Ice dancing is a form of figure skating which draws from the world of ballroom dancing. It was first competed at the World Figure Skating Championships in 1952, but did not become a Winter Olympic Games medal sport until 1976.

As in pair skating, dancers compete as a couple consisting of a man and a woman. Ice dance differs from pair skating by having different requirements for lifts, requiring spins to be performed as a team in a dance hold, and by disallowing throws and jumps. Typically, partners are not supposed to separate by more than two arm lengths; originally, partners were supposed to be in a dance hold the entire program, though this restriction has been lifted somewhat in modern ice dancing.

Another distinction between ice dance and other disciplines of skating is the usage of music in the performances; in ice dancing, dancers must always skate to music that has a definite beat or rhythm. Singles and pair skaters more often skate to the melody and phrasing of their music, rather than its beat; this is severely penalized in ice dance.

In some non-ISU competitions, ''solo dancers'' can also compete.

Competition components[link]

There are two components in ice dance competitions: the short dance ("SD"), and the free dance ("FD"). The free dance is the most heavily weighted in the scoring and is used as a tiebreaker. Until the end of the 2009-10 season, competitions included one or more compulsory dances ("CD"), an original dance ("OD"), and the free dance.

Compulsory dances[link]

In compulsory dances, all dance teams in a competition perform the same standard steps and holds to music of a specified tempo. One or more compulsory dances were skated as the first phase of competitions in ice dancing, but they are also popular as a form of recreational or social dance among skaters. The patterns for most dances either cover one-half or one full circuit of the rink. The International Skating Union (ISU) would publish the compulsory dances that would be performed prior to each season, and CDs were later drawn for specific events.

The compulsory dance was discontinued in all ISU competitions after the 2010 season. The 2010 World Figure Skating Championships were the last event to include a CD (the Golden Waltz), and Italians Federica Faiella and Massimo Scali were the last dance team to perform one in competition.

Original dance[link]

The original dance was the second of three parts in ice dancing competitions. For the original dance, the ISU would designate a rhythm or set of rhythms each year that all dancers must perform to, or a specific theme, such as folk dance. The competitors were allowed to choose their own music and choreography. The length of the program was shorter than the free dance, and the skaters had to adhere to more rules. The dance was to be choreographed so that the steps did not cross the midline of the rink, with certain exceptions for this rule that took into account required step sequences such as the diagonal footwork sequence. Closed partnering positions and close skating were also important for the original dance.

The OD and CD were last performed in the 2009-10 season and were replaced by the short dance in the 2010-11 season.

Short dance[link]

Following the 2009-10 season, the ISU congress voted to change the format of ice dance events and make them more similar to pairs and singles skating. Thus, the new short dance was introduced at the start of the 2010-11 season. This segment of the competition combines features of the discontinued CDs and ODs; each team performs a required pattern from one of the compulsory dances for about one half of the dance, then performs its own choreography, with some required elements, to a theme or rhythm specified by the ISU. Skaters are free to choose their own music, so long as the tempo is appropriate.

Free dance[link]

The free dance is a part of an ice dancing competition. It is usually the third and final part of the competition to be contested, after the compulsory dances and the original dance.

In the free dance, teams are free to choose their own rhythms, program themes, and therefore music. Creativity is also strongly encouraged. Since 1998, dancers have been required to include certain elements in their free dances, including step sequences, lifts, dance spins, and multi-rotation turns called twizzles. Senior level free dances are four minutes long (plus or minus 10 seconds) and usually include multiple music cuts and tempos that help bring variety to the routine. The hand holds and positions are much more open and free than in the compulsory and original dance categories. Often teams strive to skate in difficult or unusual positions to gain difficulty points. There are more lifts in the free dance than in the original dance.

Competition elements[link]

Lifts[link]

Lifts in ice dancing differ from those in pair skating in prohibiting the man from extending his hands above his head, but allowing a wider variety of holds. The more change of direction, flexibility, and height in the lift, the greater number of points a team can earn from the judges under the Code of Points scale.

Jumps and spins[link]

Multi-revolution jumps are not permitted. "Half" jumps are now allowed. Spins must be performed by both skaters revolving around the same axis, the same as in pair spins.

