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Amy Trottier is the Social Media Coordinator at the Flint Institute of Music, this is the final post in a three part series that came from her conversation with Enrique Diemecke.
As Maestro Diemecke has pointed out, Mahler was both a man of his time: illustrating musically Nietzsche’s “Superman” philosophy and Freud’s theory about the universe that exits in the subconscious mind, and a man ahead of his time: incorporating non-symphonic musical styles and instruments in his pieces.
“Mahler was searching to explain life, why we are the way we are, and how to become the person you were meant to be, not fearful or dangerous, it was an inward search,” The Freudian concept of looking inward, to answer life’s big questions, and even to find happiness, was completely revolutionary to a society used to looking outward, to the church, or other societal constructs, for meaning and answers. Similarly, Diemecke points out, Mahler asked listeners to let go of entrenched concepts of classical symphonic music, and open their minds to a newer, freer genre, without limits.
Diemecke believes that Mahler’s Seventh illustrates man’s struggle to “free his spirit from the tight restrictions of 19th century European society,” thereby perfectly representing the struggle between the established traditions of 19th century Western Philosophy and the new Modernism of the 20th century. With the Seventh Symphony in particular, Mahler created the bridge from musical Romanticism to Modernism, paving the way for modern composers like Schoenberg and Stravinsky.
Not surprisingly, Mahler was the first composer to exorcise his personal demons in his music, a kind of musical psychoanalysis. For example, the notes written in the margins of the original draft of Mahler’s Tenth Symphony illustrate the torture he was experiencing over his wife Alma’s alleged infidelity “The Devil is dancing with me…Destroy me/ Let me forget that I exist!” and addressed directly to Alma, “To live for you! To die for you!” It was during this time of anxiety and torment that Mahler sought the expertise of Sigmund Freud. Their meeting in the Netherlands on August 26, 1910 was to be the first and only time the two men met. Diemecke believes that something transformative happened to Mahler as a result of his session with the famed psychoanalyst. He loves to speculate about what went on, since neither man ever disclosed what was discussed, “Who knows, maybe they explored the universe in our minds!” he laughs. Whatever did occur, seemed to bring Mahler relief, because he sent this telegraph to Alma immediately after his meeting with Freud, “I’m filled with joy!” And indeed, those who knew the composer well say he seemed content in a way he had never been before, and remained so until his premature death in 1911.
So, as you listen to the Flint Symphony Orchestra perform Mahler’s Seventh Symphony on Saturday open your mind, set your imagination loose and discover the universe that exists inside us all.
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