Professor Bernard Chasan writes:

>Was Mahler really a sociologist? Was he really a theologian-philosopher?
>....sometimes a symphony is just a symphony.

This too is strangely very true and together with my post on opera with
my discussion of Wagner it reveals much Mahler's ultimate relationship
to Wagner.  Philosophical contemplation of life and death were as much a
part of Wagner's music as Mahler's but he wrote symphonies because I feel
that he understood the symphonic characteristic of Wagner's compositions,
where all philosophical/theological discussion are allowed their imminent
'dissolution' into Music, a Music capable of expressing something far more
ultimately conclusive and profound.  We are thus left in Mahler ultimately
with Absolute Music by virtue of this process of 'dissolution'.  Thus even
in Mahler the music must ultimately speak for itself, which is the reason
why he withdrew any programmatic subtexts.  It is also the reason why I
limited my discussions on the philosophical aspects of his music to a
discussion of the vocal text - I feel it is too precarious trying to assume
that certain themes in the 9th symphony represent 'yearning for life' and
'fear of death' with the one gaining ascendency over the other, although
admittedly I would agree that the 6th symphony represents a struggle
between death (A minor) and life (F major in the first mvt.  and then E
flat major) with the final-blow of fate ensuring the tonic (A minor) wins
over E flat major.  The 9th however seems to me more complex and resolves
its life and death conflicts in a way which is somehow purer, and more
absolute:  it resolves the conflict musically, in a musico-philosophically
abstract domain.  That is what makes it a far greater work than the 6th.

Satoshi Akima
Sydney, Australia
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