THOMAS MANN AND GUSTAV MAHLER

Thomas Mann's "musical novel", Doctor Faustus, tells the life story of Adrian Leverktihn, a composer to whom the Devil makes an offer of fame achieved by the discovery of a groundbreaking compositional technique. Mann conceived the plot as an allegory of music's alluring and perilous role in German history, as the doom eventually met by Leverktihn is a projection of the final collapse of Nazi Germany. According to one of various schools of thought, the character of Leverktihn and his compositional output correspond with the person as well as certain aspects of the work of Gustav Mahler. The present article aims at linking up with this interpretation, along with offering a more general reflection on the essence of Mahler's music by confronting it with the ideas expounded in Mann's novel.