MAHLER, GUSTAV

born July 7, 1860, Kalite, Bohemia, Austrian Empire died May 18, 1911, Vienna, Austria Austrian-Jewish composer and conductor noted for his 10 symphonies and various songs with orchestra, which drew together many different strands of Romanticism. Although his music was largely ignored for 50 years after his death, Mahler was later regarded as an important forerunner of 20th-century techniques of composition and an acknowledged influence on such composers as Arnold Schoenberg, Dmitry Shostakovich, and Benjamin Britten. Additional reading Two important memoirs are Bruno Walter, Gustav Mahler (1958); and Natalie Bauer-Lechner, Recollections of Gustav Mahler, ed. and annotated by Peter Franklin (1980). The definitive biography (coupled with critical study) is Donald Mitchell, Gustav Mahler: The Early Years, rev. and ed. by Paul Banks and David Matthews (1980), and Gustav Mahler: The Wunderhorn Years (1975, reissued 1980). Other notable biographies include Kurt Blaukopf, Gustav Mahler (1973, reprinted 1991), a biographical portrait emphasizing Mahler's life and personality; and Edward Seckerson, Mahler: His Life and Times (1982). Less scholarly works for the general reader are Egon Gartenberg, Mahler: The Man and His Music (1978); and Michael Kennedy, Mahler, rev. ed. (1991), a concise treatment. Interpretations of his music include Henry A. Lea, Gustav Mahler: Man on the Margin (1985); Deryck Cooke, Gustav Mahler: An Introduction to His Music, 2nd ed. (1988), a collection of short essays on individual works; and Donald Mitchell, Gustav Mahler: Songs and Symphonies of Life and Death (1985), focusing on the composer's vocal music.