Roger Hecht writes:

>I don't know why I do this to myself. Can I spell the word "Incoming?"
>
>Most overrated composer.
>
>Gustav Mahler.
>
>Now before the flames start aburnin' I must qualify this.

He then proceeds to use a lot of weasel words--even admitting to liking
Mahler a lot and considering him a 'great composer-- so that even the most
fanatical Mahler advocate would have a hard time finding the heart to
incinerate him.

Well, the thread happens to be that well-worn one about "Most Overrated
Composers", and it is hard to see from what Roger has written, how Mahler
fills that bill.  I don't see any rush to promote Mahler to the ranks of
musical god.  He is a tremendously flawed composer, which perhaps is why
I love his music so, being as I am, a tremendously flawed human being.

In fact, today I have been listening to Mahler's 5th symphony in more
detail and with more focus than I am usually able to listen to music,
and I must say that I *enjoy* Mahler more than just about any of his
more exalted predecessors.  Bach...well, Bach is Bach and we dare not
say anymore.  He is the Master and I will only dare to admit that as
respectful and fond of his music as I am, I would go mad if I were stuck
on the proverbial desert island and had only the complete works of J.S.
Bach for my musical pleasure.  And Beethoven...well, he is by far the
superior composer to Mahler...there is greater depth, there is innovation,
there is more subtlety and intelligence without forsaking great passion
and intensity.

But Mahler cracks me up.  Mahler's 5th, which, along with the 2nd, 6th, 9th
and maybe the 10th, is among my favorites, is a riot.  It is loopy, it is
schmaltzy, it is utterly decadent...it is like an elaborate Viennese pastry
that has been laced with too much brandy..or perhaps marijuana.  It is the
excessiveness of Mahler, the lack of moderation, the self-indulgence and
vulgarity, that I find so appealing, not to mention his sense of irony
and sarcasm.  And it is all these qualities that help make him a perfect
introduction to the music of the 20th century, which is...I dare to
add...the most exciting period in the history of Western art music.  And
we see the influence of Mahler not only in those who evidently admire him,
such as Shostakovitch (and I think Pettersson...how could those long
anguished passages of wailing horns not be direct descendants of similar
moments in Mahler?)..but also in those composers whose sparseness and icy
intellectuality...Boulez, perhaps or Maderna..seems to be a conscious
rejection of the emotional excess and ornamentation of Mahler's music.  The
eclectism of Mahler, the skepticism and audacity and sense of yearning and
loss coupled with irrational exuberance, reflect so much of what is to come
in the ensuing 100 years, that he could just about be a poster boy to
symbolize 20th century music.

So where was I? Oh yes.  Overrated? No.  I think the man has more than
enough detractors to keep him from being exalted.  But that's just fine
with me.  I am happy to enjoy the music of the greatest of the great, but
I love the fleshier pleasures of the merely great.  Perhaps that is to be
expected from someone who cut his musical teeth on the Rolling Stones and
thinks R. Crumb deserved a Nobel Prize for literature.  Self indulgence
and excess practically define my generation after all.  Ah well.  My good
fortune to be born when I was.

John Parker
Tucson, Arizona