Mahler's Liszt and the Hermeneutics of Chant

Zon, Bennett (2005) Mahler's Liszt and the Hermeneutics of Chant. Studia Musicologica Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae, 46 (3-4). pp. 383-402. ISSN 0039-3266

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Abstract

While Mahler's adaptation of previously existing material is generally understood from a compositional standpoint, its philosophical import remains elusive. This essay explores the relationship between these perspectives by situating the fourth movement of Mahler's first symphony within the context of Wilhelm Dilthey's hermeneutical philosophy. The Cross motif (as described by Floros) is examined for its structural relations to the latter section of Liszt's Dante and the Magnificat chant upon which it is based. These reveal a compositional attitude to the past with close philoso-phical similarities to Dilthey's concept of the present as 'the moment filled with experience'. Indeed, Mahler's borrowing emblemizes Dilthey's claim that 'both past and future elements are related to the experience in a sequence which, through these relationships, is welded into a whole.'

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