Bernard Chasan ([log in to unmask]) wrote:

>Sea Symphony and Walton's Belshazar's Feast, and Honneger's Joan of
>Arc at the stake, and it goes on and on.  And if happiness in a measured
>amount entices you try Beethoven's Ninth.  But you say you don't want
>happy? Mahler awaits you.  Try the Second Symphony which has lot's of
>choral stuff.

Actually about 12 minutes of out 80+.  The 8th OTOH is sung virtually
throughout its 75-80 minutes.

And this canard about Mahler's music being unhappy.  You correctly point
out that the Sixth is no barrel of laughs, but apart from that 1, 2, 5, 7
and 8 end in blazing triumph, 3 I would say glows at the end, 4 is peacful
and content, Das Lied, 9 and 10 all end in varying degrees of acceptance.

Is the 9th the crowning glory? Or would the 10th have been? Or is it Das
Lied.  Or even the 6th?

deryk barker
([log in to unmask], http://www.camosun.bc.ca/~dbarker)