\n
\u201cThe donkey found it pleasing, and only said
\nWait! Wait! Wait! I will announce my judgement now.<\/p>\n
Well have you sung,\u00a0Nightingale!
\nBut, Cuckoo, you sing a good chorale!\u201d<\/p>\n
On Friday, the intrepid musicians of the Harlech Orchestral Academy performed Mahler\u2019s Fifth Symphony- a performance that was every bit as hot as the auditorium we were playing in. Although we\u2019ve had a lot of Mahler on the blog this year, there is always more to discuss, and more to learn. One topic that came up was the use of Mahler\u2019s Wunderhorn Song \u201cIn Praise of Lofty Intelligence\u201d in the Finale. What is he up to, crowing such a massive and serious work with a movement based on such a silly song? Although many writers reference the presence of this song in Mahler’s Finale, \u00a0I’ve come across very little material that offers any thoughtful analysis of what Mahler was up to. With this in mind, I thought we might turn to Mahler scholar Peter Davison again to share his thoughts and discoveries–<\/p>\n
“In praise of high intellect”<\/strong><\/p>\n \n Have you ever wondered why the Wunderhorn song, Lob des hohen Verstands<\/em> – In praise of high intellect, provides the thematic seed\u00a0for the Rondo Finale in Mahler’s fifth symphony? One school of thought views such borrowings in fairly abstract terms. It is a good, perky little\u00a0tune and Mahler could see some\u00a0symphonic potential in it. So, along with other random musical sources, Mahler threw it into the melting-pot of his symphony and hoped for the best. Readers of this blog will by now know that this is not a view held by Ken Woods or myself. We\u00a0take the view that Mahler always did things for very good reasons and understanding his motives will often reveal dense layers of meaning in his work.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n We should begin by finding out what this\u00a0Wunderhorn song\u00a0is all about. It\u00a0tells the story of a singing competition between a nightingale and a cuckoo.\u00a0An ass\u00a0is appointed at the cuckoo’s request\u00a0to be\u00a0the judge, because its long ears\u00a0allow it supposedly to hear very well. The nightingale then warbles its elaborate song, but\u00a0this makes the ass dizzy. He can’t cope with all the subtle changes of pitch and rhythm. The cuckoo sings his\u00a0song, and the ass, with some reluctance awards him\u00a0the prize, because his melody is so easy to grasp. On the surface,\u00a0this is just an amusing fable which tells us that asses are rather stupid, but, as ever in\u00a0Mahler, the symbolism of the text is highly\u00a0relevant to his\u00a0ideas about music and the world around him.<\/p>\n The name, nightingale, actually means “songstress of the night” and in mythology,\u00a0the bird’s\u00a0elaborate and finely nuanced\u00a0song\u00a0is often associated with lament. For the Romantics, the nightingale was the melancholic voice of the poet who gives voice to the suffering soul trapped in the physical world. Think of Keats and Shelley. The cuckoo on the other hand is often treated as an interloper and trickster, because that bird lays its egg in other birds’ nests and\u00a0deceives its rivals. The bird is for this reason\u00a0associated with adulterous betrayal; to be cuckolded is to be the victim of a cuckoo which has invaded the\u00a0intimate space. The cuckoo is\u00a0a clumsy\u00a0opportunist, while the nightingale is lonely,\u00a0sensitive and profound; more likely the victim of the cuckoo.\u00a0The ass, as we all know,\u00a0is traditionally stupid, and his appointment as a judge mocks all dull authority figures. The ass\u00a0cannot cope with the song of the nightingale because it\u00a0gives voice to\u00a0sadness and eternal longing. The cuckoo on the other hand does only what is simple and predictable.<\/p>\n How does all this work in the context of the fifth symphony? Mahler begins his work with\u00a0a devastating expression of\u00a0public and personal grief, which is followed by defiant anger. His inner being is in a state of great agitation, and he expresses this\u00a0in music of heightened subjectivity. He longs to escape his torment and glimpses release in\u00a0the form of a chorale which emerges tantalisingly in the second movement, before the\u00a0music\u00a0sinks back\u00a0into the abyss. In the symphony’s Scherzo, as Ken has previously suggested, melancholy prevails. Time is the fleeting measure of our mortality and life is full of seductive deceptions.\u00a0The music alternates between Dionysian wildness and\u00a0gloomy introspection. This is again very much the territory of the romantic poet; the song of the nightingale.<\/p>\n Part Three of the symphony at first continues the introspection and subjectivity. We experience a state of\u00a0bliss; a mingling of the\u00a0spiritual and the erotic in a wordless song\u00a0about intimate closeness.