The Opening of the Mahler Ninth Symphony and the Bernstein “Heart-Beat” Hypothesis.
by Charles Amenta
Leonard Bernstein stated in both his Norton Lectures of 1973 at Harvard University as well as in a video devoted to the Mahler Ninth Symphony; “Four Ways to Say Farewell,” his opinion that: “the opening bars of [Mahler’s Ninth Symphony] are an imitation of the arrhythmia of his failing heartbeat.” Over the years, though, few have accepted Bernstein’s observation. In this essay, I argue that Bernstein was essentially right, although he didn’t offer enough accurate details to convince many people. I also plead that Mahler’s evocation of a heartbeat in no way violates the sacred abstract nature of musical art.
As is well known, Mahler was diagnosed as having a serious heart condition as a result of a physician’s home visit to comfort and treat Alma Mahler in her grief and prostration over the death in 1907 of her and Gustav Mahler’s oldest daughter, Maria (“Putzi”). Mahler casually offered to be examined also at that time, and was immediately discovered to have a heart condition on a simple auscultation(stethoscope examination) of his heart. A second opinion in Vienna confirmed the diagnosis of post-rheumatic heart disease. Stephen Hefling recently noted that the practice of that day was to restrict vigorous activity not only to prevent strain on the defective heart valve(or valves), but, more relevantly, to hold off the increased threat of fatal infection that such valvular heart disease risked. That latter complication was, indeed, the illness to which Mahler succumbed in 1911. It should noted that Bernstein was incorrect in that Mahler’s heart was not “failing” at the time of the composition of the Ninth Symphony – a diagnosis implying that Mahler’s heart contractions were not sufficient to adequately circulate his blood.
Bernstein stated that Mahler had an “arrhythmia” which is another unfortunate misuse of specific medical terminology. There is no reason to believe that Mahler had an irregular heart beat or “arrhythmia,” a term which implies that either the beats of the heart come at irregularly spaced intervals (i.e., erratic) or that the heart was dangerously beating too quickly or too slowly. Thus, Bernstein’s contention might have been dismissed out of hand by music-loving physicians because the openingof the Ninth Symphony has none of the features of an irregular heartbeat.What Mahler certainly had was a heart murmur as a result of his rheumatic heart disease, a complication of his repeated bouts of strep throat. Acutely in the initial phase of this complication, the mitral valve becomes inflamed causing a swelling and back leakage (“regurgitation”or “insufficiency” in medical terms). Afterward in chronic cases, the valve reacts to the inflammation by scarring, causing a narrowing of the passage through the valve or mitral “stenosis.” This was almost certainly Mahler’s condition at the time of his diagnosis in 1907. A loud or “high grade” murmur would be noted by any competent physician on a quick listening (auscultation). Indeed, a strong enough murmur can be felt by merely placing the hand upon the chest. Alma Mahler is quoted, “For years I had been frightened by the whistling sound that could be heard very loudly on the second beat…”
What would a mitral stenosis murmur sound like? Exactly as Alma Mahler stated, in addition to the two normal main sounds the heart makes, the well-known “lubb-dupp” or S1 and S2 sounds, there would be a “blowing” sound in the much longer time interval following the S2 sound before the S1 returns to repeat the rhythm. This is exactly what Mahler writes in the opening measures of the Ninth Symphony. The S1and S2 are in the cellos and the longer blowing sound in the fourth horn. If one considers each entrance of the cellos a single heart beat or pulse, this would be an extremely slow heart rate. Yet, such a rate,though perhaps not as extreme, would be fully consistent with Mahler’s participation in vigorous physical activities such as swimming, mountain climbing, and bicycling. The more conditioned the athlete, the slower the heart rate.
While Bernstein’s insight might be mystically attributed to some privileged psychic communion with Mahler, more basic musical empathy would appear to be sufficient. The first basic element of the heartbeat motive is its lack of melodic movement. It stays on A, and thus is a projection of pure rhythm which is unique in opening a Mahler symphony, and perhaps, for any important Mahler theme or motive. The trumpet opening of Mahler’s Fifth Symphony initially stays on one note but that solo goes on to encompass a large melodic terrain. The monotone heartbeat motive is separate from the harp motto, the horncall, and the viola tremolo which comprise the opening material of Mahler’s Ninth Symphony. As Bernstein noted, the heartbeat motive only later occurs at the most ominous passages in the first movement –at the start of the development and toward the end of this section.This latter instance, in the tuba and trombones at maximum force, is perhaps the most dramatic and disruptive moment in the movement leading directly into a funeral cortege passage.
Moreover, Mahler never separates these three notes – the “murmur”always follows the heartbeat – though in the climactic final recurrence there is an extension of the murmur sound as though to emphasize thetruly menacing element in the heart sound. Compare this to the last two notes of the harp motto which are immediately augmented by aninterpolated note at its second presentation. Also the last two notes ofthe harp motto, comprising a descending whole step, anticipate the“Lebewohl” refrain of the first melody. I would argue also that the melodic contour of the harp motto somewhat anticipates the melodic turn of the last movement. Still, the heart-beat motive is stark,undeveloped, and implacable.
Nevertheless, I imagine that this idea of an imitated heart sound being interpolated into a symphony might be rejected because it would seem to violate a sense of the wonderful, abstract nature of music--that music is powerful not because it attempts reproductions of everyday sounds,but because of some quasi-magical or spiritual psychic resonance. I would argue that the heartbeat hypothesis should not be rejected for three reasons. First, the heartbeat holds a privileged position regarding music. Just think of the common terms in both music and the medicine of the heart: rhythm, beat, pulse. Indeed, it might well be that our universal attraction to musical rhythm is an epiphenomenon of our sense of our own heartbeat.
Second, there is a strong tradition of heartbeat sounds in music.Another example occurs in the heart-beat timpani notes in Florestan’s second-act aria in Fidelio. Perhaps even more a propos would be the expiring hero’s heartbeat in Strauss’s Tod und Verklärung which is another work that Mahler, the conductor, would have known intimately.An additional example in the concert repertoire is Ravel’s La Valse which opens with the depiction of an excited heartbeat.
Finally, with Mahler, the heartbeat elements are so subsumed into the art of motivic construction and symphonic architecture—compare this to Strauss’s more programmatic treatment in Tod-- that there can be absolutely no doubt as to the aesthetic transformation. Mahler did not“document” his heartbeat anymore than he documented a cuckoo songin his First Symphony. (Indeed, Mahler’s cuckoos uniquely sing in perfect fourths which is a stylized, rather than mimetic, rendering of their natural song—compare this to the cuckoos in the “Pastoral”Symphony of Beethoven.) This is also the argument against those who would say that Mahler wasn’t highly “accurate” in his representation of a heartbeat with a diastolic murmur. Well, of course not!
That Mahler opened his symphonic message of farewell with the representation of his soon-to-be-fatal heart condition should only add an element of poignancy rather than seem an intrusion of stark reality into the aesthetic world of music, especially in a work like the Ninth Symphony. In the essentials, Bernstein was correct.
Naturlaut 4(1): 17-18, 2005