Ice dance history[link]

Ice dance has a strong tradition in the United Kingdom. Many of the compulsory dances which are still competed today were developed by British dancers in the 1930s, and 12 of the first 16 World Championships in ice dance were won by British couples. The British team of Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean famously won the Olympic gold medal in Sarajevo in 1984 with a dramatic free skate to Ravel's ''Bolero'' which earned unanimous 6.0s for presentation.

The British style of ice dance originally emphasized upright carriage and strong edges achieved by deep knee bend. Beginning in the 1960s, Eastern European skaters started a trend to dance in more open positions, which allowed for greater speed over the ice, more upper-body involvement, and greater projection towards the audience. In the 1970s, top Soviet dancers began to develop a more theatrical style of ice dancing incorporating elements of ballet and often based on narrative program themes. The Russian style of dance emphasized extended line and speed, rather than difficult rhythmic footwork. In some cases, elaborate choreography for the upper body was used to camouflage fundamental deficiencies of skating technique. By the early 1990s, however, all the top dance teams were performing routines in the theatrical, rather than ballroom, style.

At this point, the International Skating Union began to try to restrain theatricality in ice dancing, first by attempting to return it to its ballroom roots by adding more restrictions on music and dance holds. In June 1993, the ISU decreed that free dance music must have a rhythmic beat and a melody and be arranged and orchestrated for use on the dance floor. Amid complaints that ice dance had become too boring, these restrictions were removed and replaced with requirements that dancers include specified technical elements in the original dance and free dance. Dance lifts, dance spins, and twizzles became required elements. In the original dance and later short dance, a no-touching step sequence was added to evaluate whether both partners are on the same level technically, while other step sequences are in holds.

While the requirement that dancers skate to music with a definite beat remains, ice dancing is currently the only discipline of figure skating which allows music with words in competition.

Historical results[link]

''See:''

Figure skating at the Olympics

World Figure Skating Championships

European Figure Skating Championships

Four Continents Championships

United States Figure Skating Championships

References[link]

ISU Judging System at the International Skating Union

ISU Judging System: Ice Dance at the International Skating Union

External links[link]

Ice-dance.com

ISU Home - International Skating Union website

Category:Figure skating Ice dancing

da:Isdans de:Eistanzen es:Danza sobre hielo fa:رقص روی یخ fr:Danse sur glace hi:बर्फ नृत्य it:Danza su ghiaccio kn:ಐಸ್‌ ಡ್ಯಾನ್ಸಿಂಗ್‌ ne:हिउँ नृत्य ja:アイスダンス pl:Pary taneczne pt:Dança no gelo ru:Спортивные танцы на льду simple:Ice dancing sk:Tance na ľade sv:Isdans tl:Pagsasayaw sa yelo tr:Buz dansı uk:Спортивні танці на льоду zh:冰舞

name	Tessa Virtue
country
birth date	May 17, 1989
birth place	London, Ontario, Canada
residence	Canton, Michigan, United States
height
partner	Scott Moir
coach	Igor ShpilbandMarina Zueva
formercoach	Carol MoirPaul MacIntoshSuzanne Killing
choreographer	Igor ShpilbandMarina Zueva
skating club	Ilderton Skating Club
currenttraininglocations	Canton, Michigan
formertraininglocations	Kitchener-Waterloo
beganskating	1994
worldranking	3 ('''')
pbrankings	2 (''2011–2012'') 2 (''2010–2011'') 1 (''2009–2010'') 3 (''2008–2009'')
dance score	224.43
dance date	2010 Worlds
cd score	44.13
cd date	2010 Worlds
od score	70.27 (WR)
od date	2010 Worlds
sd score	74.29
sd date	2011 Worlds
fd score	112.33
fd date	2011 Grand Prix FInal
Medaltemplates	}}

}}

Tessa Virtue (born May 17, 1989) is a Canadian ice dancer who competes with Scott Moir. Virtue and Moir are the 2010 Olympic champions, the 2010 & 2012 World Champions, the 2008 & 2012 Four Continents Champions, the 2006 World Junior Champions and four-time (2008–2010, 2012) Canadian national champions.

