[log in to unmask] writes:

>Steven Martin ([log in to unmask]) wrote:
>
>>Need I say more and that is just off the top of my head.  I don't think
>>it would too much of a stretch to say that Death is a reoccuring theme in
>>his work.
>
>"A recurring theme" is far from the same thing as an obsession or
>thinking about something constantly.

Did I say obsession? Seeing that Death was a reoccuring theme in his music
and the man seemed to be cursed with a very high number of deaths of people
close to him then it would make sense that he would be a prime candidate
for writing a Requiem.

>>Oh yeah, his daughter died right after he wrote Kindertotenlieder.  Oh
>>yeah, he knew he was going to die when he wrote Das Lied and the Ninth
>>Symphony.
>
>And I know *I'm* going to die as I write this.

Has your Doctor told you exactly how long you've got? That has got to be a
tough one.  Do you deny that his last three works were written after he got
the bad news? Or are we supposed to believe that knowing that you have only
months to live will have no effect on the music that a composer writes.

>For the greatest composer of the last 100 year to muse on death and its
>aftermath in his work is hardly surprising.  OTOH his work celebrates life
>and love far more: tell me the endings of the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th,
>7th, and 8th symphonies are about death....

Well the words of the 2nd and the 8th do deal with the soul in the
afterlife.  Even if it is somewhat Metaphorical in the 2nd Symphony.
Saying that a piece is about Death does not mean it has to be morbid.
Your average Christian would tell you that they look forward to the
afterlife and BTW for the sake of argument, I will conceded that Mahler's
conversion to Catholicism was bogus.

It would be a very strange Requiem, perhaps dark and ominous like the 9th
or 6th perhaps joyous like the 2nd or 8th Symphony.

Steve M. (Northern Virginia)