7 The 100 Most Influential Musicians of All Time 7The religious element in these works is highly signifi-
cant. Mahler’s disturbing early background, coupled with
his lack of an inherited Jewish faith (his father was a free-
thinker), resulted in a state of metaphysical torment,
which he resolved temporarily by identifying himself with
Christianity. That this was a genuine impulse there can be
no doubt, even if there was an element of expediency in
his becoming baptized, early in 1897, because it made it
easier for him to be appointed to the Vienna Opera post.
The 10 years there represent his more balanced middle
period. His newfound faith and his new high office brought
a full and confident maturity, which was further stabilized
by his marriage in 1902 to Alma Maria Schindler, who bore
him two daughters, in 1902 and 1904.
Musical Works: Middle Period
As director of the Vienna Opera, Mahler achieved an
unprecedented standard of interpretation and perfor-
mance, and through a number of concert tours he also
became famous over much of Europe as a conductor. He
continued his recently acquired habit of devoting his
summer vacations, in the Austrian Alps, to composing,
and, since, in his case, this involved a ceaseless expenditure
of spiritual and nervous energy, he placed an intolerable
strain on his frail constitution.
Most of the works of this middle period reflect the
fierce dynamism of Mahler’s full maturity. An exception is
Symphony No. 4 (1900; popularly called Ode to Heavenly Joy),
which has a song finale for soprano that evokes a naive
peasant conception of the Christian heaven. At the same
time, in dispensing with an explicit program and a chorus
and coming near to the normal orchestral symphony, it does
foreshadow the purely orchestral middle-period trilogy,