April 9, 2010
Dear Readers,
learn more about Mahler Re-Composed at my blog mahler-recomposed.blogspot.com (sic). Sorry about the hyphen, in different places in the title and the blog. Just go for mahler-rec and you will find it. There will be some of my photographs from his places.
gmc
Saturday, April 9, 2011
Sunday, April 3, 2011
Mahler book
April 3, 2011
Dear Readers,
Here’s a description of Mahler Re-Composed.
It is an interconnected series of six extended essays, a detailed introduction, and a conclusion, on the work and personality of the Bohemian-Austrian-Jewish composer Gustav Mahler. It is for the lay reader — the reader lying down, interested in enjoying something (s)he already knows a little about. Le lecteur accouchant, as Freud would say. 520 pp, with 13 illustrations.
Topics include: Mahler the Czech (35-p. introduction), Mahler sick and lovesick (Ch I, with Freud in a co-starring role), Tell Me the Story (early years II), Too Jewish (III), Strauss (IV), Tell Me the Story (late years, V), and Curriculum Vitae (VI).
In order of quality, I rank them: Introduction, Mahler Sick, Tell the Story (early), Tell the Story (late), Strauss, CV, Jewish. I think Too Jewish is too overrun with detail and tends to ramble. Strauss also rambles, but it is so unique and rings so true to my inner ear that I can’t be dissatisfied. In general I am pleased with the book, and I think most of it is good to very good. In any case, it tells the absolute and complicated truth, as I have discovered it. The introduction, CV, and Ch I turned out to be easier to read than the rest of it.
I do not sugarcoat Mahler. He must have been a difficult person, but with many redeeming qualities. He was like an extremely demanding professor with a soft heart who rewards you for tremendous effort even when you don’t do that well. He was a strong personality, but he had problems dealing with his friends and the people closest to him. Neurotic? No more than any hard-working genius. (To Freud, everyone in the world was neurotic except fresh corpses.)
2011 is the centennial of his death (May 18), as 2010 was the sesquicentennial (July 7), so you can see I had to hurry to get it done in the magic year.
I also had to hurry for another reason: my vision is deteriorating.
If you want an e-version, it is $9.99. If you want paper and print, I have ordered some copies for those who might be interested (IUniverse).
gmc
Dear Readers,
Here’s a description of Mahler Re-Composed.
It is an interconnected series of six extended essays, a detailed introduction, and a conclusion, on the work and personality of the Bohemian-Austrian-Jewish composer Gustav Mahler. It is for the lay reader — the reader lying down, interested in enjoying something (s)he already knows a little about. Le lecteur accouchant, as Freud would say. 520 pp, with 13 illustrations.
Topics include: Mahler the Czech (35-p. introduction), Mahler sick and lovesick (Ch I, with Freud in a co-starring role), Tell Me the Story (early years II), Too Jewish (III), Strauss (IV), Tell Me the Story (late years, V), and Curriculum Vitae (VI).
In order of quality, I rank them: Introduction, Mahler Sick, Tell the Story (early), Tell the Story (late), Strauss, CV, Jewish. I think Too Jewish is too overrun with detail and tends to ramble. Strauss also rambles, but it is so unique and rings so true to my inner ear that I can’t be dissatisfied. In general I am pleased with the book, and I think most of it is good to very good. In any case, it tells the absolute and complicated truth, as I have discovered it. The introduction, CV, and Ch I turned out to be easier to read than the rest of it.
I do not sugarcoat Mahler. He must have been a difficult person, but with many redeeming qualities. He was like an extremely demanding professor with a soft heart who rewards you for tremendous effort even when you don’t do that well. He was a strong personality, but he had problems dealing with his friends and the people closest to him. Neurotic? No more than any hard-working genius. (To Freud, everyone in the world was neurotic except fresh corpses.)
2011 is the centennial of his death (May 18), as 2010 was the sesquicentennial (July 7), so you can see I had to hurry to get it done in the magic year.
I also had to hurry for another reason: my vision is deteriorating.
If you want an e-version, it is $9.99. If you want paper and print, I have ordered some copies for those who might be interested (IUniverse).
gmc
Friday, April 1, 2011
New Book on Mahler
April 1, 2011
Dear Students and Colleagues,
It has been nearly a year since my retirement. I have sorely missed the classroom and my work with Slavic students. I hope to make a cameo appearance to lead my Slavic Contributions to Linguistics, Spring, 2012. Open to all linguistics students, the course is a theoretical study of Roman Jakobson and his followers' ideas on language and literature. You do not need Russian or Czech to sign up. Topics include the phenomenology of semiotics in natural language and the central place of function in language structure and change. Unfortunately most of my old students will have graduated or lost interest in this stuff by then — but if you Newcomb big sisters or Tulane big brothers (do they still have that?) would counsel your little siblings to consider this class — if, and only if (iff) they are fascinated by the beauty and the play of language — I will be pleased.Большое вам спасибо, moc a moc děkuju.
You may be interested in my new book, Mahler Re-Composed, IUniverse 2011,available in hard-, soft- and e-format. More on this later.
Regards,
gmc
Dear Students and Colleagues,
It has been nearly a year since my retirement. I have sorely missed the classroom and my work with Slavic students. I hope to make a cameo appearance to lead my Slavic Contributions to Linguistics, Spring, 2012. Open to all linguistics students, the course is a theoretical study of Roman Jakobson and his followers' ideas on language and literature. You do not need Russian or Czech to sign up. Topics include the phenomenology of semiotics in natural language and the central place of function in language structure and change. Unfortunately most of my old students will have graduated or lost interest in this stuff by then — but if you Newcomb big sisters or Tulane big brothers (do they still have that?) would counsel your little siblings to consider this class — if, and only if (iff) they are fascinated by the beauty and the play of language — I will be pleased.Большое вам спасибо, moc a moc děkuju.
You may be interested in my new book, Mahler Re-Composed, IUniverse 2011,available in hard-, soft- and e-format. More on this later.
Regards,
gmc
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