Steven Martin ([log in to unmask]) wrote:

>...  But I think you may be missing the forest for the trees.  When he
>wrote Das Lied the words to the Der Abscheid are literally saying farewell.
>Could he perhaps maybe possibly be talking about Death? This coming from a
>man that was just told of a heart condition.  Methinks this is one whale
>of a coincidence.

But I'm not denying this.  What I was arguing with was your seeming to
promulgate the old notion that Mahler was some sort of death-obsessed
neurotic.  He wasn't.

>Saying that Mahler suffered many tragedies in his life and seemed to deal
>with Death and the afterlife in his compositions does not strike me as an
>unreasonable conclusion for people to reach looking at the man and his
>music.

Agreed - but that wasn't exactly what you originally said.

Deryk Barker
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