-reformation

 

17 Salm, p.39.

 

1 0
Germany not to stray from the teachings of the church and be led into

destruction by the Devil, a Devil that was considered by Luther and many
other Protestants to be an actual, incarnate being. At the time when the
original Volksbuch was printed, witch trials were rampant, and sermons
condemning witchcraft and Devil worship were weekly events. In

addition, Spies had recently published a new, more strict code of laws for

 

dealing with witches and those proven to be in league with the Devil; the
punishment for confessed witchcraft was death by fire.18
Christopher Marlowe (1564 - 1593), in his setting of the Faust story,
plants in Faust the new element of striving after power and influence. The L

Devil pact is now made for possessions that would otherwise be
unattainable. After a short prologue, the drama opens with Faust sitting in
his study glancing through books from various disciplines such as
philosophy, medicine and law. Rejecting these, he realizes that magic is the
sole source available to him to attain that which he seeks. In the final
scene, just as the Devil is coming to seize him, Faust pleads “Let Faustus
live in hell a thousand years -- a hundred thousand, and -- at last -- be
saved!”19 In Marlowe’s Faust one can recognize many of the qualities that
would come to be associated with the Faust in Goethe’s play. Goethe’s
F_at_is_t opens with monologue for Faust in which Faust expresses his

discontent with the knowledge he has attained while acquiring his four

 

18 Frank Baron, “The origins of the Faust Legend” in W (T ubigen:
Max Nierrneyer Verlag, 1989.) p. 22.

19 Christopher Marlowe, Th Tr ' lHi r (Woodbury, New York: Barron’s
Educational Series Inc., 1948.) p. 51.

1 1
doctorates in philosophy, law, medicine and theology. He says that it is

now magic that holds the key to knowing “what secret force hides in the
world and rules its course.”20

Gotthold Lessing (1729 - 1781), in his sketches for a Faust drama,
planned to take this evolUtion some steps further. Lessing, living at a time
more removed from the superstitions of Faust’s origin, lessened the
influence of the Devil by rationalizing the magical aspects of the story. As
spirits do not walk about in real life, they could not simply walk across a
stage, so Lessing had any scene that needed the presence of spirits in it take
place in Faust’s dreams, as the dreams were regarded as a gateway into the
irrational.21 In addition, he included the Enlightenment concept of the
striving for knowledge as being the highest undertaking of humanity. This
Faustian quest for knowledge was new, but, more importantly, indications
from his sketches reveal that he would have saved Faust from his demise at
the hands of the Devil, an as of yet unheard of twist in the original story.22
As Lessing did not finish his sketches, and the letters containing references
or reports of the play’s intended content were not yet published, most
scholars acknowledge that although it is unlikely Goethe knew of Lessing’s
Dr.Faust, he carries this intellectualization to the highest degree yet in his
own _F_at_1_s_t_, incorporating not merely the infernal quest for knowledge and

the ultimate saving of Faust, but also loading the text and the story with

 

20 Walter Kaufmann. translator Qqethfifiauet, (Garden City. New York: Doubleday 8 Company,
Inc, 1961 .) p. 95. “DaB ich erkenne. was die Welt im lnnersten zusammenhalt. . . “

21 Phillip Palmer and Robert More. Th f F Tr ‘i fr m im n M t
Leeem. (New York: Octagon Books, 1966.) p. 286.
22James Kelly, WM (Detroit: Information Coordinators, Inc., 1976.) p.41.

1 2
classical symbols, particularly in Part II of Faust.

What is so fascinating about Goethe’s version of the story is not just
that Faust is redeemed in the end, but rather how it is that he is redeemed,
for it is not by Faust’s striving after knowledge and experience alone that
he is saved. Rather, Goethe believed that human endeavors and human

striving can only take one so far, that a higher force was also needed to

save Faust from his demise. Faust’s own undertakings can prepare him for E.
salvation, but it is a higher power that ultimately carries him upwards ‘

where all of his strength and Devil pacts could not. The higher power of

eternal love leads him aloft. “In Faust [there is] an ever higher and more lg

 

purified striving until the end, and from above to aid him comes the eternal
love. . . .we cannot save ourselves solely through our own strength, but
only with the aid of divine grace.”33 It is with this combination of
humanism and religion, the worldly with the mystic, that Faust II
concludes. Goethe transforms the Faust story from that of a popular story
prankster and a Protestant dogmatic publication into an allegory of
redemption through struggle that expands to include Faust as the
representative of all of humanity. Faust’s striving to know and experience
ever more is rewarded with his salvation at the end of the second part.
Having spent nearly two lifetimes in unceasing search for that which could

satiate him, Faust even dies in Vorgefiihl, in a premonition and a longing

 

23 Johann Wolfgang Goethe. WWW. Vol.24 Johann
Peter Eckerrnann, Qeepra' ehe mit Geethe (Ztirich: Artemis Verlag, 1949.) p. 504. "In Faust selber

eine honere und reinere Tatigkeit bis ans Ende. und von oben die ihm zu Hillte kommende ewige
Liebe. . . .wir nicht bloB durch eigene Kraft selig werden, sondem durch die hinzukommende
gbttliche Gnade.”

13
for that happiness in the beyond. His errors and misdeeds committed in his

quest are forgiven. He is united with his beloved Gretchen from M
1, and led up to the heights and vision of the Mater Gloriosa.