At the 2009 Skate Canada competition, they became the first ice dance team to ever receive a 10.0 component score mark under the ISU Judging System. They have received more scores of 10.00s than any other figure skating or dance team under the ISU Judging System. They are the current world record score holders for the original dance.

Personal life[link]

Virtue was born in London, Ontario, Canada. She is the youngest of four children.

She attended Holy Names High School in Windsor, in addition to an electronic learning school called "AMDEC" based in Stratford, Ontario. Virtue is currently studying for a degree in psychology at the University of Windsor, commuting across the border from Michigan.

Virtue lives and trains in Canton, Michigan, USA, although her official residence remains London. Virtue and Moir are training mates and friends of the American ice dance team of Meryl Davis and Charlie White.

In October 2010, Virtue, Moir, and co-writer Steve Milton published a book about their career called ''Tessa And Scott: Our Journey From Childhood Dream To Gold ''.

Career[link]

Early career[link]

Virtue and Moir began skating together in 1997, having been paired by his aunt, who was coaching them at the time. Early in their career, they trained in Kitchener-Waterloo, Ontario with Paul MacIntosh and Suzanne Killing.

In the 2001–2002 season, Virtue and Moir won the bronze medal at the 2002 Canadian Championships at the novice level. The following season, they placed 7th at the 2003 Canadian Championships in the junior division. In 2003, they moved to Canton, Michigan and began working with coaches Igor Shpilband and Marina Zueva at the Arctic Edge Ice Arena.

In 2003–2004, they made their ISU Junior Grand Prix debut on the 2003-2004 ISU Junior Grand Prix. They placed 4th at the event in Croatia and 6th in Slovakia. 2004 Canadian Championships, they won the Junior title, qualifying them for the team to the 2004 World Junior Championships, where they placed 11th.

The following season, they moved up to senior nationally but remained juniors internationally. On the 2004-2005 ISU Junior Grand Prix, they won the event in China and won the silver medal at the event in France, which qualified them for the Junior Grand Prix Final, where they won the silver medal. They made their senior national debut at the 2005 Canadian Championships, where they placed fourth. They were named to the team to the 2005 World Junior Championships, where they won the silver medal.

They remained at the junior level internationally in the 2005–2006 season. On the 2005–2006 ISU Junior Grand Prix, they won both their events as well as the Junior Grand Prix Final.

At the 2006 Canadian Championships, they placed 3rd and were named as first alternates to the Olympic team. They were named to the team to the 2006 Four Continents, where they won the bronze medal. At the 2006 World Junior Championships, they became the first Canadian ice dancers to win the title.

Senior career[link]

2006–2007 season[link]

In the 2006–2007 season, Virtue and Moir moved up to the senior level internationally. They made their Grand Prix debut at the 2006 Skate Canada International, where they won the silver medal. They placed 4th at the 2006 Trophée Eric Bompard.

At the 2007 Canadian Championships, they won the silver medal, and repeated their bronze medal finish at Four Continents. In their debut at the World Championships, they placed 6th.

2007–2008 season[link]

Virtue and Moir were assigned to Skate Canada International and the NHK Trophy for the 2007–2008 Grand Prix season. They won the 2007 Skate Canada International and placed second at the 2007 NHK Trophy, qualifying them for the Grand Prix Final, where they came in fourth place.

Virtue and Moir won their first Canadian national title at the 2008 Canadian Championships and earned spots for the Four Continents and World Championships.

They won the gold medal at the 2008 Four Continents Championships. At the 2008 World Championships in Sweden, Virtue and Moir won the silver medal, winning the free dance segment with their program to The Umbrellas of Cherbourg soundtrack.

2008–2009 season[link]

In the 2008–2009 season, Virtue and Moir withdrew from both their Grand Prix events due to Virtue's medical condition; she had been diagnosed with chronic exertional compartment syndrome and underwent surgery in October 2008 to alleviate the condition. She returned to the ice at the start of December, which she later said was probably too early. At the 2009 Canadian Championships, they won the gold medal.

At the 2009 Four Continents Championships, they won the silver medal behind Americans Meryl Davis & Charlie White. At the 2009 World Championships, they won the bronze medal, after placing 3rd in the compulsory dance, 6th in the original dance, and 4th in the free skate.

