Joining Mahler's invocations of Nietzsche to the philosopher's reception within the Pernerstorfer Circle reveals important connections between recurrent musical choices in the first four symphonies and a particular set of aesthetic and philosophical values. However, in the years following 1900, references to Nietzsche and his ideas largely disappear from Mahler's letters and the recollections of friends. This has led some scholars to conclude that in his later career Mahler turned away from the philosopher, a claim not completely without merit; when Nietzsche appears in anecdotes and commentary from those close to Mahler in the years after 1900, it is often in an argumentative context, as I have illustrated in the introduction. Yet other scholars have noted lingering Nietzschean elements in Mahler's music, camouflaged by the fact that they do not declare themselves explicitly as such. Responding to these divergent evaluations of Mahler's later relationship with Nietzsche, I argue that, despite the paucity of specific comments from Mahler, Nietzsche remains present in the composer's oeuvre and that the character of this presence is an integral part of what we now consider Mahlerian.

By noting the continuing appearance of compositional choices previous chapters have associated with Mahler's reading of Nietzsche, I refute the argument that Mahler rejected Nietzsche as the composer aged. Instead, I posit that despite some incongruities of experience and aesthetics, Mahler absorbed Nietzsche's philosophical influence, which thus became part and parcel of the composer's mature style. These conclusions suggest not that Nietzsche remained a source of inspiration in the forefront of Mahler's composing mind, but that Nietzsche's writings are an important component of Mahler's intellectual genealogy and had a significant impact on shaping the composer's long-term musical and philosophical identity.

Incongruities

Two central objections to the claim of symbiosis between Mahler and Nietzsche are consistently raised, and these are salient particularly as they have served as the basis for a number of the scholarly evaluations that have preceded this monograph.