| The final moments of Das Lied von der Erde have consistently been regarded as one of the most enigmatic endings in the history of Western music. The lack of musical resolution of the last movement offers a view into eternity that strikes a potent blow to our rational conception of human experience. An understanding of Mahler's relationship to finde-siecle society and his interaction with previous expressions of musical endings, especially those of Beethoven's Ninth and Wagner's Tristan, helps to shed some light on the ending of Das Lied. Mahler expresses his Weltanschauung through the tension that emanates from Das Lied. The unsettling result of this tension however, is not resolution or triumph, but an eternal (ewig), never-ending dialectic struggle between the psyche and the exterior world. |