2009–2010 season[link]

They started off the 2009–2010 Olympic season at the 2009 Trophée Eric Bompard, finishing first by a margin of 16.07 points ahead of the silver medalists, Nathalie Péchalat & Fabian Bourzat. They also won the 2009 Skate Canada International, with a total combined score of 204.38 points, 19.31 points ahead of Nathalie Péchalat & Fabian Bourzat. At that competition, they received the first 10.0 for ice dance under the Code of Points. They were second at the Grand Prix Final behind Meryl Davis & Charlie White.

On January 2010, they won their third National title at the 2010 Canadian Championships, placing first all the three segments of the competition and earning 221.95 points overall, which was 37.25 ahead of silver medalists Vanessa Crone & Paul Poirier. They set Canadian records for free dance and for combined total.

They competed in the ice dancing competition at the 2010 Winter Olympics from February 19 through 22. They placed second in the compulsory dance, earning a new personal best score of 42.74 points, just 1.02 off the lead. They earned 68.41 points in the original dance, placing first in that segment of the competition. They scored 110.42 points in the free dance, easily winning the gold medal overall with an insurmountable total score of 221.57, surpassing silver medalists Davis and White by 5.83 points. In the free dance, they received four 10.00 marks from the judges in the program components, two for the performance execution and two for interpretation, a feat never before accomplished by a figure skater/or team under the International Judging System. They became the first Canadian as well as the first North American ice dance team and the youngest dance team to win the Olympics, and the first ice dance team to win the Olympic gold on home ice and also the first ice dancers to win gold on their Olympic debut since the inaugural Olympic ice dance event in 1976.

They competed at the 2010 World Championships, placing first in the compulsory dance with 44.13 points, improving their previous personal best. They also won the original dance with 70.27 points, a world record under the ISU Judging System. They placed second in the free dance with 110.03 points, 0.46 behind Meryl Davis & Charlie White. Overall they claimed their first World Championship title scoring 224.43 points, 1.40 ahead of Meryl Davis & Charlie White. They received numerous 10.00 for program components marks in the original dance and in the free dance.

2010–2011 season[link]

For the 2010–2011 ISU Grand Prix season, they were assigned to the 2010 Skate Canada International and to the 2010 Trophée Eric Bompard. Virtue underwent surgery in October 2010 to reduce the lingering pain in her shins and calves that is a result of Chronic Exertional Compartment Syndrome, leading to their withdrawal from Skate Canada. They also withdrew from the 2011 Canadian Championships because they had not had enough time to train after the surgery.

Virtue and Moir made their season debut at the 2011 Four Continents. They were in the lead following the short dance but withdrew midway through the free dance after Virtue felt tightness in her left quad muscle. Virtue stated, "The issue with my quad was actually coming from my pelvis and my back. [I]t seemed to be stemming from a particular lift we were doing, which was a split lift. Upon returning home to Michigan we changed that lift immediately, so now we do an upside-down position instead of a split." At the 2011 World Championships, they placed second overall by 3.48 points behind the American team of Meryl Davis and Charlie White.

Following the World Championships, Virtue experienced pain in her shins and calves. She decided against another surgery and used other methods to overcome the problem.

2011–2012 season[link]

Virtue and Moir were assigned to two Grand Prix events, 2011 Skate Canada and 2011 Trophee Eric Bompard, having declined a newly introduced option to compete in a third. They announced their music selections in August. Virtue and Moir won their first event of the season, 2011 Finlandia Trophy. They won both their Grand Prix events and qualified for the Grand Prix Final, where they finished second in both segments to win the silver medal. In late December 2011, the ISU acknowledged a scoring error in the free dance; had the scores been correctly calculated (+ 0.5 points), Virtue and Moir would have won that segment. The scores from the Grand Prix Final were left unchanged, however.

Virtue and Moir won their fourth national title in January 2012. In February, they competed at the 2012 Four Continents Championships. After a second place short dance, they rallied in the free dance to win their second Four Continents championships and first since 2008. It was also their first victory over training mates Meryl Davis and Charlie White since the 2010 World Championships. Virtue and Moir then competed at the 2012 World Championships and won the gold medal finishing first in both the short and free dance ahead of silver medalists Meryl Davis and Charlie White.

