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.

>Oh yeah and many of siblings died while he was still young.

Unlike everyone else born into porverty in the 19th century....

>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.

>Need I say more? I don't think this is merely a cannard.

Why don't you suggest this on the Mahler list? Put your flame-proof
clothing on first though.

OK, bottom line:  Mankind is arguably "thinking about death all the time",
certainly our mortality is one of the things which unites us all.

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....

Deryk Barker
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