Future Faust legends are not quite as optimistic. Friedrich
Maximilian Klinger (1752 - 1831), Nikolaus Lenau (1802 - 1850), and
certainly the twentieth century settings of Thomas Mann (1875 - 1955) and
Hanns Eisler (1898 - 1962) come far closer to the original Volksbuch in
their depictions of the hopelessness and pessimism in human nature. In
Bests Leben, Tgten und Hollenfahrt, Klinger makes his Faust an inventor
of the printing press. Disillusioned when he finds no interest in his life’s
work and no source of income whereby he could sustain his family, he
turns to magic. Klinger leads his Faust through a series of travels with his
Devil companion. Faust all the while uses magical powers both for
personal pleasures and occasionally for aiding his fellow men, only to have
the Devil demonstrate that all of his aspirations were hollow and ultimately
cruel to those with whom he came into contact. Having exposed the
meaninglessness of Faust’s actions, the Devil drags him to hell, where he is
to suffer eternal hopelessness. Thomas Mann in Doktor Faustus made his
Faust character, a composer by the name of Adrian Leverkiihn, seal his
pact with the Devil to become a genius for twenty-four years, to attain the
inspiration he himself lacked. Set in Thomas Mann’s own time, Mann’s
story is an allegory of the fall of humanism into barbarity, the exposing of

the highest of principles as hollow and meaningless; the compositions that

1 4
this composer writes all prefigure more strongly the collapse that Germany

would take with the election of Hitler in 1933. The Devil takes Leverkiihn
just as it comes for Germany itself.

Seen against the backdrop of Fausts to come, Goethe reperesents the
high water mark of romanticism for Faust. Goethe’s particular version of
the Faust legend held sway for the duration of the Nineteenth century;
indeed, it eradicated much memory of any other Faust. Thomas Mann, in
his speech, “Deutschland und die Deutschen ”, said “It is a large mistake on
the part of the saga and the poem that neither brought Faust into relation
with music. Faust would have to be musical, would have to be a musician.

If Faust is to represent the German soul, he must be musical, for
abstract and mystic, and that means musical, is the German way of relating
to the world . . . ”34 Although Mann would be the first author to link Faust
with music in a literary work, many composers felt a strong affinity with
Faust, and there is no dearth of compositions inspired by Goethe’s great
work. Robert Schumann (1810 - 1856) composed Scenes from Goethe’s
Fan—st, Charles Gounod (1813 - 1893) a £23le opera, and Hector Berlioz

(1803 - 1869) La DamnaLtion dc Feu_st. Franz Liszt (1811 - 1886) chose

 

Goethe’s play as the basis for one of his most ambitious orchestral
compositions, his Faust Symphony. Richard Wagner (1813 - 1883), upon

learning of Liszt’s symphony, revised a Faust Overture which he had

 

24 Thomas Mann, “Deutschland und die Deutchen" in WeWeMFrankfurt am Main:
Fischer Verlag, 1986.) p. 706. “Es ist ein groBer Fehler der Sage und des Gedichts, daB sie Faust
nicht mit der Musik in Verbindung bringen. Er milBte musikalisch sein, mIJBte Musiker sein. . . .
Soll Faust der Reprasentant der deutschen Seele sein, so mutate er musikalish sein, denn
abstrakt und mystisch, das heiBt musikalisch , ist das VerhaItnis der Deutschen zur Welt . . . "

1 5
composed earlier.25 But of all the composers who felt a strong attraction

to the story of Faust, perhaps none was drawn more strongly to its central
theme and divine vision at the end as was Gustav Mahler.

Mahler felt a particular affinity with this text, expressed long before
the actual composition of the Eighth Symphony took place. In a letter to
Bruno Walter written in 1909, Mahler commented on the sheer power that
this text had upon him. “I see everything in such a new light -- I am in
such motion; I wouldn’t wonder if I were to suddenly behold a new body
around me. {Like Faust in the final scene}”26 Many of Mahler’s musical
compositions seem primarily concerned with struggle and salvation; his
Symphony No. 2, subtitled ”The Resurrection”, serves as only the most
overt example of this. In this symphony he makes use of the chorus for
the first time in his symphonies, a chorus that had itself become a symbol
used to express universality, a practice inherited from Beethoven and his
massive choral symphony. Much in Mahler’s other music deals with

thematic material similar to that of the final journey of Faust. His Third

 

Symphony is a towering six-movement work built in the overall form of an
ascension from the D-minor first movement depicting an inanimate winter,
to the second movement and spring, third, to the animal kingdom, fourth

humankind, fifth angels, and sixth a towering D-major Adagio, subtitled

 

25 Kelly, p. 154.

26 Floros, p.125. “Ich sehe alles in einem so neuem Lichte -- bin so in Bewegung; ich wtirde mich
manchmal gar nicht wundem, wenn ich pldtzlich einen neuen KOrper an mir bemerken wurde.
(VVIe Faust in der letzten Szene)"

16
Was mir die Liebe erzc'ihlt -- What Love tells me.-’-7 It would appear, too,

that from the earliest stages of its conception, Mahler thought to use a
chorus for the entire duration of hisflgflfiunphgpy. As it turned out,
this feature was the only one to survive in the final work.28

Surviving sketches demonstrate that Mahler was originally thinking
of a four-movement symphony, each movement having a different text, the
titles for which were: Hymne Veni Creator, Weihnachtsspiele mit dem
Kindlein -- Scherzo [Christmas night games with the child], Adagio --
Caritas, and lastly a Schopfung durch Eros [Creation through Eros].39
The exact placement of the inner movements seems to have been a question
for Mahler; an alternate version of these sketches shows the order
switched. It would appear that from the early stages, the words Accende
lumen sensibus, infunde amorem cordibus [Infuse our senses with light,
place love in our hearts] of the Latin hymn were set aside for special
treatment, as they have been bracketed apart from the stanza in which they
appear.30 Mahler never composed any music to this planned symphony, so
it is impossible to speculate how the symphony would have turned out had
he retained the original texts, but the actual composition came extremely

quickly as soon as he decided to link the hymn directly with the closing

 

27 Constantin Floros, “Die ‘Symphonie der Tausend als Botschaft an die Menschheit" in Mesa

fer the Maeeee; Preeefiinge ef the Mahler VIII Smme‘um, Amgergam, 19m Jos van Leeuwen,
Hrsg., p.129.

