Das Lied von der Erde

For my next article, I am preparing a philosophical inquiry into the spiritual aspects of creativity, especially in visual art and music. It is an ambitious endeavor that will require some additional research, as I hope someday my writings will be taken seriously by scholars and enthusiasts alike.

In the meantime, I would like to spend some time exalting another brilliant artist who has personally inspired me, the incredible composer Gustav Mahler. My first actual encounter with his music, where I was attentively listening to it as opposed to just hearing it in the background of my high school printmaking class, was viewing Luchino Visconti's Death In Venice (a film based on a novel of the same name by Thomas Mann). The film is beautiful and attentively shot, but the real quality of it is the painstakingly beautiful music, mostly excerpts from Mahler's 3rd and 5th Symphonies. The entire film is so painfully European that I feel the pangs of Stendahl syndrome rising in my heart after a while, for the beauty and detail is indeed overwhelming to my mere American spirit.

Gustav with his daughters, 1905.

Concerning the film, I enjoy it immensely but I can understand how non-artists would find it incredibly tedious, even painful to watch. There are so many things happening that it is difficult for the mind to focus, the multitudes of obsession are dense and broodingly arranged all to a very dismal and bleak effect. Being the lover of wisdom that I am, the blatantly philosophical debates within the film fascinate me, as the main character Aschenbach is equally torn to shreds by them, his downward spiral due to his unique and extreme sensitivity. While all these are merit-worthy aspects of the film, without the sensual caress of Mahler's music the whole thing would've been inconceivable, which is why I think Visconti changed the role of Aschenbach from an author to a composer. Strangely, that conversion is more truthful to Mann's own inspiration, in which he was so moved after witnessing poor Gustav break down into tears on a train departing from Venice.

While the film itself is loaded with all kinds of questions and artistic dilemmas, my main interest here is the trascendental quality of Mahler's music. The man himself had an endlessly tragic life and deep spirituality, which is not surprising at all when listening to his music. He required solitude and would shut himself up in tiny komponierhäuschen ("composing huts") near the lakes or in the mountains where he would endlessly work up a feverish storm of inspired ecstasy to create his beautiful and moving music. This kind of devotional isolation is a motif I notice amongst many great artists, the removal of the self from society in favor of the splendor of nature, to clear the mind and contemplate the ideal and meaning of existence.

Komponierhäuschen in Toblach, Italy.

Mahler's life and music was impacted greatly by his relationship with his infamous wife Alma. The Adagietto from the 5th Symphony was a musical declaration of love from Mahler to his would-be wife, in which he mailed her a copy of the score as one would a love letter. A compelling figure in her own right, Alma herself was also a composer who's ambitions were eclipsed by that of her husband. She has since become more famous for her numerous affairs with prominent men. After his death, Alma's accounts of Mahler's life and her relationship with him have proved false and misleading (this has come to be know as the "Alma Problem"), further shrouding Mahler's legacy in mystery.

Alma and Gustav.

All of this has taught me the importance of love, nature and spirituality in the life of an artist. Mahler's sojourns into the mountains are a perfect actualization of Thoreau's ideas in Walden when applied aesthetically: to build your individual spirit and work in harmony with nature, and yet to bring the self back to the world of civilization for the further development and enjoyment of humanity. The relation of man and nature, and its spiritual liaison, constitutes an age old conundrum for the thoughtful, creative being that has sadly been overlooked in today's "art world". Mahler was a 20th Century composer, yet his music sounds eternal and its appeal is as powerful and lasting as the mountains he so adored. Some artists speak to their contemporaries, others speak to the eternal forces of life and death, seeking revelation and redemption. As long as the human spirit suffers, music like Mahler's will sooth the soul and fill our lives with meaning and truth. For further reading this subject, I highly recommend this lovely article, Mahler: Alienation & Spirituality.