The Eighth
Mahler and the World in 1910
- Contents
- Review Quotes

Introduction: The Arrival of the Queen of Heaven
1 Setting the Stage
2 ‘Arise, Light of the Senses’
3 Why Symphony?
Interlude—Behind the Scenes: Alma and Walter, August–September 1910
4 God or Demon?
5 Approaching the Inexpressible: Words and Music in Mahler’s Eighth Symphony
6 Questions of Identity
7 The Shadow Falls
8 ‘To Live for You, To Die for You’
Coda: 14 September 1910–18 May 1911
Notes
Acknowledgements
Index
“Johnson has written an engaging and enthusiastic account of the Eighth. . . . Johnson puts the symphony squarely in the context of Mahler’s musical career, and is happy to share his passionate keenness for the music.”
“Johnson writes vividly and personally about Mahler’s gigantic Eighth Symphony and its extravagant 1910 Munich premiere while also refusing to turn a blind eye to the excesses and chicaneries of the age. . . . This is a tale of the sordid and the sublime told by an enthusiastic and perceptive critic, who in the end leaves the reader in no doubt about the glories of the Eighth—a towering choral masterpiece presented on the cusp of a disastrous decade.”
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