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Mahler · Gustav Mahler

Mahler Symphony No. 8 in E♭ major "Symphony of a Thousand"

"Symphony of a Thousand": the name was a concert promoter's doing

Key
E♭ major
Composed
1906
Premiere
1910 Munich
Duration
About 85 min
Movements
2 movements
Instrumentation
Very large woodwind section (5–6 flutes including piccolo, 4 oboes + English horn, E♭ clarinet, 3 clarinets, bass clarinet, 4 bassoons + contrabassoon) · Brass 8·4·4·1 (+ offstage 4 trumpets and 3 trombones) · Timpani · Percussion (bass drum, cymbals, tam-tam, triangle, bells, glockenspiel) · 2 or more harps · Celesta, piano, harmonium, organ · Mandolin · 8 vocal soloists, 2 mixed choruses and a children's chorus · Strings

The story behind this piece

He completed a draft in about eight weeks in the summer of 1906 in Maiernigg. Part I sets the Latin Pentecost hymn "Veni creator spiritus" (Come, Creator Spirit), and Part II sets the final scene of Goethe's Faust. Mahler described the piece with the words, "Imagine that the whole universe begins to sound."

Emil Gutmann, the promoter in charge of the premiere in Munich on September 12, 1910, gave it the name "Symphony of a Thousand" to sell tickets. Mahler disliked the name. The number of people who actually took the stage, chorus, orchestra, and soloists together, was a little over a thousand, and the audience included the writer Thomas Mann. It was the last premiere of his own work that Mahler conducted in his lifetime, and he died eight months later.

What to listen for

  • Part I: the whole large chorus begins by shouting out the Latin hymn with great force.
  • Part II: several soloists, the chorus, and the orchestra together sing the final scene of Goethe's Faust.

Listen · Score

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