Constantin Floros

“¡Qué extraño y solitario me siento a veces! Toda mi vida es una gran nostalgia”: Gustav Mahler a Friedrich Löhr La biografía “interior” de Gustav Mahler ha sido hasta la fecha un territorio desconoc

“¿Bruckner? ¿Bruckner? ¿Quién es? ¿Dónde vive? ¿Qué hace? En Viena se escuchan preguntas como estas. SI se encuentra a alguien que no desconoce del todo su nombre, recuerda realmente que Bruckner es

La música suele definirse como arte para el oído, como lenguaje del corazón, como sentimiento, como juego sonoro o como ciencia compositiva. Sin embargo, la música tambien emite mensajes. Transporta experiencias espirituales, ideas literarias, religiosas, filosoficas, sociales y politicas. Transmite significados que deben descodificarse. Existen obras que contienen mensajes publicos y que deben entenderse como llamada a la humanidad; otras contienen mensajes "privados". Numerosos compositores ocultan en sus obras contenidos que pueden descifrarse con la ayuda de diversos metodos. El arte comprometido de Beethoven, los temas centrales del Anillo del nibelungo y de la Sinfonia de los mil, la idea wagneriana de una religion artistica, la relacion entre musica y poesia, las concepciones musico-literarias de los compositores, el amplio espectro de la musica programatica y la historia de la recepcion de Mahler son algunos de las cuestiones que trata este libro, desde Beethoven hasta Nono.

Gustav Mahler thought of his symphonic writing as being based on personal experience, as autobiographical, and as an expression of his philosophy of life. Thus his symphonies deal with profound existential questions and with programmatic ideas that the composer was at first willing to reveal but later preferred to keep to himself. Important references to musical meaning in Mahler''s symphonies can be found in numerous sources - sketches, drafts, autograph scores, and printers'' proofs. These references take the form of programmatic titles, cues, and mottos, and include literary allusions, outcries of grief, and other emotional expressions; they demonstrate that his symphonies cannot be classified as absolute music but rather as music with personal, biographical, literary, and philosophical meanings. With this thesis in mind, Constantin Floros undertakes a precise and detailed exploration of each of Mahler''s ten symphonies and Das Lied von der Erde, bringing to light for the first time various aspects of the works. Professor Floros examines their history and autobiographical origins and discusses the events that profoundly influenced the composer''s symphonic writing. For example, Mahler''s meeting with Alma Schindler (later to become Alma Mahler) in November 1901 and the tragic events of 1907 - the death of the composer''s older daughter and the diagnosis of his heart trouble - profoundly changed Mahler''s attitude toward life and subsequently his music. The compositional techniques employed by Mahler in each symphony are analyzed and related to stylistic and semantic aspects to decode the composer''s symbolic musical language. The author is thus able to identify certain basic qualities ofthese works: tragic irony, the sense of the grotesque, and the affirmation of Mahler''s belief both in life after death and in the power of love to transcend death. Understanding this language leads to a more profound understanding of Mahler the symphonist. Gustav Mahler: The Symphonies is the third book in Professor Floros'' monumental study of Mahler, his spiritual world, and his position in relation to nineteenth-century symphonic writing in general. The first and second books have not yet been translated into English. Mahler''s 10 symphonies and Das Lied von der Erde are intensely personal statements that have touched wide audiences. This survey examines each of the w

Theodor W. Adorno fue testigo de la relación amorosa entre Alban Berg, el más celebrado compositor de la segunda escuela vienesa, y Hanna Fuchs, hermana de Franz Werfel. Del legado de ésta provienen las 14 cartas secretas de Alban Berg a la amada lejana que, junto con otros documentos (incluidas dos cartas de Adorno a Helene Berg), conforman el escenario del nacimiento de la Suite Lirica del musico. Los comentarios y analisis biograficos y musicologicos que integran esta edicion de las cartas permiten acceder, a partir de la experiencia personal, al proceso creativo de Berg y a la valoracion del conjunto de su obra.