7 Gustav Mahler 7influence on such composers as Arnold Schoenberg,
Dmitry Shostakovich, and Benjamin Britten.
Early Life
Mahler was the second of 12 children of an Austrian-Jewish
tavern keeper living in the Bohemian village of Kaliště
(German: Kalischt), in the southwestern corner of the
modern Czech Republic. Shortly after his birth the family
moved to the nearby town of Jihlava (German: Iglau),
where Mahler spent his childhood and youth. Mahler was
afflicted by the tensions of being an “other” from the
beginning of his life. As part of a German-speaking
Austrian minority, he was an outsider among the indigenous
Czech population and, as a Jew, an outsider among that
Austrian minority; later, in Germany, he was an outsider
as both an Austrian from Bohemia and a Jew.
Mahler’s life was also complicated by the tension
between his parents. His father had married a delicate
woman from a cultured family, and, coming to resent her
social superiority, he resorted to physically maltreating her.
In consequence Mahler was alienated from his father and
had a strong mother fixation. Furthermore, he inherited
his mother’s weak heart, which was to cause his death at
the age of 50. This unsettling early background may explain
the nervous tension, the irony and skepticism, the obses-
sion with death, and the unremitting quest to discover some
meaning in life that was to pervade Mahler’s life and music.
Mahler’s musical talent revealed itself early and signifi-
cantly; around the age of four he began to reproduce
military music and Czech folk music on the accordion and
on the piano and began composing pieces of his own. The
military and popular styles, together with the sounds of
nature, became main sources of his mature inspiration. At
10 he made his debut as a pianist in Jihlava and at 15 was