Description: Arved Ashby takes readers into the seeming chaos of Mahler's work to investigate the elements which make each piece an experiential adventure. The book surveys Mahler's symphonies and song cycles in detail, introducing them as intensely vivid, truthful, and lived and felt experiences.
Brief description: Arved Ashby is professor of music at Ohio State University, where he specializes in 20th and 21st century art music as well as cultural history and media and communications. He has published articles on Arnold Schoenberg, Frank Zappa, and Benjamin Britten, and he has taught classes on topics as varied as ancient music, Philip Glass' film music, and 20th-century music through the prism of the Beatles.
Review Quotes:
Highly Recommended: [Experiencing Mahler] will be appreciated by music lovers at all levels of expertise. The book is valuable as a journey through Mahler's oeuvre with an intelligent and perceptive companion, and as a good excuse to revisit the work of a most important but often misunderstood modern classical composer.