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Fragments of Old and New in ‘Der Abschied’

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 November 2011

John Williamson
John Williamson*
Affiliation:
University of Liverpool, emeritus
*
Email: j.g.williamson@liverpool.ac.uk
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Abstract

Not the least remarkable feature of Das Lied von der Erde is its use of chromatic and pentatonic elements in a manner that renders them both distinct and yet homogenous, almost as though Mahler were anticipating Bartók in demonstrating the modernity of ancient scales when they came in collision with twentieth-century harmony. There have been several considerations of this phenomenon, none more interesting than Stephen Hefling's exploration of specific Eastern forms of pentatonicism (which again are oddly reminiscent of Bartók, at least in the analyses of Lendvai). Although he views the opening movement of Das Lied as the most fertile area for such study, ‘Der Abschied’ provides an equally compelling study in contrast and integration of ancient and modern. Partly this is a reflection of its extremely pared-down motivic material. Undoubtedly the heterophonic character of many passages also contributes to this effect. The conceptualization of the phenomenon by Adorno as a form of composed inauthenticity lays particular stress on the exotic but also stresses a curious hangover from the world of the New German School – the ‘Nature’ symphony, but bereft of all pomposity. To what extent 'Der Abschied' creates ‘Nature music’ from fragments of pentatonicism and traditional diatonicism, while stamping his own personality on the result through quite novel and seldom analyzed chromatic effects, is the subject of this article. How far his achievement was anticipated in his less illustrious predecessors and paralleled by such contemporaries as Wolf is also considered. Adorno's reading is qualified, by considering how far exoticism can be explained in terms of non-diatonic scales and how far Mahler's view of nature derives from a specifically Austrian tradition. Finally, consideration of this latter tradition is used to reconsider Mahler's role in the picture of ‘fin-de-siècle Vienna’, which in recent years has proved increasingly difficult to reconcile with Schorske's classic interpretation.

Type
Research Article
Information
Nineteenth-Century Music Review , Volume 8 , Issue 2: Mahler: Centenary Commentaries on Musical Meaning , 24 November 2011 , pp. 197 - 217
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2011

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References

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