23 Donald Mitchell, Qagav Mahler Vel. III: Senge and Smepeniee at Life am Death, (London:
Faber and Faber, 1985.) p. 530.

29EvelineNikkels,' Men h! i A htl":Fri ri hNi h n f"r vM hl r,
(Amsterdam: Rodopoi, 1989.) p. 133.

30 Mitchell. p. 525.

 

1 7
scene from Goethe’s masterpiece in a two-movement work, his Eighth

mim-

A primary source of criticism of this work has been the disparity of
these texts of the two parts. The coupling of a Latin hymn with Germany’s
national poem seems audacious in the extreme. Neither could be less well
suited for the other. Hans Mayer, a prominent Goethe scholar, wrote of
the “ungeheuerlichen Diskrepanz” [monstrous discrepancy] that separated
the two texts}l Mayer goes on to protest Mahler’s forcing of these texts
into a musical and spiritual unity, and calls into question Mahler’s
understanding of Goethe and m. He thought that Mahler’s explanation
of the closing verses was a “renunciation of all Christian interpretations of
the closing of gnu—st”, and called Mahler a “groBartigen Usurpator” [first-
rate usurper] and a “naiven Dilettanten” [naive dilettante] in taking a pre-
existent masterpiece and trying to connect himself with it in a vain attempt
at self promotion.32

In addition, the musical styles explored in each movement differ too
greatly for one to view the work as an organic whole. The first movement
is bombastic, the second hushed and slow moving. Furthermore, within the
movements themselves there is little if any real contrast, at least not to the
degree that is usually regarded as Mahlerian. Most of Mahler’s symphonies

thrive and are propelled forward on an almost violent contrast of material,

 

31 Hans Mayer. “Musik und Uteratur” in Castawanler (T ubingen: Rainer Wunderlich Verlag,
1966.) p.148.

3200nstatin Floros, 71-. h N 0- 9"1i°.' _-r r. ‘1 ‘1‘1 .1: ~ er n.9,
(Wiesbaden: Breitkopf und Hartel, 1977.) p. 52.

18
and this lack of such a typical Mahlerian feature leads one to wonder about

Mahler’s intent. Mahler seems to have indulged in a prolonged,
monochromatic style that borders on banality. The very fact that the whole
work begins and ends in one key, discarding his practice of progressive
tonality as was demonstrated by the Lfth and Seventh Symphonies (and

later the Ninth as well), composing instead a symphony with minimal tonal

 

shifts, seemed to suggest to critics that Mahler was not composing at his
usual level.

Theodor Adomo certainly thought this and is often cited for his
rather caustic reception of Mahler’s Eighth Symphony. He speaks of the

“ostentatious cardboard” and “giant symbolic shell” that is Mahler’s
“official magnum opus”. Adomo thought that Mahler was a poor yes -

sayer, that Mahler’s supposedly triumphant passages were the least
convincing musically. He had already cited this in symphonies prior to _N_o_._
8; the optimistic endings of Symphonies No. _2_, M and No._7 were all
derided. When presented with an entire symphony that was predominantly
optimistic, Adomo did not hesitate to denounce it in the harshest manner.
“The magnum opus is the aborted, objectively impossible resuscitation of
the cultic. It claims not only to be a totality in itself, but to create one in its
sphere of influence. . . . In reality it worships itself.”33

What is extremely interesting is that similar criticisms were levelled

at Goethe upon the posthumous publication of Faust II; Part 11 did not take

 

33 Theodore Adomo. Wm (Chicago: The Universtiy of Chicago
Press, 1991.) p. 138.

19
up the action where Part I left off. Critics felt that after Faust’s failure in

the realm of personal love he should try to seek success in the political
world, aiding the populace and trying his hand in the realm of love on a
broader level, the love of humanity. Rejected drafts for the play show that
Goethe originally agreed with this thought, but he ultimately decided to
alter his plans fundamentally in favor of a more abstract, allegorically
driven conception. It should be born in mind when considering Goethe’s
F_auit that one is speaking of a life’s work. From the time of the first
impression that the old puppet plays made upon him as a boy to a few
months before his death at 83, the Faust legend had become as much a part
of Goethe as it had a national myth.34 When Goethe returned to the F_auet
drama after years of interlude from the 1808 publication of Email, the
dichotomy between Faust and Mephistopheles, the Faustian striving, even
the pact between Faust and Mephisto, are all subjugated to the overriding
principles of Goethe’s symbolic intent. While 323ng can be understood as a
Strum und Drang work, full of rage and passion, PM is quite a different
story. It proves quite difficult to categorize, and its abstractions tax
scholars to this day. Goethe elevated the entire Faust drama and conflict
onto a higher, more contemplative plane, and in accomplishing that, made
room for Faust’s ultimate salvation. Goethe himself spoke that “[t]he first
part is almost all subjective, everything emerges from a more passionate

individual, just as any half— enlightened person might well do. But in the

 

34 An interesting aside is that Eaustll is the only one of Goethe’s works to bear the word Finis at its
end, as if its conclusion had afar deeper meaning to the author.

