22 NOV 2025
Earlier this year, my eldest excitedly invited me to go with him this Thursday to hear Mahler’s Symphony No. 3. It will be the first time I’m attending a concert with such deep, genuine anticipation, because this time felt different - I did my homework in advance.
Mahler saw his Third Symphony as a kind of cosmic journey, one that embraces nature, humanity, and the divine. He once wrote:
“
My symphony will be something the world has never known before. In it, the whole of nature will find its voice.
He originally gave each movement a title (later removing them):
1. Pan Awakens, Summer Arrives
2. What the Flowers in the Meadow Tell Me
3. What the Animals in the Forest Tell Me
4. What Humanity Tells Me
5. What the Angels Tell Me
6. What Love Tells Me
Life is truly a wondrous thing. The themes that draw you in, the meaning you are quietly searching for—life finds its own ways to place them before you. So what does humanity tell me? Mahler answers through Nietzsche’s Thus Spoke Zarathustra. And what do the angels tell me? And love—what does it ultimately have to say?
Although Mahler later removed the titles of each movement, the music itself leaves enough space—enough openness—for me to feel, to imagine, and to sit with these questions. Perhaps that is enough… because I have seen wildflowers in mountain valleys, swaying gently in the wind.