page_title: Symphony No. 8 (Mahler)
section_title: Part I: Veni creator spiritus
hierarchical_section_title: Symphony No. 8 (Mahler) / Analysis / Part I: Veni creator spiritus
caption_attribution_description: English: First page of manuscript score, Part I of Symphony No. 8 in E flat major by Gustav Mahler. The symphony was first performed 12 September 1910 in Munich. US premiere March 1916Русский: Первая страница рукописного варианта первой части Восьмой симфонии Густава Малера. Симфония была впервые исполнена 12 сентября 1910 года в Мюнхене. Премьера в США была в марте 1916 года. Čeština: První strana rukopisu partitury část I Symfonie č. 8 v e moll Gustava Mahlera. Symfonie byla poprvé provedena 12. září 1910 v Mnichově; v českých zemích poprvé uvedena 20. března 1912
context_page_description: The Symphony No. 8 in E-flat major by Gustav Mahler is one of the largest-scale choral works in the classical concert repertoire. Because it requires huge instrumental and vocal forces it is frequently called the "Symphony of a Thousand", although the work is normally presented with far fewer than a thousand performers and the composer did not sanction that name. The work was composed in a single inspired burst at his Maiernigg villa in southern Austria in the summer of 1906. The last of Mahler's works that was premiered in his lifetime, the symphony was a critical and popular success when he conducted the Munich Philharmonic in its first performance, in Munich, on 12 September 1910.
  The fusion of song and symphony had been a characteristic of Mahler's early works. In his "middle" compositional period after 1901, a change of direction led him to produce three purely instrumental symphonies. The Eighth, marking the end of the middle period, returns to a combination of orchestra and voice in a symphonic context. The structure of the work is unconventional; instead of the normal framework of several movements, the piece is in two parts.
context_section_description: Mitchell describes Part I as resembling a giant motet, and argues that a key to its understanding is to read it as Mahler's attempt to emulate the polyphony of Bach's great motets, specifically Singet dem Herrn ein neues Lied ("Sing to the Lord a new song"). The symphony begins with a single tonic chord in E♭ major, sounded on the organ, before the entry of the massed choirs in a fortissimo invocation: "Veni, veni creator spiritus".
  The three note "creator" motif is immediately taken up by the trombones and then the trumpets in a marching theme that will be used as a unifying factor throughout the work.
  After their first declamatory statement the two choirs engage in a sung dialogue, which ends with a short transition to an extended lyrical passage, "Imple superna gratia", a plea for divine grace.
  Here, what Kennedy calls "the unmistakable presence of twentieth-century Mahler" is felt as a solo soprano introduces a meditative theme. She is soon joined by other solo voices as the new theme is explored before the choirs return exuberantly, in an A♭ episode in which the soloists compete with the choral masses.
  In the next section, "Infirma nostri corporis/virtute firmans perpeti" ("Our weak frames fortify with thine eternal strength"), the tonic key of E♭ major returns with a variation of the opening theme. The section is interrupted by a short orchestral interlude in which the low bells are sounded, adding a sombre touch to the music. This new, less secure mood is carried through when "Infirma nostri corporis" resumes, this time without the choruses, in a subdued D minor echo of the initial invocation.
  At the end of this episode another transition precedes the "unforgettable surge in E major", in which the entire body of choral forces declaims "Accende lumen sensibus" ("Illuminate our senses").
  The first children's chorus follows, in a joyful mood, as the music gathers force and pace. This is a passage of great complexity, in the form of a double fugue involving development of many of the preceding themes, with constant changes to the key signature. All forces combine again in the recapitulation of the "Veni creator" section in shortened form. A quieter passage of recapitulation leads to an orchestral coda before the children's chorus announces the doxology "Gloria sit Patri Domino" ("Glory be to God the Father").
  Thereafter the music moves swiftly and powerfully to its climax, in which an offstage brass ensemble bursts forth with the "Accende" theme while the main orchestra and choruses end on a triumphant rising scale.
caption: Mahler's fair copy manuscript of the first page of the Eighth Symphony
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