The Symphony No. 8 in E-flat major by Gustav Mahler is one of the largest-scale choral works in the classical concert repertoire. Because it requires huge instrumental and vocal forces it is frequently called the "Symphony of a Thousand", although the work is often performed with fewer than a thousand, and Mahler himself did not sanction the name. The work was composed in a single inspired burst, at Maiernigg in southern Austria in the summer of 1906. The last of Mahler's works that was premiered in his lifetime, the symphony was a critical and popular success when he conducted its first performance in Munich on 12 September 1910.
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 direction led him to produce three purely instrumental symphonies. The Eighth, marking the end of the middle period, returns to a combination of orchestra and 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. Part I is based on the Latin text of a 9th-century Christian hymn for Pentecost, Veni creator spiritus, and Part II is a setting of the words from the closing scene of Goethe's Faust. The two parts are unified by a common idea, that of redemption through the power of love, a unity conveyed through shared musical themes.
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. 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; some find its optimism unconvincing, and consider it artistically and musically inferior to Mahler's other symphonies. However, it has also been compared to Beethoven's Ninth Symphony as a defining human statement for its century.
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 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:
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 cantata, based on the closing scene of Goethe's Faust, Part II—the depiction of an ideal of redemption through eternal womanhood (das Ewige-Weibliche).Mahler had long nurtured an ambition to set the end of the Faust epic to music, "and to set it quite differently from other composers who have made it saccharine and feeble."[n 2] In comments recorded by his biographer Richard Specht, Mahler makes no mention of the original four-movement plans. He told Specht that having chanced on the Veni creator hymn, he had a sudden vision of the complete work: "I saw the whole piece immediately before my eyes, and only needed to write it down as though it were being dictated to me."
http://blogs.yahoo.co.jp/hk5studio/archive/2009/1/15
http://blogs.yahoo.co.jp/hk5studio/archive/2010/1/15
http://blogs.yahoo.co.jp/hk5studio/archive/2011/1/15
http://i.yimg.jp/images/auct/blogparts/Category300250White.swf?s=2&cl=4&cid=2084041489&lf=1&di=0&od=1&ti=HK8SOUNDS%2FCC&pt=1&dotyid=aucy%2Fp%2FDR53R3HaV9rsak.SeSlRxw--&sid=2219441&pid=878398084
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 direction led him to produce three purely instrumental symphonies. The Eighth, marking the end of the middle period, returns to a combination of orchestra and 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. Part I is based on the Latin text of a 9th-century Christian hymn for Pentecost, Veni creator spiritus, and Part II is a setting of the words from the closing scene of Goethe's Faust. The two parts are unified by a common idea, that of redemption through the power of love, a unity conveyed through shared musical themes.
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. 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; some find its optimism unconvincing, and consider it artistically and musically inferior to Mahler's other symphonies. However, it has also been compared to Beethoven's Ninth Symphony as a defining human statement for its century.
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 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:
1.Hymn: Veni Creator
2.Scherzo
3.Adagio: Caritas
4.Hymn: Die Geburt des Eros
The second note includes musical sketches for the Veni creator movement, and two bars in B minor which are thought to relate to the Caritas. The four-movement plan is retained in a slightly different form, still without specific indication of the extent of the choral element:2.Scherzo
3.Adagio: Caritas
4.Hymn: Die Geburt des Eros
1.Veni creator
2.Caritas
3.Weihnachtspiele mit dem Kindlein
4.Schöpfung durch Eros. Hymne
Mahler's composing hut at Maiernigg, where the Eighth Symphony was composed in summer 1906. 2.Caritas
3.Weihnachtspiele mit dem Kindlein
4.Schöpfung durch Eros. Hymne
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 cantata, based on the closing scene of Goethe's Faust, Part II—the depiction of an ideal of redemption through eternal womanhood (das Ewige-Weibliche).Mahler had long nurtured an ambition to set the end of the Faust epic to music, "and to set it quite differently from other composers who have made it saccharine and feeble."[n 2] In comments recorded by his biographer Richard Specht, Mahler makes no mention of the original four-movement plans. He told Specht that having chanced on the Veni creator hymn, he had a sudden vision of the complete work: "I saw the whole piece immediately before my eyes, and only needed to write it down as though it were being dictated to me."
http://blogs.yahoo.co.jp/hk5studio/archive/2009/1/15
http://blogs.yahoo.co.jp/hk5studio/archive/2010/1/15
http://blogs.yahoo.co.jp/hk5studio/archive/2011/1/15
http://i.yimg.jp/images/auct/blogparts/Category300250White.swf?s=2&cl=4&cid=2084041489&lf=1&di=0&od=1&ti=HK8SOUNDS%2FCC&pt=1&dotyid=aucy%2Fp%2FDR53R3HaV9rsak.SeSlRxw--&sid=2219441&pid=878398084