Walter Meyer ([log in to unmask]) wrote:

>Deryk Barker wrote:
>
>>Later, the transition to the coda brings one of Mahler's most gorgeous
>>cadences, from the celestial E major (unattainable perfection, as
>>Donald Mitchell suggests) to the home key of E flat (considered a
>>sacred key, because of the Trinity of flats).
>
>I didn't know that.  I should have thought an even more sacred key in the
>German speaking world would then have been A major w/ its three sharps,
>which in German are called "Kreuze" or "crosses".

Just repeating Mitchell...

>>And to paraphrase Dr.  Johnson: there is no performance of Mahler's 8th
>>so inconsiderable that I would not rather hear it than not.
>
>With all those negatives piled on top of each other, I'm not sure
>whether it's I, Deryk or Dr.  Johnson who's lost track, but shouldn't
>the paraphrase read, "there is no performance...so inconsiderable that
>I would rather not hear it than do so"?

That would reverse the meaning.

Deryk Barker
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