Gustav Mahler: A Ufological Analogy
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Gustav Mahler is a favorite composer of mine and I just
heard his 9th Symphony on Music Choice (via cable).
It inspired me to write this small note about that symphony
and how it reminded me of some ufological folk, UFO writers and thinkers with
cachet, at least early on.
You see, Mahler created some superb symphonies and songs
during his long career, notably, his Symphony numbers 1, 2 (The
Resurrection), 4, 5, 8 (Symphony of a Thousand), and
song cycles, Des Knaben Wunderhorn (The Youth’s Magic Horn , Lieder
Eines Fahrenden Gesellen (Songs of a Wayfarer), and the magnificent Das
Lied von der Erde (Song of the Earth), but in his Ninth Symphony
I hear a discordant and disarrayed Mahler, who had suffered some slings and
arrows in his later career.
Mahler, unlike the permanently logical and unwaveringly
sensible composer, Johann Sebastian Bach, was affected by the vicissitudes of
life and one can hear that in his 9th Symphony.
The music often veers into messy noise, especially in the
latter movements but subsides into repose and quiet in the final moments.
This is what struck me as analogous to some UFO writers:
they start out sensibly and “composed” but after a while they succumb to the
phenomenon’s enigmatic nature and they start flailing around, grasping at every
explanation extant for UFOs, often resorting to cockeyed solutions, such as the
ETH.
(I am as much bidden to do the same even though my UFO
talent is quite pathetic compared to that of the UFO elite whose flights of
fancy are much more pronounced because they once were held in esteem by the UFO
community. Shall I name them?)
At any rate, I see many UFO notables sinking into temporary
oblivion because they resorted to ufological mayhem, which is the state of
ufology that I have often analogously indentified with the “druids” in Charles
Ives’ short musical piece: The Unanswered Question.
But a few will settle down as Mahler did in his 9th
Symphony’s final movement while the rest will wither under their maniacal
ramblings and sink into ufological Śūnyatā.
RR
posted by RRRGroup at
Saturday, January 27, 2018
6 Comments:
You can in many ways judge a person as much by their influence on the work of others as by their own. Given that Mahler’s “tree” branches out to include Berg, Webern, Schoenberg, Shostakovich, and Britten, all favourites of mine (along with Mahler himself), I can only say, “huzzah!”
Which leads to an intriguing (to me, at least) question: pick a great / notable ufologist (Hynek, Ruppelt, Keyhoe, Vallee, Friedman) and ask yourself: what are the branches of their tree?
Now, time to listen to Schoenberg’s First String Quartet..
By
Paul Kimball, at Sunday, January 28, 2018
The "branches" from notable ufologists, Paul, is intriguing, indeed.
I'll try to see if I can do something with that, in my meager way.
(You are familiar with Schoenberg's Gurrelieder. Musicologists say it's the last gasp of Romanticism in music.)
RR
By
RRRGroup, at Sunday, January 28, 2018
The Gurre-Lieder is fascinating, if for no other reason than the lengthy time period over which it was compose, which in turn allows us to see the disparate influences, and the evolution of Schoenberg's thinking. A bit too Wagnerian for me, I'm afraid, but still fascinating.
But everyone knows that McCartney is the last true Romantic. ;-)
By
Paul Andrew Kimball, at Sunday, January 28, 2018
For me, it was Lennon....Paul.
RR
By
RRRGroup, at Sunday, January 28, 2018
"But a few will settle down as Mahler did in his 9th Symphony’s final movement while the rest will wither under their maniacal ramblings and sink into ufological Śūnyatā."
It's been near 70 years; has anyone settled down yet? I mean something besides converting to one end of the ufological spectrum to the other (meaning either no-ET or ET (including the pseudo ET of the paranormal)?
Best Regards
Don
By
Don, at Tuesday, January 30, 2018
John Keel was my inspiration for that line you quote, Don.
He started out intriguingly then descended into madness, only relevant to (and remembered by) those who admired him and now pretend he was the fount of wisdom about Mothman and saucer invasions.
RR
By
RRRGroup, at Tuesday, January 30, 2018
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