Mahler Symphony No. 3 [Paperback]

Conceived as a musical picture of the natural world, the composition of Mahler's grandiose work is described here in the context of the ideas that inspired it and the artistic debates and social conflicts that it reflects.Conceived as a musical picture of the natural world, the composition of Mahler's grandiose work is described here in the context of the ideas that inspired it and the artistic debates and social conflicts that it reflects.Mahler's Third Symphony was conceived as a musical picture of the natural world. This handbook describes the composition of Mahler's grandiose piece of philosophical program music in the context of the ideas that inspired it and the artistic debates and social conflicts that it reflects. In this original and wide-ranging account, Peter Franklin takes the Third Symphony as a representative modern European symphony of its period and evaluates the work as both the culmination of Mahler's early symphonic style and a work whose contradictory effects mirror the complexity of contemporary social and musical manners. The music is described in detail, movement by movement, with chapters on the genesis, early performance, and subsequent reception of the work.List of plates; Preface; Part I. The Symphony in its World: 1. Background: progress, tradition and ideas; 2. Reception: the early performances; Part II. The World in the Symphony: 3. Genesis and design; 4. The music; Appendices; Notes; Select bibliography; Index. ...the writing is so engaging and insightful that many nonspecialists are likely to be inspired to study this work in depth. Choice