Other skating[link]

Virtue and Moir have toured with Stars on Ice in Canada and performed in ice shows such as Festa on Ice, Shall We Dance On Ice, All That Skate in Los Angeles and 2011 All That Skate Summer.

Programs[link]

{|class="wikitable" style="text-align:center" |- ! Season ! Short dance ! Free dance ! Exhibition |- ! 2011–2012 | Hip Hip Chin Chin by Club des Belugas Temptation by Diana Krall Mujer Latina by Thalia | Funny Face by George Gershwin Basal Metabolism by Adolph Deutsch 'S Wonderful by George Gershwin | Ain't No Mountain High Enough by Marvin Gaye & Tammi Terrell

---

I Want to Hold Your Hand by The Beatles cover by T. V. Carpio |- ! 2010–2011 | Schenkst Du Beim Tango Mir Dein Herz by Dajos Bela & Sein TanzorchesterNights and Days soundtrack by Waldemar Kazanecki | Hip Hip Chin Chin by Club des Belugas Temptation by Diana Krall Mujer Latina by Thalia | I Want to Hold Your Hand by The Beatles cover by T. V. Carpio |- ! ! Original dance ! Free dance ! Exhibition |- ! 2009–2010 | Farrucas by Pepe Romero | Symphony No. 5 by Gustav Mahler arranged by Ryner Stoetzer | Everybody Dance Now by C & C Music Factory

---

Jack & Diane by John Mellencamp |- ! 2008–2009 | Won't You Charleston with Me? from The Boyfriend | The Great Gig in the Sky Money by Pink Floyd | Jack & Diane by John Mellencamp |- ! 2007–2008 | Dark Eyes Russian Folk Song | Umbrellas of Cherbourg by Michel Legrand | I Could Have Danced All Night by Jamie Cullum

---

Dare You to Move by Switchfoot |- ! 2006–2007 | Assassination Tango Building the Bullet by Luis Bacalov | Valse Triste by Jean Sibelius | Black Magic Woman by Santana

---

Tennessee Waltz by Holly Cole Trio |- ! 2005–2006 | Beautiful Maria by The Mambo Kings Do You Only Wanna Dance by Julio Daviel Big Band | Malaguena by Raúl di Blasio | No Me Ames by Jennifer Lopez & Marc Anthony

---

Everybody Dance Now by C & C Music Factory |- ! 2004–2005 | Call Me Irresponsible by Bobby Darrin Puttin On The Ritz | Adiós Nonino by Ástor Piazzolla | Everybody Dance Now by C & C Music Factory |- ! 2003–2004 | Tears on My Pillow by Little Anthony Tutti Frutti by Little Richard | Russian Medley by Johann Christian Bach | Tears on My Pillow by Little Anthony Tutti Frutti by Little Richard |- ! 2002–2003 | Les Poissons Concerto Sopra Motivi dell'Opera by Johann Christian Bach | Magaienha by Sérgio Mendes Eres Todo En Mi by Ana Gabriel Tres Deseos by Gloria Estefan | |}

Competitive highlights[link]

(with Moir)

Post-2006[link]

6th bgcolor=cc9966 bgcolor=silver bgcolor=silver 4th

Event			! 2007–2008	! 2008–2009	! 2009–2010	! 2010–2011	! 2011–2012
align=left>Winter Olympic Games		|		1st
align=left	World Championships	|	2nd	3rd	1st	2nd	1st
align=left	Four Continents Championships	3rd ||	1st	2nd		WD	1st
align=left	Canadian Championships	2nd ||	1st	1st	1st		1st
align=left	Grand Prix Final	|	4th		2nd		2nd
align=left	Skate Canada International	2nd ||	1st		1st		1st
align=left	Trophée Eric Bompard	|			1st		1st
align=left	NHK Trophy	|	2nd
align=left	Finlandia Trophy	|					1st
align=left	World Team Trophy	|		2nd			2nd

