The orchestra's tactics are fascinating. Let's explore the maze of this epic masterpiece together.

A journey to explore the maze of a blockbuster　Exploring the background and characteristics of Mahler's Symphony No. 3

There were six tables in the venue, each with a suggestive object placed on it.
This piece was once listed in the Guinness Book of World Records as the "longest symphony." When listening to the actual performance, are there any guideposts that will help me remember what it was like?

1. The career of a composer living in a turbulent era

Mahler lived his life constantly questioning and reflecting on who he was, and he projected his lost self into his music. The session began with a discussion of Mahler's journey as a composer. Compared to previous workshops, Michael Spencer (Communications Director of the Japan Philharmonic Orchestra, hereafter referred to as Mike) devoted a significant amount of time to what is known as "lectures," that is, lectures on the background of the works.

At the end of the 19th century, the 600-year-old Habsburg system collapsed, leading to the imminent arrival of World War I. Mahler found himself at the mercy of a European society undergoing radical change. Though forced to convert from Judaism to Roman Catholicism, he retained within him a Jewish heritage that led to free-spirited wandering and a belief in resurrection in the afterlife. Through his interactions with philosophers and literary figures, he encountered the medieval tale "The Magic Horn." While at the forefront of the professional conductor profession in an era when it was firmly established, Mahler also enjoyed nature on his days off. The scenery seen from the window of his "summer composing hut" also served as a background sound for his compositions. Mahler deliberately abandoned the constructive nature of classical music to write sound essays, drawing on his own experiences, thoughts, the sights he saw, and the sounds he heard. How did he exaggerate his own subjectivity? Looking at paintings by Van Gogh, Kandinsky, and Kokoschka, we consider "Expressionism."
Mike said that in designing the workshop, it was absolutely necessary to understand the context of the period and Mahler's personality in order to get even a little sense of the essence of this lengthy symphony.

2. Follow the signposts in each movement

After a break, in the second half, you will actually experience the musical characteristics of each movement through live chamber music performances by members of the Japan Philharmonic Orchestra and video footage.

Second Movement: Dancing Shoes on the Second Table. Accompanied by a string quartet, the participants danced the minuet. Mahler followed the tradition of quoting dance pieces that dates back to the Baroque period, but further evolved it. Then came a landscape of blooming flowers. Mahler's "essay on sound" shifts themes drastically, depicting one after another and in multiple layers.

Third Movement: The third table features a painting of birds. With the arrival of summer, the sounds of cuckoos, nightingales, and other animals appear in this movement. Then, suddenly, the scene changes. Principal trumpeter Ottaviano Cristofoli plays the flugelhorn of the banda (a separate band playing backstage).

Fourth Movement: On the fourth table is a string bow. The cello maintains a two-note harmony with a soft tremolo, a technique that Mahler often used. Amidst the background sounds, the sounds of nocturnal animals can be heard. And then there's the Night Song from Nietzsche's "Thus Spoke Zarathustra." Night is dark, sad, and melancholic, yet it is also a time when people can deepen their thoughts. Eventually, dawn arrives, a harbinger of the day ahead.

Fifth Movement: Bells on the Fifth Table. The angels' speech and the background sound of bells are depicted by a female choir and a children's choir. Participants actually sang this choir during a chamber music performance.

Sixth Movement: A single string on the sixth table. Mike used a taut string as a symbol of the expression Mahler required of the performers in this movement. A single rising tension is maintained throughout. To portray the nuances of emotion, detailed instructions are given for the expression, including the position of the strings, playing technique, and the range of vibrato. I heard this performed by a string quintet.

Movement 1: "You can't know where you're going until you know where you've been."
Mike quotes American civil rights activist, poet, and musician Maya Angelou to help us understand the structure of the Third Symphony as a whole, or perhaps Mahler's thoughts on how he came up with that structure: Could it be that he didn't know how to begin until he'd reached the end?

From the second to the final movement, there are many twists and turns, and the ideas change frequently, but the theme that runs through the whole piece is the journey of this planet towards "eternal, universal love." Mike says that it is a story that follows the Earth from its birth to its rebirth.
So, finally, what did Mahler choose as the opening movement? "Pan awakens. Summer marches in." These words, which are particularly abstract and difficult to understand compared to the other movements, provide a clue. Pan (the god of sheep) in Greek mythology is said to be a symbol of confusion and chaos, and is also the origin of the word "panic." Mahler expressed this confusion in a funeral march. The distinctive rhythm, "dan-da-da-daan," was layered over a trombone performance, and participants tried playing it with their hands.
The opening horn ensemble, like Brahms' "Academic Festival Overture," is based on a student song that was sung as a symbol of the student democratization movement of the time. While incorporating such social issues, the Earth is born from this chaos, and through messages from the natural world, thinkers, and angels, the world gradually moves toward reconciliation and a new order, leading to a rebirth. This is the final stage in our understanding of the journey of this magnificent piece.

3. How do we live through music?

Since this workshop did not include the experience of creating music through group work, there was a question and answer session at the end of the session with the musicians who participated in the performance.
It was striking how one earnest question - "How can I listen to this lengthy piece without falling asleep?" - actually opened the door to the very essence of the act of "playing/listening." Constantly discovering new things as you listen. That is the key to "listening to a concert without falling asleep," and in fact, musicians are constantly making new discoveries, and these are the basis for communicating with each other and with the conductor. That is both the joy and the duty of being an orchestral player. We were able to hear the candid opinions of musicians, including Mike, who was also a violinist with the London Symphony Orchestra. The conversation went on to include:
"Another important job of a musician is to connect with the audience. Your relationship with a conductor is temporary, but your relationship with the audience is permanent." Taking the microphone, violist Nakagawa Yumiko spoke of her own personal challenges: "The happiness that performers and audience members felt through the music that day goes back to their homes, sending ripples back to where they have returned to, and on a larger scale, it leads to world peace. The orchestra has this mission, and music has the power to make it come true. What can we communicate, and what can we have people take away? What impact will it have on society? How can we take these things to a higher level?"

If you want to know anything about a piece of music, you can easily find information online these days, and you can also listen to audio recordings on video streaming services. However, the real joy of "Orchestral Teiki is Fun" is that participants can actually move their bodies and relive the composer's ideas and feelings. This was also a rare opportunity to hear the musicians' live voices, and it was a moment that instantly brought the audience and musicians closer together. (In fact, at the post-workshop review meeting, the musicians themselves, and even Mike himself, revealed new discoveries about the piece.)
One more thing to add: I was witnessing a truly moving moment, with a magnificent flugelhorn solo by virtuoso Ottaviano, followed by the string ensemble in the final movement. Is there any other workshop as wonderful as this?

Atsushi Yamaguchi (text and photos)

＜The orchestra's performance is interesting.＞

Date: September 18, 2023 (Monday/Holiday) 14:9-16:30
Venue: Cascade Hall, Ikiiki Plaza Ichibancho, Chiyoda Ward

Workshop Design: Michael Spencer (Communication Director, Japan Philharmonic Orchestra)
Interpretation: Mikako Hori

Facilitator
日本フィルハーモニー交響楽団
　Violin: Taro Ito, Karin Taketoshi, Shunichiro Sato Viola: Yumiko Nakagawa Cello: Tetsuya Osawa
　Bassoon: Hidaka Nakagawa　　
　Trumpet: Ottaviano Cristofoli Trombone: Mutsumi Inami

ス タ ッ フ
Sound: Wataru Shoji, Kiyotaka Ishikawa

Produced by: Japan Philharmonic Orchestra