This symphony is quoted in various ways throughout Capacity. The following gives a little background on the piece and answers some of the questions raised in the book.
Mahler was born in 1860 in the Bohemian village of Kalište, the son of an Austrian-Jewish tavern keeper. Later in life he was baptised as a Christian. The eighth symphony is generally supposed to have been the last written whilst Mahler retained that faith. His works after this reflect his gradual disillusionment with religion and growing awareness of the reality of death.
The eighth symphony itself can be said to be a cry for illumination from both a religious and humanistic point of view. It consists of two parts, the first a setting of the medieval Catholic Pentecost hymn Veni Creator Spiritus (Come Creator Spirit); the second is based on the last scene of Goethe’s Faust, the scene of Faust’s redemption.
Both parts feature in the novel: for example the musician sings the main theme at the close of the book. The landscape at the end of Justinian’s story was inspired by the desolate land described by the music in the opening of the second movement. There are other references hidden away in the book if you have the time (or the inclination) to look for them.
About half way through Capacity, Zinman quotes the closing lines from the second movement. Helen asks what it means and Judy suggests that she looks it up on her console. I have included the text and a translation below. To my mind, Zinman has taken the text entirely out of context.
Mahler was born in 1860 in the Bohemian village of Kalište, the son of an Austrian-Jewish tavern keeper. Later in life he was baptised as a Christian. The eighth symphony is generally supposed to have been the last written whilst Mahler retained that faith. His works after this reflect his gradual disillusionment with religion and growing awareness of the reality of death.
The eighth symphony itself can be said to be a cry for illumination from both a religious and humanistic point of view. It consists of two parts, the first a setting of the medieval Catholic Pentecost hymn Veni Creator Spiritus (Come Creator Spirit); the second is based on the last scene of Goethe’s Faust, the scene of Faust’s redemption.
Both parts feature in the novel: for example the musician sings the main theme at the close of the book. The landscape at the end of Justinian’s story was inspired by the desolate land described by the music in the opening of the second movement. There are other references hidden away in the book if you have the time (or the inclination) to look for them.
About half way through Capacity, Zinman quotes the closing lines from the second movement. Helen asks what it means and Judy suggests that she looks it up on her console. I have included the text and a translation below. To my mind, Zinman has taken the text entirely out of context.
All things transitory
are but parable;
here insufficiency
becomes fulfillment,
here the indescribable
is accomplished
Judy also appears to be familiar with the work. Possibly this is because she is trying to understand Zinman, or maybe she just likes Mahler. Either way, Judy replies with the final two lines of the textThe Eternal Feminine
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