\u00a0The Adagietto\u00a0manages to be both passionate and serene, and it is very much music of the night. Again we might say, this is the territory of the romantic poet achieving a state of transcendent beauty, after enduring pain and melancholy. Mahler could\u00a0have ended the symphony here. He did after all on several occasions\u00a0finish his symphonic works with a slow movement. But the Adagietto proves to be merely an introduction to a more conventional symphonic finale, and it is now that the song, Lob des hohen Verstands<\/em> is the focus of attention! All the material of the work’s Rondo Finale is somehow derived from it, except\u00a0perhaps the\u00a0Adagietto quotations which fill the more reflective episodes. But even then, the themes are closely related.<\/p>\n The Finale opens with a sense that dawn has arrived after a night of love. As activity picks up, the symphony’s hero enters the daytime world of people and ordinary business. We might also conclude from the many references to Lob des hohen Verstands<\/em> that this finale re-enacts the song’s singing competition in some way. By implication the audience is invited to play the role of the ass who must judge what they prefer. They have heard the lament of the nightingale and the secrets of the night, but now there is\u00a0a parade of much simpler melodic lines\u00a0conforming to\u00a0established formal and contrapuntal procedures,\u00a0which are the province of the cuckoo. Or is it?<\/p>\n The Adagietto is not a lament, yet it\u00a0is very poetic, mixing the bliss of the moment with sublime longing. So while it belongs to night, it is not\u00a0sad or\u00a0doom-laden. Thereafter, in\u00a0 the Finale,\u00a0Mahler treats us to such a virtuoso display of counterpoint and\u00a0orchestral brilliance, it is hard not to conclude that he relishes the chance to\u00a0put lament and night-time behind him.\u00a0What is more,\u00a0the virtuosity of the Finale suggests something of the nightingale’s\u00a0complexity. It is a celebration of ingenuity and invention, not some crude two-note whistle.\u00a0Thus Mahler enters the world of day, the world of real music-making with considerable swagger.\u00a0His hooligan wilfulness\u00a0sweeps away the precious sensitivity\u00a0of\u00a0the symphony’s earlier movements. “You want a symphonic finale”, he seems to say, “then I will give you one of the very best.”\u00a0 Yes, we all love the exuberance of this music; its wit and cleverness, its boundless\u00a0creativity. This is wonderful music for talented musicians, for good conductors and for sophisticated audiences.\u00a0And we should enjoy it, not succumbing to any Adorno-ian\u00a0pessimism that says, Mahler does not mean it or that he is\u00a0being merely\u00a0ironical. This is a real triumph of the musical imagination, which posits not a resolution of what went before, but\u00a0suggests instead a\u00a0different relationship to it. It sets a limit\u00a0to the degree of introspection and negativity,\u00a0because these would otherwise paralyse our ability to act effectively in the outside world.<\/p>\n Some may notice\u00a0more than a hint of Wagner’s Die Meistersinger<\/em> in the narrative of the Fifth\u00a0Symphony, something that becomes more overt in the Seventh. This\u00a0can be\u00a0no coincidence. The singing competition\u00a0in the Wunderhorn song that pits natural\u00a0spontaneity against dull convention repeats the confrontation between Walther and Beckmesser which takes place in\u00a0Wagner’s opera. The unconventional Walther wins the prize in the Wagner, thereby renewing the lives of\u00a0the ordinary people. He expresses true Nature in his song, which he knows\u00a0through his love for Eva and\u00a0through the mysteries revealed to him in dream-like states.\u00a0Walther is an\u00a0outsider who\u00a0adapts the rules of the guild to his\u00a0inspiration. Under the guidance of Hans Sachs, his new kind of song is made compatible with the traditions and conventions of the other masters. The rule-bound\u00a0Beckmesser is humiliated for his poor judgement and lack of sensitivity, so that\u00a0justice appears to be done. But in the Wunderhorn song, there is no wise Hans Sachs, only a donkey whom the cuckoo has appointed out of\u00a0self-interest. The assumption must be that, in Mahler’s case, the song of night, the song of the nightingale will not be understood and the people will lose touch with the dynamism of true Nature. Mahler undoubtedly identified with Walther as the outsider with the unconventional song, while his allusions to Wagner, Beethoven, Bach and even Brahms at the end of this Fifth\u00a0suggest\u00a0that he\u00a0considered himself one of the great masters of the\u00a0Austro-German tradition. Yet Mahler had limited\u00a0confidence in his audience and the critics to judge him fairly or to understand what he was\u00a0saying. He directed this\u00a0mistrust of his\u00a0audience\u00a0into having\u00a0a joke at their expense.<\/p>\n So how does the end of the\u00a0fifth symphony\u00a0relate to the text of the Wunderhorn poem which inspired it? These are the crucial lines:<\/p>\n \n The cuckoo then quickly began<\/em><\/p>\n his song through thirds and fourths and fifths;<\/em> The\u00a0last bars\u00a0of Finale\u00a0might suggest victory\u00a0for the cuckoo’s brand of simple\u00a0music – lots of primary intervals and the “good chorale.”