Gustav Mahler
Gustav Mahler
Gustav Mahlerwas an Austrian late-Romantic composer, and one of the leading conductors of his generation. As a composer he acted as a bridge between the 19th century Austro-German tradition and the modernism of the early 20th century. While in his lifetime his status as a conductor was established beyond question, his own music gained wide popularity only after periods of relative neglect which included a ban on its performance in much of Europe during the Nazi era. After 1945 his...
NationalityAustrian
ProfessionComposer
Date of Birth7 July 1860
CountryAustria
Don't bother to look, I've composed all this already.
It is always the same with me; only when I experience something do I compose, and only when composing do I experience! After all, a musician's nature can hardly be expressed in words.
In its beginnings, music was merely chamber music, meant to be listened to in a small space by a small audience.
The real art of conducting consists in transitions.
I also had a brother who was like me a musician and a composer. A man of great talent, far more gifted than I. He died very young... he killed himself in the prime of his life.
What is best in music is not to be found in the notes.
A symphony must be like the world. It must contain everything.
If a composer could say what he had to say in words he would not bother trying to say it in music.
I don't let myself get carried away by my own ideas - I abandon 19 out of 20 of them every day.
Spring won't let me stay in this house any longer! I must get out and breathe the air deeply again.
A true "personality" . . . is like a robust organism that, with unconscious sureness, seeks out and digests the nourishment appropriate to it and vigorously rejects that which is unsuitable.
Fortissimo at last!( on seeing Niagara Falls )
Can this be endured at all? Won't people kill themselves afterwards?
The important thing is never to let oneself be guided by the opinion of one's contemporaries; to continue steadfastly on one's way without letting oneself be either defeated by failure or diverted by applause.