20
second part there is almost nothing subjective, here appears a higher,

broader, brighter, less passionate world. . .”35 Goethe is not balking at the
task of Faust’s dealings with the world. They are merely abstracted into an
array of symbols which in turn act out the “drama” on the conceptual level.
Goethe was very aware of the potential problems that this shift in focus
would bring readers. In his last letter to Wilhelm Humboldt, Goethe
darkly remarked that he hesitated to bring EQELLL his “sehr emsten
Scherze” [very serious jest] to print, saying “The time is really so absurd
and confused that I am convinced that my sincere and long pursued work
on this strange construction will be poorly rewarded; it will be driven
ashore and left like a wreck in ruins to be buried by the sandy refuse of
time. Confused teachings for confused actions reign over the world.”36
Goethe even forbade the publication of ME until after his death. In
spite of Goethe’s fears, though, it is precisely this removal from the
physical to the metaphysical, this distance from the Sturm and Drang of the
first part that demonstrates Faust’s progression and development, and
prepares him for his final elevation at the close of the play.

Seen in this light, Mahler’s dramatic change of compositional style

 

35 Eckermann. p. 453. “Der erste Teil ist fast ganz subjektiv; es ist alles aus einem befangeneren.
Ieidenschaftlicheren Individuum hervorgegangen. welches Halbdunkel den Menschen auch so
wohl tun mag. Im zweiten Teil aber ist fast gar nichts Subjektives, es erscheint hier eine honere,
breitere, hellere, Ieidenschaftslosere Welt. . ."

36 Vlmhelm Emrich, “Das Ratsel der >Faust ll< Dichtung" in W
Werner Keller, Hrsg. (Darmstadt: Wlssenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, 1991 .) p.26. “Der Tag ist
aber wirklich so absurd und konfus. daB ich mich Oberzeuge, meine redlichen, Iange verfolgten
Bemtihungen um dieses seltsames Gebau warden schlecht belohnt und an den Strand
getreiben, wie ein Wrack in Trummem daliegen und von dem Dunenschutt der Stunden zunachst
fiberschtittet werden. Verwirrende Lehre zu verwirrtem Handel waltet uber die Welt.”

21
between his symphony’s first and second parts seems more an act of

subconcious text— setting than merely an effective compositional tool. One
can quote from Goethe’s 11%, Act I: Vor dem Tor, where Faust speaks
of the inner conflict raging within him. “Two souls, alas, are dwelling in
my breast, and one is striving to forsake its brother. Unto the world in
grossly loving zest, with clinging tendrils, one adheres; the other rises
forcibly in quest of rarefied ancestral spheres.”37 Faust Part I can be seen
as a prolonged drama of the first soul, Faust Part II as an extended episode
in the second. The first part is wild, passionate, the second conceptual and
abstract. Mahler’s score shows a similar dichotomy. Part I is mostly in the
higher dynamic levels, predominantly written for chorus, and full of more
learned compositional techniques, while the second part is more pliant in
form, more wide-ranging in its expression and more often delivered at a
hushed dynamic level. It may seem odd that the more abstract text receives
the more emotional delivery in Mahler’s setting, but Mahler merely allows
ample room for the power of the words to have primacy, and not allow the
music to block the Himmelsglut [divine fire] of Goethe’s vision.

Still another little explored point to consider is that Goethe knew the
Latin hymn Veni creator spirirus. Indeed, he even translated it and
commented on it to acquaintances, stating that it represented an important

facet of human relation to the creator. This has since been dubbed: das

 

37 Walter Kaufmann, translator Qqetheefiauet, (Garden City. New York: Doubleday & Company.
Inc., 1961.) p.145. “Zwei Seelen wohnen, achl in meiner Brust, die eine will sich von der andem
trennen; die eine halt, in derber Liebeslust, sich an die Welt mit klammemden Organen; die
andere hebt gewaltsam sich vom Dust zu den Gefilden hoher Ahnen.”

22
Ewig - Mannliche [eternal masculine]. If the final Ewig - Weibliche

[eternal feminine] of the closing stanza from Faust II is understood as the

 

ultimate goal towards which all undertakings strive, and to which the entire
Egret drama has been heading, then the Ewig -Mc'innliche is this striving
itself. It is the quest; it is the learning and the passion and burning desire
to move ever onwards, never to rest until the goal has been reached. With
its more learned approach and more strict form, Part I of Mahler’s
Symphony No. 8 is a perfect manifestation of this Ewig - Mc'innliche. It
directly invokes the creator spirit and then continues to assert itself boldly,
seldom allowing room for a lyrical theme before storming ahead to new
and ever louder themes. In contrast, the placidity of Mahler’s Part 11
corresponds with that of Goethe’s own text and Goethe’s own advancement
from BELL] to _Part_lI. The second movement of Mahler’s symphony opens
with a concertino of instruments playing the first contrasting lyrical theme
of the whole work in the most extended passage in a minor tonality. It also
takes quite a number of bars before the orchestra again rises to a forte
dynamic level, a level that it almost never leaves in the first part. What at
first seems odd or forced in Mahler’s score gradually resolves to reveal a
keen awareness of Goethe’s text that can only be regarded as remarkable.

