While researching Mahler and Modernism and listening to Das Lied von der Erde, I agree with Mahler being a pre-modernist. Mahler lived in the romantic era. However, towards the end of his life, he composed a more intimate (Gibbs, Taruskin.200:800) work. This work is based on eight-century Chinese verse. In Addition, the composer infused the scores with Asian flavour by applying pentatonic and whole-tone scales. In the modern music period, the usage of exotic scales is one of the stylistic techniques, and perhaps along with Debussy, Mahler could have been the precursor of exploring other different scales to create an exotic and completely different music altogether. In his work, he uses tam-tam and occasionally vocal styles that could evoke Chinese opera. In Grove Online, Franklin gives evidence of the modernist idea when he tells us that the composition was original in form and technique and that his later music was regarded as a novel expression of the ‘New German’ modernism. This term is also widely associated with Richard Strauss. It is also worth mentioning that Mahler had also conducted Puccini’s Madame Butterfly by that time, which Gibbs and Taruskin regard as likewise Orientalist.
Reference:
Franklin, P. (2001). Mahler, Gustav. Grove Music Online. Retrieved 14 Aug. 2023, from https://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/grovemusic/view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e-0000040696.
Mahler Foundation. Das Lied von der Erde. Accessed on 14/08/2023 from: https://mahlerfoundation.org/mahler/compositions/das-lied-von-der-erde/
Smith, H. LSO/Rattle: Das Lied von der Erde. Accessed on 14/08/2023 from: https://www.barbican.org.uk/digital-programmes/lsorattle-das-lied-von-der-erde
Taruskin, R. Gibbs, C. 2013. The Oxford History of Western Music. Oxford Univesity Press.
Orchestration and Arrangement 