‘Looking out for the Horizon’. The music of Gustav Mahler in the light of the theory of the aesthetic of reception by Hans Robert Jauss
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Date
2013
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Katedra Muzykologii, Wydawnictwo Naukowe PTPN, Wydawnictwo Naukowe UAM
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Abstract
The theory of the aesthetic of reception proposed by Jauss in the fi eld of literature can be
applied to research into the reception of the music of Gustav Mahler. In creating his symphonies ‘with
every means of accessible technique’, the composer achieved what might be described as a reinterpretation
of the conception of selected genres. In this way he disturbed the traditional ‘horizon of expectations’
of the potential audience, and signifi cantly distanced himself from it. The most important consequence
of this was the lack of understanding of his music by a section of his contemporary audience. Mahler
justifi ed the rightness of his own creative intuition with the famous sentence ‘my time will come’.
In her article the author presents the fundamental theses of Jauss’s aesthetic of reception relating to
his understanding of the ‘horizon of expectations’. She also indicates the manner in which Mahler distanced
himself from that ‘horizon’, and how in individual symphonies he contributed to the expansion
and reinterpretation of conceptions of genres which had previously been based on knowledge shared
by the composer and the listener.
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Keywords
Hans Robert Jauss, Gustav Mahler, musical reception, horizon of expectations, genre, symphony
Citation
Interdisciplinary Studies in Musicology 13, 2013, pp. 189-202