What the Universe Tells Me? Unraveling the Mysteries of Mahler's Third Symphony

"Imagine a work so large that it mirrors the entire world", so said Gustav Mahler, a visionary composer who sought to create a new kind of music of such immensity and scope that it could evoke the very forces that created the cosmos, a music so dramatically charged that it possesses the power to change us. In Mahler's 3rd Symphony, a voice intones the great questions of existence: o man, beware, what does deep midnight tell us? We yearn for happiness, yet there is suffering and death. Seeking answers to life's contradictions, Mahler tapped the wisdom of a living planet. "It isn't music anymore, but rather a mystical, immense sound of nature". Can music shape a world and reveal life's deepest secrets? Will we be changed, by entering that world? Mahler's epic journey begins with the creation of the cosmos."

These are the opening words of award-winning producer and director Jason Starr's brilliant and haunting documentary about the Third Symphony of Gustav Maher. Few other symphonies have touched the musical world in like manner, and so Mahler's 3rd has been the subject of books, essays, a choreography by John Neumeier and, most recently, a splendid audio and visual experience with Jason Starr.

Jason Starr is one of the foremost directors for classical music programmes and his eye for beauty results in a work that bears stark contrast to the sometimes-dissonant films we had to become used to in our modern time that, with its fast-paced life, would fain camouflage some of the most disrobing questions that concern all of us: where are we going, why are we here and what is the use of living at all?

Mahler, however, asks all these questions in his pastoral symphony, which he described as a musical poem that travels through all the stages of evolution. But where, exactly, do we fit into this craggy picture of life with its twists and turns? Bad-tempered modern philosophers would make us believe that we matter not at all, but here comes Mahler saying that life matters, even the beauty of the moment, for its own sake, as expressed by flowers when they bloom one summer, all too soon to die in the oncoming winter, their craving for a longer life left unfulfilled.

It is fashionable today to study Mahler, perhaps to listen to him in stuffy concert halls, but do we know just what he means to tell us with this music? Don't be deceived, for Starr is not telling us either. The interpretation of this wonderfully involving symphony is up to every one of us and it will be individually different for each viewer. Starr has embarked on a fantastic journey, tracing the steps of Mahler as he composed his symphony, travelling to the places where he wrote the music, capturing on screen for us the images of the same flowers that Mahler saw, the same trees, the same mountains. Starr is an exceptional craftsman, a skilled visual artist who steers his camera the way an aerobatic pilot might steer his airplane through a world championship.

Cowardly, almost, is our modern time's avoidance of the questions that address mans purpose in life, or the purpose of life in general. We press and shove and force so many things into our days that barely a second is left to think, much less to contemplate.

Inflamed with passion for the deeper purpose of art, Starr sets out to put the record straight. And one day, when everything artificial collapses, as our lives come to an end and money and status is left behind as being of no value, then we will, perhaps, see how foolish the avoidance of life at its most basic has been. Enter Starr, a camera, and a crew of three. If you think he is just a filmmaker who is going to clang and bang through the more intricate aspects of Mahler's work, think again. You are watching the work of a man who has a Masters degree in music, who taught music theory and composition before he turned his focus on film because he found himself crying out for a deeper understanding of music, to be reserved not just for a few elitists but for the broad masses also.

"I really believe that art is best when it reaches many, and involves people in a community of feeling. On occasion television can do that for us. And it is certainly what Mahler's symphonies do for us," says Starr.

The CD arrives in a box, a nice box, of course, but it belies the swarm of high-calibre questions, helped along by great music, that lie inside and may torture us at times, may cast a different light on our entire existence, and will certainly not fail to move us since this documentary is an artistic performance executed to perfection.

What makes it so brilliant? For one, it touches on a very universal level. When I was through watching Starr's documentary, my first reaction was to call everyone and say they had to see this. It is not for the faint-hearted. If you cringe at the thought of addressing life's deeper questions then you are better off playing yet another computer game, or getting drunk. But if you are not unwise enough to split from the very essence of existence, and willing to drop your protective shield, then let Starr take you into a world of flirtatious flowers that live for the sake of the moment, let him ask questions about the purpose of loss, personal or universal, and through all of this, listen to Mahler's music cry out for meaning in a coarse and unrefined world.

We are all going to take different things away from this film, which will stick with us. Here's one: flowers are there to put in a vase. Or to give to a girl you are trying to woo. Or, if you are a performer, you can give your post-performance bouquet to a music journalist coming to interview you. You can also feed flowers to your horse, or look at them when you hike through the countryside. They make nice ornaments in a pretty girl's hair. But what do the flowers tell us? It is a question Mahler asks and then answers, in the 2nd movement, titled "What the flowers in the meadow tell me." Enter Jason Starr's images of some very forward flowers in full bloom, and Catherine Keller's comment: "Flowers tell us about this unexpected, unnecessary beauty that just takes us off our guard and bursts through our cynicism every year."

Ah!

