And
the andante of the same symphony derives from both the allegretto of
Beethoven's Eighth and the andante of his "Pastoral Symphony"; might,
indeed, figure as a sort of "Szene am Bach" through which there flow the
yellowish tides of the Danube. Beethoven is recalled by some of Mahler's
triumphant finales, particularly by those of the Fifth and Seventh
Symphonies, and by many of Mahler's adagio passages. "Es sucht der
Bruder seinen Bruder," oh, how often and at what length through
Mahler's symphonies, and with what persistency on the tenor trumpet! And
how often in them does not the German family man take his children
walking in the woods of a Sunday afternoon and bid them worship their
Creator for having implanted the Love of Virtue in the Human Heart!
Just as it was inevitable that Mahler, instead of developing his own
artistic individuality, should seek all his life to identify himself
with certain other composers, so, too, it was inevitable that it should
be Beethoven whom he would most sedulously emulate. For not only was
Beethoven the great classic presence of the German concert hall, and
deemed, in the words of Lanier, the "dear living lord of tone," the
"sole hymner of the whole of life." He was also, of all the masters, the
one spiritually most akin to Mahler.
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