Arved Ashby is professor of music at the Ohio State University, where he specializes in 20th and 21st century art music as well as cultural history and media and communications. He has published articles on Arnold Schoenberg, Frank Zappa, and Benjamin Britten, and he has taught classes on topics as varied as ancient music, Philip Glass’ film music, and 20th-century music through the prism of the Beatles.

• IntroductionTimelineChapter 1 Symphony No. 1: The Journey BeginsChapter 2 Symphony No. 2: Death and ResurrectionChapter 3 Three Song Sets: Lieder eines Fahrenden Gesellen, Rückert Lieder, KindertotenliederChapter 4 Symphony No. 3: Limning the CosmosChapter 5 Symphony No. 4: Mahler’s Symphony of the ChildChapter 6 Symphony No. 5: Journeys for a New CenturyChapter 7 Symphony No. 6: The Rigid Embrace of the Narrow House—The Blackness of the Absolute NightChapter 8 Symphony No. 7: A Mahler SerenadeChapter 9 Symphony No. 8: His Gift to the NationChapter 10 Das Lied von der Erde: Songs of Seclusion and Wandering Chapter 11 Symphony No. 9: The Most Painful Lust for Life Chapter 12 Symphony No. 10: Music from the Hereafter? Selected ListeningSelected Reading

Highly Recommended: [Experiencing Mahler] will be appreciated by music lovers at all levels of expertise. The book is valuable as a journey through Mahler's oeuvre with an intelligent and perceptive companion, and as a good excuse to revisit the work of a most important but often misunderstood modern classical composer.