\u00a0The chorale\u00a0is a symbol of conventional religious faith\u00a0and hints at conformity to religious authority. It has a moral imperative; you shall believe, because you are told to! The chorale has more than a passing similarity to the famous chorale, \u201cWie sch\u00f6n leuchtet der Morgenstern<\/em> – How brightly shines the morning star.\u201d It is a religious song by Nicolai from the late 16C expressing the joy of faith and the gift of divine grace. It has frequently been set to music because of the musical references in its text. Mahler\u2019s version is no more than a discreet parody of the original melody, but it successfully evokes J.S.Bach whom Mahler so revered and looks back to his time when faith was much more firmly embedded in European culture than in early 20C. It is further evidence of Mahler\u2019s penchant for ambiguity that the \u201cMorning Star\u201d is both a symbol of Christ and a new dawn, yet also represents a remnant of night persisting in the daytime. Christ is in truth an ambiguous figure; a symbol of sacrifice and suffering, as well as the bringer of new life and heavenly joy.<\/p>\n All this seems somewhat at odds with Mahler’s reputation as a free-thinker and as someone who struggled with orthodox belief, although we know Mahler was attracted to Christianity. In that sense, Mahler\u2019s chorale and antiquated contrapuntal style give us the Finale we\u00a0want to hear and which the audience of his time would have expected, rather than\u00a0a true summary of the whole symphony. All those primary intervals, contrapuntal devices and the triumphant chorale are\u00a0shout-outs\u00a0 which say “I am\u00a0a great musician”.\u00a0 In the background, the Adagietto, the Scherzo and the Funeral March all subvert this conventional\u00a0position. They are like residual memories which refuse to go away and which say, “I am a mortal man with fears, doubts and vulnerabilities.” \u00a0Mahler indeed wants to impress us with his gesture of faith, his masterful virtuosity and his wit, but the crucial lines of the Wunderhorn text are the last ones; “And, although it may cost an entire land, I will let you win!” <\/em>In other words, for this musical victory there is a\u00a0considerable price to pay in what gets left out.\u00a0This is Mahler’s Meistersinger<\/em> moment, when he asks us – are you a Beckmesser, who will judge my work by conventional standards, or will you remember the night-time song\u00a0and its deep and sometimes troubling meaning?<\/p>\n The finale is a romp and\u00a0we are meant to enjoy Mahler’s reconciliation with the daytime world. But he does not want us to forget the rest of the work with its darkness and lament,\u00a0its sublime poetry and deep sensitivity. This is laughter that hides a few tears. That is not some trick , but a reflection of how life is. Because we are sometimes sad, that\u00a0does not mean we can never laugh.\u00a0We laugh with hindsight at how seriously we have taken things, and we also just forget that\u00a0we were once sad. Sometimes the hustle and bustle of everyday life is good therapy for getting\u00a0through gloom and melancholy. Life goes on. So Mahler has his fun, and the joke is on us. We are all turned into asses because we love this\u00a0noisy,\u00a0carefree\u00a0ending and would choose it every time, even at the expense of the Adagietto which comes in for some rough treatment in\u00a0the Finale.<\/p>\n But is Mahler wagging a chiding finger at us? Even this is not certain, for Mahler may want us to\u00a0know that making a choice between dark and light, introspection and extroversion, simplicity and complexity is a false way of thinking. Human Nature is a fickle thing, and we like to enjoy the moment and forget the suffering that is around us. Indeed, it is perhaps necessary for us to suppress our doubts and worries to stay well-balanced. The Finale marks a moment of good feeling that could just as easily pass, if hostile fate intervenes and takes us right back to the beginning of the work. Besides, much of\u00a0the movement’s\u00a0impact is governed by its context, especially following the Adagietto with its deeply personal content.\u00a0That movement\u00a0provides the soul-nourishment which allows\u00a0the work\u2019s hero\u00a0to face the outside world with confidence and emotional distance.\u00a0Yet, though\u00a0nothing in this music is ever quite what it seems, we still find it convincing.\u00a0Mahler is a master craftsman and technician, who takes primary intervals and spins them round and around in dazzling combinations.\u00a0But he does this always with playful\u00a0ambiguity and a degree of subtle subversion. These\u00a0are the hallmarks of Mahler’s genius as an artist and as a connoisseur of the human condition.\u00a0For his extraordinary vision, we should praise Mahler’s high intellect.<\/p>\n Peter Davison<\/p>\n \n
\nThe donkey found it pleasing, and only said<\/em>
\nWait! Wait! Wait! I will announce my judgement now.<\/em>
\nWell have you sung, Nightingale!<\/em>
\nBut, Cuckoo, you sing a good chorale!<\/em>
\nAnd you keep the rhythm finely and internally!<\/em>
\nThus I say according to my high intellect,<\/em>
\nAnd, although it may cost an entire land,<\/em>
\nI will let you win!<\/em><\/em><\/p>\n