The Resurrection

My teacher for our conducting class Dr. Bradford asked us all to write a paper about what this 20th century composer was trying to say in this masterpiece "The Resurrection" (24 mins 25sec). You're probably not interested in reading it, but I thought I'd post it here anyway because I put in a great deal of effort into it. Might as well turn it into a good blog post.

First a post about heaven, now one about this? Geez! See what happens when I can't blog about Richie?


The Resurrection, by Gustav Mahler
Symphony no. 2, 5th movement

In this magnificent work entitled “The Resurrection”, Mahler speaks of life, death, mourning and the restoration of life.

While life is precious and wonderful, we often take it for granted till we lose a loved one. Life is eventful and filled with emotions and experiences of every kind. There is too much to it to compose within one symphony, much less a single movement. However, Mahler managed to portray the triumph and happiness of life in the beginning part of the last movement. Life isn’t always a bed of roses though. Our victories are made sweeter because of our failures and our joy more exquisite because of our pain. Often times they mingle together and we experience many bittersweet memories in our lifetime.

Mahler teaches us in this piece that life is fleeting. We keep it so fast paced and
find ourselves chasing after time until all the time has past and we finally slow down and learn to appreciate the more important things in life. Towards the end of our lives, when our bodies start to decline, the cares of the world like money and popularity often fade and relationships and family start to become more and more important. Perhaps when death is in sight, things are put into a better perspective. Hindsight is 20-20: perhaps that is where the aged find their wisdom.

As Mahler leads the piece into death, one can observe how it is not sudden. More often than not, death doesn’t hit you like a jolt. It’s a gradual descent. Death creeps up upon the living and while it may seem sudden to us, every day we live only brings us closer to the end of our mortality.

Because life is so glorious and because of our lack of understanding of what goes on after, death is often frowned upon. It is commonly associated with grief, loss, pain, suffering, loneliness and mourning – and rightly so. However, death is not always unwelcome, nor is it necessarily a thing to be dreaded. It can free the sick from their misery as it frees the mind and spirit from a failing body. Yet, death is always received as bad news. While death may bring relief to some, no one ever really rejoices over the death of a loved one (writing about the death of our enemies may require a whole different paper). Mourning, grief and sorrow always follow the passing of one we love. Even Mahler observes death with a moment of silence – or two.

Mahler points out most eloquently the phase between death and life in his composition. It encompasses the largest portion of this movement. This period exists, I believe, for both those who have lost a loved one to death and the deceased as well. It starts out rather dreary for many because we are still trying to figure out where to go from there. When death strikes, there is an intense sense of loss, as we no longer know where to place the love we once used to fill our lives. There is a long moment of introspection as we are reminded of the fragility of life and start to re-evaluate how our own lives are being spent. It is appropriate to mourn. There is nothing wrong in feeling the emptiness from such a loss. Proper healing requires that one allows himself to feel pain first and then joy afterward.

In this piece, we learn that there is hope. Life will return to the departed if we wait patiently. Prior to that glorious restoration however, the living must learn to restore happiness back into their lives. There needs to be, in a sense, a resurrection in the living, where we move on from death and mourning to life and hope for a new beginning. The knowledge of the resurrection is not always essential in the healing process, but it does help speed it up. Such knowledge also gives us much more purpose and direction in our own lives and puts mortality in a new light.

From this piece, we see that learning to continue to live and to find happiness in the shadow of death is not the ultimate reward. While it brings serenity to our existence, Mahler shows us that there is something far more glorious and magnificent in store.

Life and death can be compared to day and night. The same sun goes from scorching heat at noon to gentle beaming in the evening. At nightfall, the sun descends gradually in a glorious ceremony of beautiful colors while darkness creeps in its absence. When the light disappears below the horizon, shadows and gloom overtake the earth. There is a moment of silence when we find ourselves engulfed in a dreary pitch black. Then the starlit sky and the glowing moon come into view. While they cannot compare to the warmth of the sun, they hold their own beauty and the terror of darkness soon melts away brining a sort of tranquility to the air. Yet, we all know that the still of the night won’t last. There is more to come: the sun has not disappeared completely; it is simply out of sight for a moment. The sun will return at dawn, restoring light and life to the earth in a glorious outburst or light rays breaking through the clouds, coloring the sky and the earth once more.

The restoration of life to Mahler reminded me very much of a sunrise. Gradual yet majestic, it is dramatic and marks the climax of the entire piece. Those who wait patiently will not only be able to find joy in that interlude between death and life or darkness and light, but will also be able to bask in the beauty of a resurrection – the awakening of slumbering souls to rejoicing.

Mahler truly understood the magnitude of this event and did it much justice in his representation of the resurrection. Filled with hope and anticipation, we learn from Mahler’s work that we have much to look forward to. In this brilliant masterpiece, his message to the living, to the mourning, to the dying and even to the dead, is that there simply is more – much more.