Although generally considered an Austrian composer, Gustav Mahler [1860–1911] was born into a German-speaking Jewish family in a small Bohemian town in what is now the Czech Republic. He started piano lessons at age six, and by age 15 his talent was sufficient to have earned him a position at the Vienna Conservatory. Mahler studied conducting in addition to the piano, and it was as an opera conductor that he earned significant kudos as a young adult. For example, he was only 23 when he appeared on the podium at Vienna’s opera house, and he assumed the dual position of conductor and music director for the Hungarian Royal Opera from 1888 to 1891. He converted to Roman Catholicism in 1897 in order to accept the same role with the Vienna State Opera, as laws in Austria-Hungary at the time prohibited Jews from filling so-called Imperial posts.
Throughout his professional career, Mahler used composition to supplement his income and also provide an artistic outlet. Because of his interest in opera, many of his early works were written for the voice, including a cantata Das klagende Lied (“The Song of Lamentation”) from 1880, and his 1883 song cycle “Songs of a Wayfarer.” He composed his first three symphonies by age 36—the year prior to his accession to the Vienna State Opera—and wrote nine in all, plus a tenth that instead goes by the title Das Lied von der Erde (“The Song of the Earth”) as it contains six movements (most symphonies are comprised of four) and is scored for two solo voices along with full orchestra. Psychological and physical challenges, along with regular anti-Semitic attacks in the Viennese press, ultimately led to his resignation from the opera. Thanks to an offer from New York’s Metropolitan Opera (Mahler conducted a single season there in 1908), he moved to the United States along with his wife Alma to lead the New York Philharmonic. He was working on his Tenth Symphony (never completed) when he fell ill from a strep infection, and he died after returning to Vienna. Mahler was only 50 years old.
Mahler’s composing style represents a transition from the Romantic period to the Modernist. He experimented with unusual harmonies and embraced the concept of progressive tonality, where works begin in one key but finish in an entirely different tonic and mode. For example, his Symphony No. 2 starts in C minor and ends in E-flat major. He was also known for writing what some critics have called “rather depressing music,” a reflection of the difficulties he faced in his personal and professional life. One of his major pieces is titled Kindertotenlieder, which translated into English as “Songs on the Death of Children.”