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The Influences Of Mahler 's Work As A Conductor And Composer

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How does one codify the influences of Mahler’s work as a conductor and composer? As Gustav Mahler is well known for his conducting, he is best known for his skills as a composer. “Mahler 's interpretative style enabled him, undistracted by the army of gossipers who in all walks of life gather round the success-seekers, to develop, to grow, to mature, to live his works and to create, as Schubert created his songs, Bruckner his symphonies and Masses, and Wagner his music dramas” (Grange). However, Leonard Bernstein sometimes felt (according to PBS ' American Masters video on Bernstein) like he had become Mahler in his performances. Gustav Mahler has become an iconic figure in the eyes of other conductors/composers, because it helped them become masters of their own works with the influential ideas of Mahler.
Born on July 7, 1860, in Kalischt, Bohemia, Gustav Mahler was a late-Romantic composer and one of the leading conductors of his generation. As a composer, Mahler acted as a bridge between the 19th-century Austro-German tradition and the modernism of the early 20th century. While in his lifetime his status as a conductor was established beyond question, his own music gained wide popularity only after periods of relative neglect which included a ban on its performance in much of Europe during the Nazi era. However, Mahler also was a Jew, and Jews in the region were associated by ethnic Czechs with Germans. Mahler’s famous quote is: “I am thrice homeless, as a native of

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