It is an interesting counterpoint to Goethe’s misgivings about the
public reception of his Faust II that Mahler seems to have had none and was
thoroughly convinced of his newest symphony’s incredible content from

the very outset. Statements such as “It is the grandest thing I have yet

23
composed.” and “All of my earlier symphonies are but preludes to this

one.” characterize Mahler’s mindset after the composition was
completed.38 But what is fascinating is that the 133mm brought
Mahler his first public success as a composer. The premier of the work
was an outstanding occasion, and Mahler was elated in thinking that his
greatest work was also to be the most easily understood and accepted.
Tragically, just as Goethe finished aneLfl only seven months before his
death, Mahler too would be dead just eleven months after the premier of
his Eighth Symphony, not living long enough to hear the premiers of his
final song cycle Das Lied von der E1519 or his Ninth Symphony. His first
taste of success and public acceptance as a composer would be his last.

In Mahler’s Eighth Symphony, one has a unique fusion of both
Goethe’s and Mahler’s sublime vision, each in his own way a culmination
of the author’s creative outputs, here striving side by side towards the
common goal. Mahler’s score for the final scene of M plunges the
listener straight into the depths of Goethe’s Bergschluchten [mountain
ravines] in the tonality of Eb-minor, a shadowy shell of the triumphant
heaven-storming Eb-major that blazens the previous movement to its close.
Goethe begins his final progression of _Eau_st from the lowest natural depth
known to him, the mountain ravine. From this lowly place he gradually
continues with “scenes” that take place in ever higher regions, until even

the earth is left far below. Mahler, in beginning this movement in Eb-

 

38 Constatin Floros, W Band Hi We (Wiesbaden: Breitkopf und Hartel.
1985.) p. 210. “Es ist das GrdBte, was ich bis jetzt gemacht.” and “Alle meine frtiheren
Symphonien sind nur Praludien zu dieser.”

24
minor, is also starting from a depth new to the work. Here a new theme is

heard in the winds that will prove to be of immeasurable importance
throughout the work:

Example 1 (measures 46)

 

8"” 5 6r — —‘

 

PP WPP

Equally important are the Accende lumen sensibus theme, now serving as
an ostinato to what appears to be its own funeral march, and above all the
violin tremolo on a pedal Eb. This pedal persists for 70 measures of the
166-measure introduction. It serves a dual purpose, both connecting this
movement to its predecessor, and pointing forward towards the ending’s
transcending Eb-major peroration, a closing that makes even the massive
close to the first part seem dynamically paltry in comparison.39 The two
movements could not be more different in their approach, but through each
there is a pronounced unity, even stability. A sense of progression from
these opening bars seems evident, and as the work continues, leaving the
Eb-minor Bergschluchten behind, one feels as if the music were taking
leave of all earthly sorrow, and rising with the text to the planes of
mystery.

Much has been written regarding the form of this vast movement.

Donald Mitchell argues quite convincingly that it is not entirely accurate to

 

39 Mitchell, p. 547.

25
regard this work as containing a slow movement, a scherzo and a finale in

an all- encompassing one movement, but rather that a more operatic
analysis seems appropriate. “ . . . [T]he old straitjacketing attempt at
classification goes on. There is hardly a commentator on the work . . .
who does not promote for Part 11 an outline scheme of a continuous adagio,
scherzo and finale . . . hinder[ing] us from comprehending [the work’s]
unique function and singular organization.”40 He cites practical
considerations concerning the choir’s need for rest after twenty minutes of
loud, prominent singing, as well as the inevitability of contrast after so
much music that was loud. Mitchell likens the movement to a secular and
sacred cantata that moves into the realm of oratorio, alternating between
the two in accordance with the text that is being portrayed at any given
time. The first 166 bars are then to be understood as an overture for what
is to come, which in turn is then an alteration of solo songs with choruses.
“The prime function of the prelude is surely to set the stage for that final
transcendent choral event -- to set it in motion, rather.”4l The scherzo, “. .
.is not a scherzo at all, but a relatively fast-flowing and brightly coloured
choral song. . 3’43 The events that occur in this movement are, to
Mitchell, actors and actions taking place upon a stage, the final Chorus
Mysticus the main character, an analogy not at all inappropriate given

Mahler’s long and prominent opera-conducting past. However, although an

 

40 Mitchell, 545.
41 Mitchell, 545-547.
42 Mitchell, p. 579.

26
operatic conductor for much of his conducting career, and therefore

subject to non-symphonic influences as well as symphonic models, Mahler
was never one to abandon traditional sonata and symphonic forms. It is for
this reason that such “movement” divisions seem apparent.

Constantin Floros analyzes the movement as containing movement
divisions as follows: Bars 1-384 comprise the Adagio, bars 444-519
comprise the Scherzo, and bar 639 begins the Finale.43 His own decisions
regarding the measure numbers of these movements is meant also to
correct those of Richard Specht, who would appear to have been off in his
designations of the movements by several measures.44 Floros points out
the formal recapitulations within the massive movement, such as the trio of
penitent women, figure 142, that uses the same thematic material as that
shown in figure 63. However, Floros goes on to state that “. . .a so-called
formal analysis is not all appropriate; only a semantic analysis can fully
work out Mahler’s compositional principles.”45

It was Mahler’s genius to blend vocal and symphonic forms and
genres into a synthesis rivaling that of the union of Faust with Helena that
precedes Faust’s death. Helen of Troy is a figure featured in many Faust
legends. In traditional versions, Faust tries to impress people by calling
back spirits from the dead, among them Helena, with whom he falls in

love. Goethe, elevating every aspect of Faust onto a higher level, sees in

 

43 Floros, p.227.
44 Floros, p. 227.

45 Floros. 228. ". . .eine sogenannte formanalytische Betrachtung dieser Musik [ist] nicht am
Platz: nur einer semantischen Analyse kann es gelingen, Mahlers . . . Vertonungsprinzipien
herauszuarbeiten.”

