Editor's Note: This essay, originally in Chinese, was originally submitted to the local Mandarin newspaper for publication, but rejected due to its length and the time lapse between the concert by the SSO of the local premiere and the submission of this essay. The author hopes that aspects of Mahler's Eighth will pique the interest of readers and lead them to do their own research into Mahler's Eighth. It is aimed at readers with some musical knowledge.

Mahler's Eighth As An Unprecendented Work

Throughout the history of Western music, true choral-symphonic works are rare. Frequently, when an orchestra of a huge setting is augmented with choral parts, the emphasis would often be shifted away from the orchestral motif to the vocal portions, diluting the intended musical message of the orchestra.

Hence a question is raised: is a work such as Mahler’s 8^th Symphony (or “Symphony of A Thousand”) a straightforward symphonic work with choral parts added to it, or is it simply a dedicated choral symphonic work with massive accompanying orchestral parts’¹?

Examples of the latter are easily found. An example of the former, a symphonic work with choral parts, would be the final movement of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9. This form can also be found in symphonic poems, where short segments of choruses are added at the end of the compositions. So which is Mahler’s Eighth – a symphonic work with chorus or a choral work with orchestra?

The answer is neither. A more accurate way of describing Mahler’s 8^th symphony (or M8 in short) would be as a symphonic work that places equal importance on the interaction between instruments and human voices.

What makes Mahler’s “Symphony of A Thousand” so unique in the history of works with choir and orchestra is that it retains the musical characteristics of a gigantic instrumental symphony – rich symphonic parts, colourful harmony and skilful contrapuntal writing despite incorporating huge choral forces.

In this work, the choral parts move as counterpoint melodies that interact with and complement one another, and not simply in unison or with very few vocal parts. For example, more than 10 vocal parts may sing at the same time with each part singing an entirely different melody, but each blends well with the rest in harmony.

The listening pleasure is further enhanced by an enormous orchestra, where the orchestration is juxtaposed with contrapuntal writing techniques to showcase the brilliance of Mahler’s composing skills.

Detractors of Mahler’s Eighth think that there is nothing much to the work. That would be to underestimate the difficulty in writing a score of towering scale like M8 ², a typical performance of which runs for approximately 90 minutes³. But beneath the surface glamour and technical difficulties in writing such a work lie the ingredients which make it monumental, that is, the dramatic and philosophical nature of the work. It took a man of Mahler’s vision much deep thought and great inspiration, to come up with something of such poetry and philosophy, and this vision can be seen not only in the two texts, but also throughout the orchestral parts.

In terms of conducting, Symphony No. 8 could possibly be considered the most difficult work in history of Western music. In conducting this symphony, expressing the inner feelings is even more challenging than conquering technical difficulties. I have been conducting orchestras for years, and have also taken part in international competitions for conducting. Hence I can fully understand and be able to differentiate the levels of difficulty in music to be conducted.

The most obvious difference between M8 and other symphonies is the number of movements as well as the symphony’s form. There are 2 parts in the work but they are not labeled as movements ⁴. Part I: Hymn – Veni, creator spiritus, approximately 22 to 28 minutes long, is half the duration of Part II: Final Scene from Goethe’s Faust (it can also be seen as an “ultra-long prelude” ⁵ to Part II).

Magnificent examples of contrapuntal writing and harmony abound from the first page of Mahler’s Eighth. Essentially it is a massive sonata form, characteristic of the post-Romantic composing style, whereby the scale of Recapitulation exceeds Exposition. The development cleverly leads into the recapitulation with a mammoth double fugue. It isn’t easy to write a normal double fugue, let alone a gargantuan one, with several hundred people performing, with more than ten parts harmonizing and progressing together, even more so for a tonal double fugue! Interestingly, when Mahler was composing this symphony, he always took along a music score written by a predecessor for reference, none other than J.S. Bach’s BWV 1080, Die Kunst der Fuge!

Motif development
It was Wagner who first used and developed the leitmotif (leading motive or representative theme) in opera. Mahler did the equivalent to his themes in his symphony, tying together both movements in a single work and between his different symphonies, in so doing establishing a massive oevre. Mahler’s version of leitmotif can be seen as taking composition standards to another level.

People familiar with Mahler’s works will observe his signature composition method where a basic motif develops and evolves gradually throughout the course of the many movements of a work. In the case of Symphony No. 8, the main themes and motifs that appear in Part I gradually transformed into Part II as profound, touching and sacred melodies, putting into music what one might describe as one’s “yearning for eternity”. Through his clever development and distortion of themes, the eighth move from sadness to happiness, from evil to good, from darkness to light.

Form
I had a chance to discuss Mahler’s works with some authorities on the academic aspects of Mahler some years back⁷. The general agreement was that Part II of Symphony No. 8 is an extended version of the Sonata form. Mahler had combined the last 3 movements of a traditional 4-movement symphony ⁸ format into one robust movement lasting approximately 52 to 60 minutes ⁹, hence dissolving it into an Extended Sonata form. 

Is there any precedent to Mahler’s Eighth for this form? The answer is yes, as one could refer to these works: the last movement of Mahler’s Symphony No. 2, the first and the last movements of Symphony No. 3, last movement in Symphonies No. 6. and No. 7, the last movement of Bruckner’s Symphony No. 8, as well as the last movement of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9. All fit in one way or another into what one might call the extended sonata form.

The 8^th in relation to the other symphonies.
Just as Mahler himself once said, if one could not understand his first five symphonies, then it would be difficult to understand his 6^th symphony. By way of extension, what he said applies to his 7^th and 8^th symphonies as well.

