I wrote:

>>The word "perfect" is completely inapplicable to any of the Mahler
>>symphonies which are messy mercurial and patched together because human
>>experience is messy and mercurial and patched together.

and Dave Lampson replied:

>Or, more likely, "messy and mercurial and patched together" simply
>because Mahler wrote them that way.  I assume Bernard missed my original
>post.  I certainly never meant to imply that these symphonies were
>perfect.  (And even so, can't they be perfectly "messy and mercurial and
>patched together"?)

I agree with Dave that the word "perfectly" must be considered in context,
so indeed Mahler's Symphonies can be considered as perfectly messy, etc.

My point was that Mahler, quite consciously I believe, wrote that way
because he wanted to incorporate all of human experience, uncensored,
as it were, and relatively unordered.  But of course, shaped by his
genius.

Bernard Chasan