27
this particular episode an allegory of mankind’s yearning for beauty and

love. Goethe transforms the once petty affair into a spiritual union that
expresses the modern individual joined with antiquity, beauty and
creativity. One of Mahler’s more romantic traits was to blend the forms of
the the song and symphOny. Mahler only composed orchestral songs and
symphonies, and these forms show an ever increasing degree of
integration. In Symphonies Nos. 1 through _N_9._4 there are actual
orchestral songs incorporated into the symphonic work, either quoted
instrumentally, or sung by voices. His middle symphonies are devoid of
such quotes of pre-existing songs, but possess turns of phrasing and colors
that are reminiscent of a song, such as the first Nachtmusik from his
Symphony No. 7. His early song cycles Des knaben Wunderhorn and
_Igger eines falrrenden Gesellen might still be considered collections of
songs, but already in Die Kindertotenlied_eg, there is a movement towards a
more symphonic structure; the first movement employs sonata form, and
the final movement functions well as a finale. In Mahler’s last works, this
blending reaches its most intricate manifestation yet. His last song cycle,
Das Lied von der Erge, is practically a symphony for two solo singers and
orchestra. The Ninth Symphony, although purely orchestral, has such a
vocal quality to it that one practically looks for the words that seem to be
spoken. The symphony even ends with a quote from Die
Kindertotenlieder. It is this union between vocal and instrumental forms

that lends Mahler’s music its unique expressive power.

 

28
It is not suprising, then, to find a similar degree of integratidn

present in Mahler’s penultimate symphony. It is possible to use many sets
of terminology when one is approaching this work. Symphonic
“movements” come into consideration when one is examining the text and
observing efforts on Mahler’s part to draw the listener’s attention to what
he at least perceives to be a change in the thematic material of the text. It
is even possible that these “movements” are the subconscious remnants
from the original four-movement sketch. For example, the

aforementioned overture can also fit into a broader context of an Adagio

 

that encompasses Pater Ecstaticus’ and Pater Profundus’ solo songs. The
dominating tonality is that of Eb-minor, and the subject matter is more
concerned with somber or tempestuous material. Pater Ecstaticus sings of
lances, lightning and arrows, and the verbs bezwingen, zerschmettern,
durchdringen, and durchwettem are far from placid.46 Pater Profundus’
song alternates words such as F elsenabgrund andwildes Brausen with
Liebesboten, and allma'chtige Liebe.47 In short, Mahler seems to see a
close bond in this set of passages, while the angels announcing Faust’s
salvation (Gerettet ist das edle Glied) mark a new subject, bring new keys
(B-major/ Eb-major), and more of a scherzando effect. This effect lasts
until Doctor Marianus invokes the Mater Gloriosa (Hochste Herrscherin

der Welt!), which announces the beginning of the Finale.48 The Chorus

 

46"bezwingen: to defeat, durchdringen: to run through, durchwettem: to storm through.
zerschmettem: to shatter”

47 “Felsenabgrund: mountain abyss. wildes Brausen: wild tumult, Liebesboten: love’s
messengers, allmachtige Liebe: almighty love"

48" Hechste Herrscherin der Welt: Highest Mistress of the World”

29
Mysticus can be seen in this light as a massive coda, a final interweaving of

thematic material before the awe-inspiring close.

There has been some speculation that Mahler in writing this
symphony was attempting a deliberate summa, and therefore incorporated
every form available to him, ranging from the motet to the Chorale, the
symphony, the song, opera, instrumental interludes and the secular and
sacred cantata if not more as well. Given the rather rapid rate of

composition the Eighth Symphony underwent, though, it seems doubtful

 

that Mahler’s use all of those forms would have stemmed from such a
reason. It would, however, be typically Mahlerian for him simply to
employ anything that was available to him to express his artistic intent.
This practice usually led him to include all varieties of instruments in
works, as well as to revise formal proceedures to his needs. In Symphony
M, Mahler included such diverse instruments as cowbells and a hammer
to acquire the wide palette of moods and colors he needed. His ordering of
the movements of his symphonies is also usually oriented against tradition
and driven instead by expressive needs. Symphony No. 5 begins with a
Funeral March, followed by an Allegro, then a Scherzo, Adagietto and
concludes with a Rondo - finale. Symphony No. 9 has traditional
movement ordering turned inside out; the slower movements lie outside of
the faster ones. The brusque Scherzo and raging Rondo - burlesque are
surrounded by the opening Andante comodo and the final lamenting

Adagio.

30
Examining Symphony No. 8 more closely, one can observe similar

innovations within the second movement. As noted above, many of the
techniques that Mahler employs in his compositions stem from vocal
traditions, and operatic terminology can be of profound use for one to
understand the remarkable degree of subtlety with which Mahler
approaches this text. The musical devices, as simplfied as they are,
function as rungs on this poetic Jacob’s ladder. The pedal and ostinato have
already been mentioned, but in addition, the symphonic themes from Part I
begin appearing now as leitmotives, their changing guises and occurrences
serving to connect not just the two texts, but to focus on the progression
that the text is taking. The most commonly heard theme is that of the

Accende lumen sensibus,

Example 2 (Measures 262-265)

Mit plotzlichemAufschwung
Tempo l subito
9 7,

T)

 

.1?"

