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When Gustav
Mahler composed his fourth
symphony in 1900, his
ultimate dream of life had
already come true: In 1897,
when he was hardly 37 years
old, he had been appointed
director of the k.u.k. court
opera, only some months
after he had become
principal conductor of the
Vienna Orchestra. His
position as a the opera
director was sometimes
favourably called "God of
the southernly zones" by
Mahler himself. His daily
duties as the director of
the court opera left only
little time for composing
and so it seemed almost
impossible to him to resume
his work on the new symphony
that he had begun in the
summer of 1900. A letter
written by Mahler at the end
of his summer holidays
exemplifies this; as well as
it describes the contrast
between the straineous work
at the opera in Vienna and
the idyllic summer of his
villa in Maiernigg, where
his fourth symphony was
completed. "This winter my
work will be written into
fair copy; and this is what
give new support to my life
among all the daily
troubles, something that I
have lacked in all the
previous years. One feels so
terribly lost, if one is
supposed to live on without
one’s sacred task... I have
already felt like this last
winter, when my work, which
I have just finished, had to
be left alone in its very
beginning and had to be
omitted for a very long
time. I have not really
believed that one is able to
pick up so thin threads
again. But it is very
strange - Like I am in
nature and feel myself,
every tiny and mean thing
has disintegrated and left
no traces. But right now it
seems very difficult for me
to try again and start from
here; and still I live in
the world of my fourth
symphony to an unbelievingly
great extent - This work is
so different from all the
compositions that I have
written before."
Even if this work was not
received very friendly on
its first night in 1901 -
The audience accompanied the
composition with continuous
hissing and the critics
spoke “antiquated
transcendental music” and
“interior mendecity” - it is
this symphony that has
become popular faster than
any of his other works.
One reason might be the
technically lower
requirements for the
instrumentalists in the
orchestra, but more than
this it has certainly been a
symphonic language with more
friendliness and
obligingness. The technique
of instrumentation is
certainly more advanced than
in Mahler’s early works. It
stands in the service of a
music that can be enjoyed
without impartiality and
does not press itself on the
compositoric structure of
the work. Mahler’s tendency
towards ludicrous and
ghostly things can only be
found in the strange
episodes ,of a solo-violin
in the second, scherzo-like
movement. ‘Like a fiddle’ he
writes into score and orders
the violin to be tuned one
semi-tone up, as to give it
a lurid character.
The origin and the
prime-cell of the fourth
symphony is the finale with
the Magical Hom-song "We
enjoy the heavenly
pleasures", which dates back
as far as the time, when he
composed the third symphony.
It is derived from a text of
the collection from "The
Boy's Magical Horn" (and
describes in a very joyfull
manner the childlike
pleasures of heavenly
happiness. Taking up the
mood of this movement Mahler
composed the first three
movements. We do not know
anything of Mahler’s concept
of the contents; for the
first time he avoided
explanations and
interpretations, when the
fourth symphony was
performed for the first
time. Nevertheless we do
know a revealing letter by
his musical intimate Bruno
Walter, which was written
after the first night and is
addressed to a critic. With
obvious authorization by
Mahler himself he draws an
explanatory of the symphony
as the description of
heavenly life: in the first
movement one could think of
a man, who gets to know
heavenly life: in it an
unbelieving joyfulness is
dominant, an un unearthly
joy that attracts as much as
it distracts, an astonishing
light and an astonishing
air. The second movement
could have the following
title: Freund Hein
plays for us to dance; death
is playing the violin in a
strange manner and
accompanies us to heaven
with his fiddle... St.
Ursula laughs to see it’ the
third movement could be
called; the most serious of
all saints is laughing, so
gay is the atmosphere; she
is only smiling, but in a
way that the monuments of
old knights and prelates can
be seen, when one walks
through an old church,
seeing them with folded
hands and a smile that can
hardly be remarked but is so
peaceful and characteristic
of all human beings, who
have ascended into heaven.
It is a solemn, blessed
peace, but also smooth and
serious joy that is revealed
in this movement....
If man asks wonderingly,
what all this is about, a
child is answering with the
fourth movement; "This is
heavenly joy".
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