Starr explains: "Flowers are more than pretty little decorations but are a potent symbol of renewal and of grace, grace not in a conventionally religious sense but in the sense of - whether or not we deserve it - this beauty is in our world, and that's something to be celebrated. In a world where, increasingly, there are fewer things to celebrate as we confront our species' destructiveness, it is inspirational and refreshing to be reminded, through Mahler's art, that there are greater ideals in the world and more powerful forces to open up to."

Considering that Starr has also made films for National Geographic, I shall leave it up to you to imagine just what splendid nature shots, taken in the Austrian Alps, he provides to go with this segment.

Another excerpt: We all know, or at least most of us know, that terribly oppressive time when we struggle under the heavy load of the loss of a loved one and the rest of the world does not seem to notice that our firmament has collapsed. People around us go on with their business as if nothing had happened. While someone we love may die in hospital, feeble and defenceless in their deliverance to machines that struggle to sustain life but cannot, some Royals may be celebrating their most joyful moment, Live on television in the hospital waiting room, as they get married. This is also a situation that Mahler has addressed in his profound symphony, courtesy of a post-horn. Enter Jason Starr's wickedly moving image: try to stop yourself from plunging into the sorrow expressed in Mahler's post-horn solo, movement 3, based on Lenau's poem "Der Postillion". A passing coachman stops at a lonely graveyard on a lovely spring night to play a song for his comrade who lies buried there. If you could only watch one section from this film, it would have to be this one: thanks to Starr's magnificent talent as a director, we join the lone coachman on the hill and together with him look out over the magnificent Alps as the setting sun waves a final goodbye and bathes them in soft pink colours. When one of us dies, we learn in the script, then the song goes on for the rest of us, but the individual loss counts to those around the person who has gone over Jordan.

"Isn't it amazing that Mahler, in the deepest corner of his music making, is actually posing these contradictions of life?" Starr asks. "And he leaves us there with it. Take that! There is no way around it, we need to face it, whether we like it or not. And then go on from there, but not by ignoring it. He is throwing into our face things that, especially in our modern time with its fast-paced life, we would rather not think about. He knew that something was being lost with modernity and that it was going to be irretrievable. I think it is important that he preserved in his art not only what was going to be lost, but also the very act of the loss itself. It is a very timely symphony because it is a very ecological. It places each one of us within the fabric of life and places responsibility on us individually to preserve the world for other beings, be it animals or plants. Where would inspiration come from if there was nothing out there?"

Then there are the illuminating interviews, with Mahler biographers, with Henry-Louis de La Grange, with philosophers, as they in turn contemplate the Third. And, of course, there is the inevitable Thomas Hampson, a true Mahler nut who always pops up whenever there is a chance for collaboration on a work to bring the wonder of Mahler closer to people. Hampson, a Mahler researcher when his schedule allows, has a profound insight into the life and works of this particular composer.

"I chose Hampson because he is one of the world's foremost interpreters of Mahler Lieder," Starr explains. "Several years ago he sang the complete cycle of Mahler Lieder for voice and piano at Carnegie Hall and I think everyone who attended was deeply impressed. I was looking for someone who could illustrate the connection between the third movement of the symphony and the song that is quoted in it. Thomas Hampson so kindly agreed to perform it for my cameras and it was an incredibly generous donation on his part. In doing this documentary, I found that the Mahler crowd is made up of a group of wonderfully generous and kind people. Thomas Hampson is a real superstar in the opera world now. For him to not only take the time to allow me to interview him but also to perform for my film is an act of generosity, not only towards me but toward all who will view this film. It also indicates the depth of his commitment to Mahler's music."

The documentary is narrated by the Emmy-award winning actress Stockard Channing who has come a long way since starring in "Grease" with John Travolta. How did she become involved? "She is a Mahler fan," explains Starr. "I decided to ask her to participate when I read an interview with her where she was asked what she would be if she had to live her life all over again. And she said: a composer."

Jerry Bruck, a recording engineer with a speciality in classical music, was also part of the deal. And does he ever have good Mahler references: In 1962, he met Mahler's widow, Alma, and helped convince her to lift her ban on completions of Mahler's 10th. He then began a lasting friendship with Mahler's daughter, Anna. Bruck is a founding member of the Gustav Mahler Society in New York and of the International Mahler Society in Vienna. In 1971, he was awarded the Mahler Medal of the Bruckner Society of America.

As for Starr, his first encounter with Mahler was love at first listen. "I first heard Mahler when I was a young teenager, around 13 or 14," recalls Starr. "And I was swept off my feet with the First symphony. But it was television that helped me take my experience of loving that music more seriously. On public television, there was a program that I happened to catch of a rehearsal of the slow movement of the First symphony. Watching the conductor rehearse a piece that I had come to know on my own, but was really too young to really understand the cultural background from which Mahler was coming, broadened my understanding of how big Mahler's music was. I feel strongly that there needs to be programming that addresses what makes art meaningful and compelling."

