During the Easter Season, Christian communities, everywhere, rejoice in the knowledge that Our Lord, Jesus Christ, overcame death and rose again to glory on Easter Sunday morning. Having been arrested after the Last Supper, an innocent man, he was tried and condemned to death; on Good Friday, he was led out to Calvary and crucified. Later, when quite dead, he was taken down from the cross and his body placed in a tomb. I began by using the word ‘rejoice’, and after the great sorrows of the previous days, there is no other word to describe the wonderful feelings of happiness as Jesus, manifest in the ‘Resurrection’, comes back to us alive and well. Moreover, his Death and Resurrection give us – all of us who believe – that promise of life everlasting, that promise which takes us beyond the grave, beyond corruption, to our own resurrection to eternal life – a life of supreme happiness in heaven. In my own simple view of life, this is something the whole human race is continually searching for, for without that promise of supernatural life, then the question must be raised as to, what is this life of ours, on earth, all about?
Many very learned, and famous people, have spent their lives asking, and seeking answers, to that very same question. Among them, most certainly, was the composer Gustav Mahler.
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On 6 August last year, I settled down in the evening, to listen to one of the Promenade Concerts, a Television broadcast by the BBC, from the Royal Albert Hall, in London. This one, I thought would be something special, as there was just one work to be performed, Symphony No. 2 (The Resurrection) by Gustav Mahler. The work was to be performed by the Simon Bolivar Orchestra, conducted by Gustavo Dudamel, with the National Youth Choir of Great Britain, and with two soloists, Miah Persson, (soprano) and Anna Larsson (mezzo-soprano). In the event, I was not to be disappointed.
I was no stranger to the work, which lasts for something like 100 minutes – a monumental piece of composing, involving a large symphony orchestra, two singers and a massive choir – as I have several recordings on CD, and have listened to these, over the years, whenever my mood was receptive to such great music. The symphony was composed by Mahler in spasms of activity over a period of six years, mostly when he was able to relax and concentrate, in peace and tranquillity, at his summer retreat composing hut on the shores of Lake Attersee, at Steinbach am Attersee, Austria.
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The Komponierhäuschen (composition hut) in Steinbach am Attersee
The symphony is in five movements, and in the last two, (movements four and five), Mahler combines the artistry of the human voice, (soloists and choir), with the symphony orchestra, in what can only be described as the composer’s search for the meanings that underlie life, death and the hereafter, (Auferstehung, meaning Resurrection). But, the value of listening to such a monumental piece, lies not only in the music created in the mind of the composer, but also in the words that are used by the soloists and choir, singing the verses in parts 4 and 5.
The words used by the mezzo-soprano in the fourth movement are taken from an old German folk song and poem, ‘Des Knaben Wunderhorn: translated into English, they read:
O red rose!
Man lies in greatest need!
Man lies in greatest pain!
How I would rather be in heaven.
There came I upon a broad path
when came a little angel and wanted to turn me away.
Ah no! I would not let myself be turned away!
I am from God and shall return to God!
The loving God will grant me a little light,
Which will light me into that eternal blissful life!
Approximately half way through the fifth movement, the choir chorus enters quietly, and from then on, there is that glorious combination of choir, soloists and orchestra, taking the listener to heights he can only ever dream of – heights beyond this world – and into that of supernatural grace. The words used here come in the first instance (the first few lines) from the poem, ‘Die Auferstehung’ by Friedrich Gottlieb, but the major part of what follows, beginning with the words, ‘O believe, my heart, O believe:’ were written by Mahler, himself. Sung by the choir and the two soloists, I think they speak for themselves:
Rise again, yes, rise again,
Will you My dust,
After a brief rest!
Immortal life! Immortal life
Will He who called you, give you.
To bloom again were you sown!
The Lord of the harvest goes
And gathers in, like sheaves,
Us together, who died.
O believe, my heart, O believe:
Nothing to you is lost!
Yours is, yes yours, is what you desired
Yours, what you have loved
What you have fought for!
O believe,
You were not born for nothing!
Have not for nothing, lived, suffered!
What was created
Must perish,
What perished, rise again!
Cease from trembling!
Prepare yourself to live!
O Pain, You piercer of all things,
From you, I have been wrested!
O Death, You masterer of all things,
Now, are you conquered!
With wings which I have won for myself,
In love’s fierce striving,
I shall soar upwards
To the light which no eye has penetrated!
Its wing that I won is expanded,
and I fly up.
Die shall I in order to live.
Rise again, yes, rise again,
Will you, my heart, in an instant!
That for which you suffered,
To God will it lead you!
Should you ever get the chance – and the right inclination – then take my advice and sit down, quieten yourself, turn up the volume and lose yourself in any great recording of this masterpiece; it will transport you out of this world, cross bridges, to heights only the mind and heart can comprehend.
But, to return to my opening theme, Easter, the greatest feast of the Church’s year, gives each one of us the greatest promise and joy. It says, clearly, to each and every one of us: “You can be sure of God’s great love – you can trust his word; God sent his Son to us, to suffer and to die for our sins, and to rise again, and bring us with him into life everlasting.” That is God’s lasting promise – and he is always true to his word.
Small wonder then, that great artists have displayed their greatest talents in endeavouring to represent what the Resurrection means to the human race. In this, I think, Gustav Mahler was no exception.
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