Ac - ccn - de. ac- cen- de lu - men sen - SI - his

but other motives, even whole sections, return in a new placement.
Associative tonality, yet another inheritance from Wagner,
comes into play as well. This is not a technique particular to Symphony
M; many of Mahler’s symphonies from his so-called middle period
(My; 6 and _7_) all demonstrate to some degree keys that interlock or

relate throughout the multiple movements. Symphony No. 5 demonstrates

31
associative tonality within a work that progresses from a C#—minor first

movement to a D-major finale. The opening C#-minor Funeral March
contains an extended passage in A-minor starting at figure 15 and carrying
through until 15 measures before the end of the movement. The second
movement begins in a stormy A-minor, but a D-major passage breaks
through at figure 27, only to fade away and close the movement in A-
minor. The Scherzo and Rondo - finale are in D-major, separated by an F-
major interlude. Symphony No. 6 proves even more interesting to
examine, as it, like Symphony No. 8, begins and ends in the same key.
Beginning with an A-minor march having a marked rhythmic pulse, the
subsidiary theme of Symphony No. 6 enters at figure 8 in F-major, and is
recapitulated in D-major at figure 35. The following A-minor Scherzo,
also possessing a marked rhythm and a strong thematic link to the A-minor
march of the first movement, contains two trios, one in F-major and one in
D-major at figures 56 and 71, respectively. In addition, within the
development section of movement one, there appears a remarkable episode
in Eb—major. This passage, beginning at figure 23, is tonally as far
removed from A-minor as possible, and offers a precious repose from the
violent development section that surrounds it. The third movement, a self-
contained Andante, is the only one of the four movements devoid of
driving rhythms and massive dissonances; its tonality is Eb—major. Mahler
would continue this compositional technique in his Eighth Symphony as

well, where his portrayal of the various characters in Goethe’s play and the

 

1‘-

32
tonal relationships to one another prove fascinating.

Having opened in Eb-minor and remained static for 218 measures,
Pater Ecstaticus, (auf und ab schwebend / soaring up and down), brings the
movement to Eb-major for the first time. In addition, he sings a variant of
the opening wind melody that demonstrates a progression into a more
lyric, passionate realm:

Example 3 (Measures 219-222)

Moderato (a wie fruhero )
(Satyr Ieidansdzafllich)

   

E wr—ger Won - nebrand. glu - hemdes Lie-besband.

This version of the theme will attain its crowning glory in the final Chorus
Mysticus. Pater profundus, (tiefe region / deep region), draws the tonality
back to Eb-minor, only to have B-major break through upon the
announcement “Gerettet ist das edle Gleid der Geisterwelt vom Bosen”.49
The younger angels, speaking of victories and completing the great work
(das hohe Werk vollenden) once again bring Eb—major. From then on,
brighter tonalities dominate the spectrum, E-major being sounded upon the

first appearance of Mater Gloriosa, a tonality itself prefigured by the

appearance of the Accende lumen sensibus, infunde amorem cordibus in the

 

49 'Gerettet is das edle Glied der Geisterwelt von Besen: The noble member of the spirit world is
saved from evil”

33
development of the first movement, not coincidentally also in E-major.50

Una Poenitentium appears in D-major, a pitch below the fundamental E of
the work, but also a key whose final acts as the leading tone in Eb-major,
the note that although itself not stable, is one that draws one upwards to the
final resting point of a tonality. This is in fact Una
Poenitentium/Gretchen’s function in this closing scene: she herself is not
yet pure enough (D—major instead of Eb) but is to draw the yet bewildered
Faust to higher spheres (Eb and E). Mater Gloriosa’s only words are
addressed to Gretchen, telling her to ascend into higher planes (Eb) and act
as a signal to Faust, that he may follow.

Because E—major seems to function in this work as the key
expressing the highest aspirations and the loftiest goals, it could be asked
why the work does not conclude in E-major, instead of Eb-major.5l The
consistent tonality used in this symphony, although rare in Mahler’s output,
might here used to underscore Goethe’s own thoughts that the theme of
love runs unabatedly through the entirety of his play. As for Eb-major,
the drama itself ends with Mater Gloriosa calling Gretchen, and indirectly
Faust, into the higher spheres, Doctor Marianus and the chorus intoning

“Blicket get” lLift your eyes].52 The view of these spheres is denied to the

 

50 This passage in Sympheny Na. 8 (figure 38) offers yet another link to Mahler’s previous
symphonies, Nee. 6 and Z of which also contain in their development sections a passage in a new
tonality, the importance for which only becomes aparrent in later movements. See Sympheny N9.
5 figure 23 and Sympheny Ne. 7 five measures after figure 39. The major difference in mm
NM is that this passage is not inward looking like its counterparts in the earlier symphonies. but
the most assertive theme in the whole movement.

51 Mitchell, p. 577.

52 Underlining shows my emphasis

 

34
audience; the Eternal Feminine is to lead us upwards. Goethe, all

throughout Faust II, is using his symbols in an attempt to explain and
demonstrate very abstract concepts, and in the closing scene, what he
attempts to depict not only outstrips the capacity of a theatre stage, but
language itself. Writing about another matter, Goethe reflected “The true
and the divine are never to be directly recognized by us, we can view them
only as a reflection, in an example, symbol or in single and related
manifestations; we become aware of them as incomprehensible life and yet

cannot get rid of the wish to nonetheless understand.”53 Peter Salm writes

 

of F_au_s_t: “What emerges is a play beyond a play, in which the stage ‘l.
becomes an avenue to a larger human drama whose theme is the struggle

for an ever-heightening awareness. . .”54 Even Mahler acknowledges that

the highest ideals take one where the work of art can no longer go; art can

only take the beholder so far, for it too is a work of the earth and not

heaven. In a letter to his wife discussing Goethe and the last lines of Eauet,

he wrote that “[Faust] is all an allegory to convey something which,

whatever form it is given, can never be adequately expressed. . . . And so

in immediate relation to the final scene, Goethe in person addresses his

listeners. He says: ‘All that is transitory . . . is nothing but images,

inadequate, naturally, in their earthly manifestation; but there, freed from

 

53W. Albrecht Schone. Hrsg.
W (Frankfurt am Main: Deutsche Klassiker Verlag, 1994.) pp. 815-816.

