Vom Aufbau einer Welt

As one of the most important late Romantic composers and at the same time a pioneer of modernism, Gustav Mahler's symphonies combine a multitude of very different characters and stylistic features. In view of the outward heterogeneity of the musical means, a widespread thesis is that his compositional style resists systematisation, that his music can at best be approached "micrologically". Michael Jakumeit takes the opposite position in this work. Based on a dictum by Theodor W. Adorno, he adopts a "macrological" perspective. He does not content himself with looking at individual cases, but relates every detail to the whole in a dialectical movement. With the help of meticulous detailed analysis with a carefully calibrated analytical instrument, he succeeds in elaborating and systematising Mahler's general compositional strategies. For when Mahler speaks of "building a world" with musical means, he is aiming not only for variety but also for constructive coherence. Jakumeit chooses the first movements of the first three symphonies as his object of study with good reason, for the first movement of the Third Symphony marks, even in the context of Mahler's own work, a high point in epic breadth. It is a structure that only truly macrological thinking is capable of creating.