Pre-2006[link]

bgcolor=cc9966

Event			! 2002–2003	! 2003–2004	! 2004–2005	! 2005–2006
align=left>Four Continents Figure Skating Championships	Four Continents Championships		|			3rd
align=left	World Junior Championships	|		11th	2nd	1st
align=left	Canadian Championships	3rd N. ||	7th J.	1st J.	4th	3rd
align=left	Junior Grand Prix Final	|			2nd	1st
align=left	Junior Grand Prix, Canada	|				1st
align=left	Junior Grand Prix, Andorra	|				1st
align=left	Junior Grand Prix, China	|			1st
align=left	Junior Grand Prix, France	|			2nd
align=left	Junior Grand Prix, Croatia	|		4th
align=left	Junior Grand Prix, Slovakia	|		6th
align=left	NACS Thornhill	|		1st J.
align=left	Western Ontario Sectionals	|	1st J.	1st J.	1st

Detailed results[link]

(with Moir)

Post-2006[link]

2011–2012 season
! Date	! Event	! SD	! FD	! Total
March 26 – April 1, 2012
February 7–12, 2012
January 16–22, 2012	2012 Canadian Figure Skating Championships
December 8–11, 2011
November 17–20, 2011
October 27–30, 2011
October 6–9, 2011	2011 Finlandia Trophy
2010–2011 season
! Date	! Event	! SD	! FD	! Total
April 24 – May 1, 2011
February 15–20, 2011

2009–2010 season
! Date	! Event	! CD	! OD	! FD	! Total
March 22–28, 2010
February 14 – 27, 2010
January 11 – 17, 2010	2010 Canadian Figure Skating Championships
December 3 – 6, 2009
November 19 – 22, 2009
October 15–18, 2009
2008–2009 season
! Date	! Event	! CD	! OD	! FD	! Total
April 16–19, 2009
March 24–28, 2009
February 2–8, 2009
January 14–18, 2009	2009 Canadian Figure Skating Championships
2007–2008 season
! Date	! Event	! CD	! OD	! FD	! Total
March 16–23, 2008
February 11–17, 2008
January 16–20, 2008	2008 Canadian Figure Skating Championships
December 13–16, 2007
November 28 – 12, 2007
November 1–4, 2007
2006–2007 season
! Date	! Event	! CD	! OD	! FD	! Total
March 20–25, 2007
February 7–10, 2007
January 15–21, 2007	2007 Canadian Figure Skating Championships
October 15 – 18, 2006

CD = Complusory Dance; OD = Original Dance; FD = Free Dance.

SD = Short Dance.

Personal bests highlighted in bold.

References[link]

External links[link]

Official Site

Skate Canada Profile

Category:1989 births Category:Canadian ice dancers Category:Living people Category:Canadian sportswomen Category:People from London, Ontario Category:Figure skaters at the 2010 Winter Olympics Category:Olympic figure skaters of Canada Category:Olympic gold medalists for Canada Category:Olympic medalists in figure skating Category:People from Wayne County, Michigan

cs:Tessa Virtueová de:Tessa Virtue et:Tessa Virtue fr:Tessa Virtue ko:테사 버추 it:Tessa Virtue hu:Tessa Virtue ja:テッサ・ヴァーチュ no:Tessa Virtue pl:Tessa Virtue pt:Tessa Virtue ru:Вертью, Тесса simple:Tessa Virtue sv:Tessa Virtue tr:Tessa Virtue uk:Тесса Верчу

Name	Scott Moir
Country
Fullname	Scott Patrick Moir
Birth date	September 02, 1987
Birth place	London, Ontario
Hometown	Ilderton, Ontario
Residence	Canton, Michigan
Height
Partner	Tessa Virtue
Coach	Igor Shpilband Marina Zueva
Formercoach	Carol Moir Paul MacIntosh Suzanne Killing
Choreographer	Igor Shpilband Marina Zueva
Skating club	Ilderton Skating Club
Currenttraininglocations	Canton, Michigan
Formertraininglocations	Kitchener-Waterloo
Beganskating	1990
Worldranking	3 ('''')
Pbrankings	2 (''2011–2012'') 2 (''2010–2011'') 1 (''2009–2010'') 3 (''2008–2009'')
dance score	224.43
dance date	2010 Worlds
cd score	44.13
cd date	2010 Worlds
od score	70.27 (WR)
od date	2010 Worlds
sd score	74.29
sd date	2011 Worlds
fd score	112.33
fd date	2011 Grand Prix Final
Medaltemplates	}}

}}

Scott Moir (born September 2, 1987) is a Canadian ice dancer. He ice dances with Tessa Virtue. Moir and Virtue are the 2010 Olympic champions, the 2010 and 2012 World Champions, the 2008 & 2012 Four Continents Champions, the 2006 World Junior Champions and four-time (2008–2010, 2012) Canadian national champions.

