Book details

  • Genre:music
  • Sub-genre:Instruction & Study / Theory
  • Language:English
  • Series Title:Reflections on Gustav Mahler
  • Series Number:1
  • Pages:560
  • Hardcover ISBN:9798317838539

Reflections on Gustav Mahler

Music from Heaven, Heart and Hell

By Antony Cooke and David Baltuch

Overview

There is certainly no shortage of well-researched books about Gustav Mahler. However, missing from the shelves, are those that deal more directly with the creative, technical and esoteric aspects so deeply entrenched within everything he wrote that, even today, his huge role in determining the course of new music is barely acknowledged. The mindset of denial enshrines the bias that has persisted from Mahler's own time and has allowed him frequently to be summarily pigeon-holed as merely "one" of several " post-Romantic" composers, who extended the life of Romanticism beyond its limits. Mahler's refusal to abandon tonality and start over, seems often his most common-held musical "transgression,' stated gratuitously and without the benefit of examining the record in in order justify an erroneous position. However, Mahler's revolutionary ideas and techniques became a large part of the twentieth century's new music and sound. Although his junior contemporaries developed them in other directions, in Mahler's capable hands, they became a unique medium through which the universe seems to speak and radiate the spirit of man's place within it.
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Description

There is certainly no shortage of well-researched books about Gustav Mahler. However, missing from the shelves, are those that deal more directly with the creative, technical and esoteric aspects so deeply entrenched within everything he wrote that, even today, his huge role in determining the course of new music is barely acknowledged. The mindset of denial enshrines the bias that has persisted from Mahler's own time and has allowed him frequently to be summarily pigeon-holed as merely "one" of several " post-Romantic" composers, who extended the life of Romanticism beyond its limits. Mahler's refusal to abandon tonality and start over, seems often his most common-held musical "transgression,' stated gratuitously and without the benefit of examining the record in in order justify an erroneous position. However, Mahler's revolutionary ideas and techniques became a large part of the twentieth century's new music and sound. Although his junior contemporaries developed them in other directions, in Mahler's capable hands, they became a unique medium through which the universe seems to speak and radiate the spirit of man's place within it.
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About The Author

Antony Cooke, formerly associate professor of cello at Northwestern University, and 30-year veteran of the Hollywood film music industry (performing in approximately 1500 soundtracks), author of numerous books, including "Charles Ives's Musical Universe" [2015], "Charles Ives and his Road to the Stars" [2016]), and "Astronomy and the Climate Crisis" [2013], has had a multi-faceted career—also as solo performer and classical recording artist, composer, and author of books about astronomy. This book, with fellow collaborator and contributor in Belgium, David Baltuch, is the first of a three-volume resource on Gustav Mahler. Trained mostly in London, Cooke established an early career as a solo cellist. Primarily the protégé of the pedagogue Helen Just (a disciple of Diran Alexanian); Cooke received artist diplomas from both the Royal College of Music and the Royal Academy of Music in London. Cooke was a gold medalist at the London Music Competition in 1966, received the prestigious 'Young Musicians '73 Award (London), and appeared as a concerto soloist and recitalist on the BBC. Cooke has concertized extensively throughout Europe and USA, and recorded numerous CD's and LP's under the Centaur, PROdigital, Resort Classic, and Golden Crest labels. Cooke studied theory and historical musicology under John Wilkinson, composition under John Lambert (Nadia Boulanger protégé), and conducting under Sir Colin Davis. As England's youngest principal cellist (the London Mozart Players under Harry Blech), then England's premier chamber orchestra, he appeared regularly with the ensemble as concerto soloist. Appointed Assistant Professor of Cello at the University of South Florida in 1974, and subsequently, Associate Professor in the School of Music at Northwestern University in Chicago, he was a founder member of the Regenstein Trio. In 1984, having relocated to Los Angeles he established himself as one of the luminaries in the Hollywood recording industry, participating in countless movie soundtracks, television and record productions, as well as composing music for prime time television. As a composer, he has been published by Kendor, Studio PR, Kjos Music, and CPP Bellwin, Inc. Presently engaged in producing the three volumes on Mahler, Cooke still performs, writes music, and aims to create an annual Mahler festival in St Petersburg, Florida.
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