In choosing the Third symphony as his subject matter, Starr was attracted by the fact that it addresses issues that speak to all of us, no matter where we might stand in life. "The Third is very universal," explains the director. "It raises questions that we all ask ourselves. It is perhaps the most programmatic of Mahler's symphonies. His use of the Schopenhauer-scheme of the development of life, from subatomic particles to rocks, to plants, to animals, and finally to man and then the spiritual world, is both timely and compelling. In the end, the music allows us to feel our connection with everything cosmic. I cannot think of a better definition of spiritual than being connected to the universe beyond what we are as individuals."

When he started filming, Jason Starr had little funding and a great vision. That vision took him around the world, in search of the greatest images of natural beauty and in his quest to trace the steps of Mahler. Filming was done in North American and Europe. "I was in Steinbach am Attersee (Lake Atter) and stayed at Hotel F ttinger where Mahler composed his Third Symphony. Herr F ttinger, whose family has owned the hotel for many generations, was my guide and took me and my crew on the very paths where Mahler hiked. So some of the footage depicts the exact spots where Mahler spent time after a morning composing."

It was a pilgrimage for Starr and his crew. "There is something special about going there. It is a little tricky because one doesn't want to become cultish and yet, when an artist reaches so deeply into so many people, making his music personal and intimate, you want to learn more about that person and about his life. How could a human being create something so perfect, so divine? Going there does make one seem closer, but it is more self-satisfying than insightful. Of course, anything that provides insight into the life of the artist is going to be eye-opening. To be in the composing hut, looking out onto the Attersee from the point of view of his piano bench, certainly gives insight into how deeply committed he was not just to letting nature, but the entire world, into his music. What you see is the lake - it's quite a big lake - and then the mountains surrounding the lake, and then the sky. The sky and the mountains are reflected in the lake. So it's more than just a pastoral theme, it is really a cosmic theme where everything seems to be filtering in, almost like a prism, onto the piano. "

In Austria, folks are used to people arriving on a Mahler quest. "I had a very small crew of just three people and the hotel seemed to be very familiar with people seeking out Mahler. They have a plaque on his composing hut and we were by no means the first people. There is a guest book in the hut and the person right above where I signed in was on a film crew shooting scenes for "Bride of the Wind", the film on Alma Mahler, Gustav's wife."

The documentary was also shot in other parts of the Alps, as well as in Vienna, Salzburg, in the UK where Starr travelled to interview Donald Mitchell (London) and Peter Franklin (Oxford). The other interviews were in the United States and some of the nature footage was shot in the Rocky Mountains and in Death Valley, California.

While Starr wants his film to bring the wonders of Mahler's Third Symphony closer to the hearts of a worldwide audience, he does not wish to lecture about its meaning. " Especially music historians are often reluctant to go in the direction of exploring music's meaning, and for good reason. It is very risky. You don't want to prejudice people to think that this music means specifically this idea or that idea. If I had done this in my film, it would have been a great disservice to Mahler. What I rather tried to do was to illustrate the ideas that Mahler was using to structure the music in the symphony, because it is a rare example of philosophy and music in combination. Ultimately, music is to be interpreted individually by everyone who hears it. More than any other composer, Mahler requires his audience's participation to complete the meaning of the music. That is what I tried to work with and wanted to have unfold in the course of the film."

The ideas that Mahler deals with in his Third symphony are deep and significant: the notion that we are all connected and that humans are matter that has become self-aware.

"These are things that we shouldn't just think about and then move on," says Starr. "They are things that have great impact on how we treat each other and go about leading our lives. Few composers delve that deeply, I think. "

The film was only recently completed and was released on DVD on March 30th, 2004. Currently, negotiations are under way for television broadcast rights to countries all over the world.

Meanwhile, the 2 DVD set gives great value for money.

DVD 1 consists of the actual documentary, which goes through all the movements of the symphony, providing spectacular images interspersed with interviews and orchestra shots, plus these mini-documentaries as a bonus:

1. Artist as Prophet

2. The Premiere: Alma, Strauss and the Public

3. Musical innovations in the First Movement

4. Schopenhauer: The World as Will and Idea

5. Nietzsche: The Birth of Tragedy out of the Spirit of Music

6. Howard Gardner: Natural and Supernatural Intelligence

7. Stan Brakhage: Composing in a Trance

8. The Youth's Magic Horn (featuring Thomas Hampson)

9. The Midnight Song: Eternity in the Present

10. The Endless Journey: Mahler's Questioning Spirit

11. Science and Faith: A Mahlerian Contradiction?

DVD 2 is a bonus full performance of Mahler's 3rd Symphony, in D Minor

Manhattan School of Music Symphony Orchestra

Glen Cortese - Conductor

Mignon Dunn - Mezzo Soprano

Brad Sirokuy - Posthorn

Manhattan School of Music Festival Chorus

Barnard Columbia Choir

The Women of the Riverside

Children's Festival Chorus of Manhattan School of Music

What the Universe Tells Me - Unravelling the Mysteries of Mahler's Third Symphony

VAI DVD 4267

www.vaimusic.com