Undaunted Joy #82
Mahler's 4th and Gemutlichkeit, an untranslatable German word that encompasses both “coziness” and “belonging.
As this year comes to a close, I want to thank all of you who subscribe and support me in various ways. Through paid subscriptions I was able to make a student loan payment this month and pass along a honorarium to our guest posts. Artists should be paid for their work. I am so grateful that you allow me to write and share and reflect on positive, joyful subjects.
If you are not a paid subscriber, I know you also support me by sharing my work online, commenting and purchasing items through the Amazon links on my website. Each of these things add up. I am so grateful. Thank you!
As I get closer to turning in the Undaunted Joy: The Revolutionary Act of Cultivating Delight manuscript, I hope to find new ways of connecting and building community through this lens. We already have a monthly Zoom for paid subscribers….perhaps something in person would be possible! Dreaming.
***
Because I am a creature of habit and routine, I listen to Mahler’s Symphonies on a loop continuously.
No, I am not particularly musical. I play no instrument. Once, in another lifetime ago, called the 90’s, I sang, at church and in musicals. I possess no particular musical knowledge but have a curiosity and patience to sit and listen intensely to good music.
Currently, I am listening to Mahler’s 4th Symphony, which was the first of his symphonies I was introduced to.
When I was in my teens, I had a difficult time falling asleep. I would listen to the local classical station in Los Angeles as laid in bed as still as I could, hoping sleep would come to me. One night the soprano Sylvia McNair was interviewed before the station played the Mahler’s 4th symphony in which she performed in 4th movement. She told the story of Mahler’s view of heaven from the point of view of a child, in such a delightful way, I knew I needed to listen closely.
I did not fall asleep easily that evening as I listened to Mahler’s sleigh bells, envisioning snow and a crackling fire. These were all the images Mahler hoped to evoke in the piece.
I thought about this evening for years. This was years before streaming music, when you could easily conjure up a piece you’d like to listen to, bringing it quickly to your own ears. I wondered when I would hear the symphony again. It would be in college, when I came into a little extra money and decided to look for that exact recording, the one with Sylvia McNair singing and found it at a Border’s Classical Music Store.
It became a nightly listening ritual as I fell asleep.
The symphony is joyous. Listening you find yourself in childlike wonder and curiosity, envisioning exploring the limitlessness of heaven around you. A critic wrote the “music is the epitome of gemutlichkeit, an untranslatable German word that encompasses both “coziness” and “belonging.””
Yes, exactly, gemütlichkeit.
The symphony concludes with the child sitting at the banquet table for the marriage supper of the Lamb and listening to the music of the angels.
There is just no music on earth
that can compare to ours.
Cecilia and all her relations
make excellent court musicians.
The angelic voices
gladden our senses,
so that all awaken for joy.
Not a bad way to fall asleep right?
Mahler often explored themes of life and death, God and existence. He was constantly seeking to know and understand God more clearly. His music reflects that and in turn, helps me experience, know and understand God more clearly. When art is done well, this is often a result.
The symphony came up on the rotation in the car on the way to violin lesson with my 13-year-old son this week. I had him pull up the listening notes on his phone and read them aloud to us. Will he remember that moment? We he connect with this piece or others that will help him understand his place in the world or even better, understand the transcendent, a glimpse into glory, in a new way?
***
Best Reads of 2023 : I read over 50 books a year. I compiled a list of my favorite reads this year. Check it out. Perhaps you will find a new read too.
Shemaiah, I have never listened to Mahler's 4th symphony and now I'm incredibly intrigued. Thank you.
I'm Grateful for all the joy you bring to this world through your words. And I love the new book title!
Beautiful! I had only heard Mahler's 3rd and 6th before this.