They were the first ice dance team to receive a 10.0 for a program component score under the new ISU Judging System. They are the current world record score holders for the original dance.

Personal life[link]

Moir was born in London, Ontario, Canada and raised in Ilderton, Ontario. He attended Medway High School (Arva, Ontario), in addition to an electronic learning highschool called AMDEC. He currently lives and trains in Canton, Michigan, USA. Moir comes from a skating family. He is the younger brother of Danny Moir and Charlie Moir. His cousins Sheri Moir and Cara Moir competed at the 2007 World Synchronized Skating Championships for Canada's Nexxice team. His mother is a coach.

In October 2010, Moir, Virtue and co-writer Steve Milton published a book about their career called ''Tessa And Scott: Our Journey From Childhood Dream To Gold ''.

Career[link]

Early career[link]

Virtue and Moir began skating together in 1997, paired together by his aunt. Early in their career, Virtue and Moir trained in Kitchener-Waterloo, Ontario with Paul MacIntosh and Suzanne Killing.

In the 2001–2002 season, Virtue and Moir won the bronze medal at the 2002 Canadian Championships at the novice level. The following season, they placed 7th at the 2003 Canadian Championships in the junior division. In 2003, they moved to Canton, Michigan and began working with coaches Igor Shpilband and Marina Zueva at the Arctic Edge Ice Arena.

They made their ISU Junior Grand Prix debut in the 2003-2004 ISU Junior Grand Prix. They placed 4th at the event in Croatia and 6th in Slovakia. At the 2004 Canadian Championships, they won the Junior title and qualified to be part of the Canadian team at the 2004 World Junior Championships, where they placed 11th.

The following season, Virtue and Moir moved up to the senior level nationally but remained juniors internationally. On the 2004-2005 ISU Junior Grand Prix, they won the event in China and the silver medal at the event in France. This qualified them for the Junior Grand Prix Final, where they also won the silver medal. They made their senior national debut at the 2005 Canadian Championships, where they placed fourth. They were named to the team to the 2005 World Junior Championships and won another silver medal.

Virtue and Moir remained at the junior level internationally in the 2005–2006 season. On the 2005–2006 ISU Junior Grand Prix, they won both their events as well as the Junior Grand Prix Final. At the 2006 Canadian Championships, they placed 3rd and were named as first alternates to the Olympic team. They were named to the team for the 2006 Four Continents, winning the bronze medal. At the 2006 World Junior Championships, they became the first Canadian ice dancers to win the title.

Senior career[link]

2006–2007 season[link]

In the 2006–2007 season, they moved up to the senior level internationally. They made their Grand Prix debut at the 2006 Skate Canada International, where they won the silver medal. They placed 4th at the 2006 Trophée Eric Bompard.

At the 2007 Canadian Championships, they won the silver medal, and repeated their bronze medal finish at Four Continents. In their debut at the World Championships, they placed 6th.

2007–2008 season[link]

Virtue and Moir were assigned to Skate Canada International and the NHK Trophy for the 2007–2008 Grand Prix season. They won the 2007 Skate Canada International and placed second in the 2007 NHK Trophy. Those placements qualified them for the Grand Prix Final, where they came in fourth place.

Virtue and Moir won their first Canadian national title at the 2008 Canadian Championships and earned spots for the Four Continents and World Championships.

They won the 2008 Four Continents Championships. At the 2008 World Championships in Sweden, Virtue and Moir won the silver medal, winning the free dance segment with their program to The Umbrellas of Cherbourg soundtrack.