 To understand what Mahler meant by this, one must have at least a passing familiarity with his previous 7 symphonies. Starting with his first symphony, each of his subsequent symphonies was a stylistic breakthrough, creating a new writing style, yet marking every one with his signature style of composition so that none could be mistaken as having been written by anyone else.

The duration between the composition of Mahler’s symphonies resemble life journeys. Emotionally and technically, the disparity between Mahler’s first 2 symphonies is large. Mahler once described his development between Symphonies No. 1 and No. 2 as that of a child growing into an adult. In contrast, Symphony No. 3 wasn’t too different from No. 2, however obvious changes were present, especially in the non-choral portions. Symphonies No. 3 and 4 were close, stylistically, but influential orchestration changes surfaced beyond the 3^rd symphony ¹⁰.

There was a huge gap between Symphonies No. 4 and No. 5, hence researchers often view No. 5 as a conclusion to Mahler’s earlier symphonic styles ¹¹, as well as the launch of a new symphonic era. It was described as the “little brother” of the “three musketeers” ¹² (referring to Symphonies No. 5, 6 and 7).

Symphonies No. 5 and No. 6 were rather “far apart” in terms of style and technique.. It was during the birth of the 6^th symphony that Mahler’s philosophy towards life experienced a tragic transformation. The stylistic changes between Symphonies No. 6 and No. 7 were relatively fewer, comparable to the relationship between No. 3 and No. 4; they shared the same ideology and writing techniques. Parts of them were indeed written at the same time. There is a significant difference though: the finale in No. 7 took on the characteristic tragic ending in No. 6 and further expanded it into yet another magnificent conclusion.

The interval between completion of the 7^th and the 8^th symphonies was short, but none of his previous massive symphonic works could possibly have surpassed the success of the eighth symphony ¹³. An interesting analogy to this phenomenon is that of the fighting technique “Ru Lai Shen Zhang” (Buddha’s Palm) described in a Chinese gungfu legend. The first 8 levels of this technique (where irradiated palms were being blasted through the air) were powerful, but even a combination of them could not surpass the mystical 9^th level. Similarly, the finale of his eighth symphony, even comparing the first seven, is undeniably the most magnificent of them all, in fact, Mahler had mentioned many times that his 8^th symphony was his greatest composition, even after he wrote The Song of the Earth ¹⁴ as well Symphony No. 9 ¹⁵.

Conclusion
Over these years, I have been fortunate enough to have attended 8 performances of Mahler’s 8^th Symphony at different occasions, including 6 from Mahler Festivals in Europe, and 2 concerts in Singapore. I was also being invited to view all the overseas rehearsals. These were tremendous learning experiences ¹⁶.

I am extremely happy and appreciative that the Singapore Arts Festival this year had chosen to open the arts season with the Singapore premiere of Mahler’s Symphony of A Thousand. In spite of the heavy financial, human and material resources required to put together this production, I certainly hope to see a second performance of this work in the near future. I applaud the efforts by the combined chorus and the orchestra to have brilliantly presented this demanding work. And after the performance of Mahler’s 8^th Symphony, the Singapore Symphony Orchestra has definitely scaled to new and greater heights!

Tan Chan Boon is a composer and conductor, President of the Gustav Mahler Society (Singapore), President of the Anton Bruckner Society (Singapore)

Footnotes:
1          In this case, it is not strictly considered the symphonic form

2          Graduate students majoring in music composition may even find it impossibly difficult to write one page of orchestral score of this scale

3          When a composition exceeds a scale measurable by a piano or a listening gauge, the composer would have to rely on his or her imagination to “playback” the work. An example is Mahler’s 8^th Symphony. It was definitely a feat for this composer to have composed such a highly sophisticated yet magnificent work of 90 minutes. His imagination must have been immensely creative and complex

4          Probably a movement sounds relatively “smaller” in size than a “part”. Further research is required to prove this point. 

5          It would be too long to be considered a “prelude” movement. However both the size and contents of Part I are not equivalent to Part II of the symphony.

 6          Die Kunst der Fugue (The Art of Fugue) BWV 1080 (1749-1750), the unfinished composition by J. S. Bach (1685-1750)

 7          International Mahler Festival held in Amsterdam in 1995, where 3 top European orchestras - Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra and Concertgebouworkest Amsterdam took turns to perform all symphonic works by Gustav Mahler

8          A “traditional” symphonic form for at least 130 years until Mahler’s 8^th Symphony 

9          It is different from the single movement “symphonic poem” for

10        It could also be compared with the relationship between Brahms’ Symphonies No. 1 and No. 2

11        The Wunderhorn Years. Des Knaben Wunderhorn (Youth’s Magic Horn) is an analogy of German folk poetry. Mahler composed over 20 Wunderhorn songs for voices and piano or orchestra, and incorporated Wunderhorn songs into his first 4 symphonies

12        In fact, the scale of Symphony No. 5 isn’t small (70 minutes), however Symphonies No. 6 and No. 7 are comparably larger in size (both 85 minutes)

13        Similar to the relationship between Tchaikovsky’s 3^rd and 4^th symphonies

14        It was originally the 9^th symphony written by Mahler

15        If The Song of the Earth is considered the 9^th symphony, then this work should be the 10^th symphony.

16        This writer has been actively researching and promoting Mahler’s music for years, and had also attended 3 Mahler Festivals in Europe, taking part in rehearsals and conferences etc