“Das Wahre mit dem Gcttlichen identisch, laBt sich niemals von uns direkt erkennen, wir schauen
es nur im Abglanz, im Beispiel. Symbol, in einzelnen und verwandten Erscheinungen; wir werden
es gewahr als unbegreifliches Leben und kennen dem Wunsch nicht entsagen, es dennoch zu
begreifen.’

54 Salm, p.69.

35
the body of earthly inadequacy, they will be actual, . . . there is done what

here is in vain described, for it is indescribable. And what is it? Again I
can only reply in imagery and say: The eternal feminine has drawn us on --
we have arrived -- we are at rest -- we possess what on earth we could only
strive and struggle for.”55 Given that, the eight-bar passage towards the
end where the orchestra and chorus does arrive at E major before Mater
Gloriosa withdraws is a remarkable and precious glimpse into the beyond, If
and although the work ends in Eb, the Chorus Mysticus, having begun wie I

ein Hauch [like a whisper] pours forth such masses of sound as have never

 

been heard on earth before. (.

If one were to take into consideration the incredible sense of
direction that Mahler has imbued this movement with, it is even tempting
to take this tonal association one step further and view the key of Eb as the
enharmonic equivalent D#, which would in turn act as the leading tone of
the otherwise unattainable E. Now, if in fact Mahler had wished to be so
explicit he might have written the last pages in D# major, but he didn’t
have to be. The words of Goethe and Mahler’s musical momentum carry
the listener beyond the conclusion of the work to that which can no longer
be written, only alluded to, an allusion that just might take the form of the
concluding offstage trumpets playing rising ninths that point ever farther,
ever upwards, ever hinan.

Mahler’s symphonies have always enjoyed a rather Janus-faced

 

55Alma Mahler, WEE. trans. BasilCreightcn (London: Cox and
Wyman Ltd, 1968.) pp. 320- 321.

36
reception; the changing times have brought with them various, differing

and even conflicting understandings of Mahler’s place in musical
developments and the places for his symphonies within those developments.
None of this is more true than for his W. Initial reactions
ranged from Thomas Mann’s tremblingly reverent letter to Mahler, where
Mann identifies Mahler as “der emsteste und heiligste kiinstlerische Wille
unsere Zeit”56 [the most serious and holy artistic spirit of our time], to
Adomo’s outright dismissal of the work; from those, like Mayer, who
regarded Mahler’s interpretation of Goethe’s drama as a sacrilege, to those
who saw in Mahler’s setting an expression that could only be likened to the
divine itself. These poles have continued to hold sway.

Detailed analyses by Donald Mitchell and Constatin Floros
demonstrate that the work is not the disparate, disjunct misfit it was once
held to be; indeed, they have helped to demonstrate that the continuity that
spans the course of Mahler’s master setting of Goethe’s masterpiece is
stunning. Goethe’s play begins with a prologue in the heavens and ends
with Faust and Gretchen soaring after the Mater Gloriosa. Part one of
Mahler’s symphony ends with all choral and orchestral voices rising
scalewise to the apex of their ranges on the word Patri ; Part two ends with
the the invocation of the Mater Gloriosa. Mahler’s score begins with the
invocation Veni [Come!] and ends with the Mater Gloriosa beckoning

Komm! to those who would be led higher. In between the beginnings and

 

56 Thomas Mann, W Erika Mann, Hrsg. (Frankfurt am Main: S. Fischer Verlag,
1961.) p. 88.

37
ends of both Goethe’s and Mahler’s works lie a multiplicity of styles,

forms, allusions, motives and symbols. But through them both there is a
unity that can only inspire. The aged poet, just five days before his death,
wrote in a letter to Wilhelm von Humboldt, “Through use, teaching,
reflection, success, failure, encouragement, resistance and still more
reflection, the functions of a human being unwittingly join in free
collaboration the acquired to the inborn, bringing forth a unity that
astonishes the world.” 57 In spite of such insights, musical scholars,
performers and audiences will ever have divergent opinions regarding the
success or failure of Mahler.

Whatever conclusion that one arrives at, it is precisely in considering
the sheer impossiblilty of the task that Goethe set to accomplish in Ballet,
and later Mahler’s own unspeakable task of trying to set the impossible to
music, that one comes into contact with the indescribable striving that is
uniquely Faustian. If Goethe leaves Faust silent for the final scene of his
play, what the reader encounters is what Faust sees. Mahler adds what
Faust heard. “. . . [T]his supreme moment, which though beyond
expression, scarcely even to be surmised, touches the very heart of

feeling.”58

 

57IIt:IIIarm1Atells:aL15:_(iestbe.8.tatritflebsiillsdss. Horst Fleig. Hrsg. Webs
("Frankfurt am Main, Deutscher Klassiker Verlag, 1993.) “Die Organe des Menschen durch
Ubung, Lehre, Nachdenken, Gelingen, Misslingen, Ferdemis und Widerstand und immer wieder
Nachdenken verknlpren ohne Bewusstsein in einer freien Tatigkeit das Erworbene mit dem
Angeborenen, so dass es eine Einheit hervorbringt welche die Welt in Erstaunen setzt.’ Goethe
in a letter to Wilhelm von Humboldt, March 17, 1832.

53 Mahler, p. 320.

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