2008–2009 season[link]

In the 2008–2009 season, Virtue & Moir withdrew from both their Grand Prix events due to Virtue's medical condition; she had been diagnosed with chronic exertional compartment syndrome and underwent surgery in October 2008 to alleviate the condition. She returned to the ice at the start of December, which she later said was probably too early. At the 2009 Canadian Championships, they won the gold medal.

At the 2009 Four Continents Championships, they won the silver medal behind Americans Meryl Davis & Charlie White. At the 2009 World Championships, they won the bronze medal, after placing 3rd in the compulsory dance, 6th in the original dance, and 4th in the free skate.

2009–2010 season[link]

Virtue and Moir started the 2009–2010 Olympic season at the 2009 Trophée Eric Bompard, finishing first by a margin of 16.07 points ahead of the silver medalists, Nathalie Péchalat and Fabian Bourzat. They also won the 2009 Skate Canada International, with a total combined score of 204.38 points, again ahead of Nathalie Péchalat and Fabian Bourzat. At that competition, they received the first 10.0 component score for ice dance under the Code of Points. They were second at the Grand Prix Final behind Meryl Davis & Charlie White.

In January 2010, they won their third consecutive National title at the 2010 Canadian Championships, placing first in all three segments of the competition and earning 221.95 points overall, 37.25 ahead of the silver medalists Vanessa Crone & Paul Poirier. They set Canadian records for the free dance and the combined total.

They competed in the ice dancing competition at the 2010 Winter Olympics from February 19 through 22. They placed second in the compulsory dance, earning a new personal best score of 42.74 points, just 1.02 off the lead. In the original dance, they received 68.41 points, placing first in that segment of the competition. They scored 110.42 points in the free dance, winning the gold medal with an overall total score of 221.57, surpassing silver medalists, Davis and White, by 5.83 points. In the free dance, they received four 10.00 marks from the judges in the program components, two for performance execution and two for interpretation. They became the first Canadian, as well as North American ice dance team to win Olympic gold. In addition, they were youngest dance team and the first ice dance team to win the Olympic gold on home ice and also the first ice dancers to win gold in their Olympic debut since the inaugural Olympic ice dance event in 1976.

They competed at the 2010 World Championships, placing first in the compulsory dance with 44.13 points, improving their previous personal best. They also won the original dance with 70.27 points, a world record under the ISU Judging System. They placed second in the free dance with 110.03 points, 0.46 behind Meryl Davis & Charlie White. Overall they claimed their first World Championship title scoring 224.43 points, 1.40 ahead of Meryl Davis & Charlie White. They received numerous program components marks of 10.00 in both the original and free dances.

2010–2011 season[link]

For the 2010–2011 ISU Grand Prix season, Virtue and Moir were assigned to the 2010 Skate Canada International and to the 2010 Trophée Eric Bompard. Due to her chronic exertional compartment syndrome Virtue had to undergo another surgery in October 2010, leading to their withdrawal from both events. They also withdrew from the Canadian Championships because they had not had enough time to train after the surgery.

Virtue and Moir made their season debut at the 2011 Four Continents. They were in the lead following the short dance but withdrew midway through the free dance after Virtue felt tightness in her left quad muscle. They changed a lift to alleviate the problem. At the 2011 World Championships, they placed second overall by 3.48 points behind the American team of Meryl Davis and Charlie White.

2011–2012 season[link]

Virtue and Moir were assigned to two Grand Prix events, 2011 Skate Canada and 2011 Trophee Eric Bompard, having declined a newly introduced option to compete in a third. They announced their music selections in August. Virtue and Moir won their first event of the season, 2011 Finlandia Trophy. They won both their Grand Prix events and qualified for the Grand Prix Final, where they won the silver medal. Moir expressed dissatisfaction with the scoring of the free dance, which he felt they should have won. In late December 2011, the ISU acknowledged a scoring error in the free dance; had the scoring been correctly calculated (+0.5 points), Virtue and Moir would have won that segment. The scores from the Grand Prix Final were left unchanged, however.

Virtue and Moir won their fourth national title in January 2012. In February, the competed at the 2012 Four Continents Championships. After a second place short dance, they rallied in the free dance to win their second Four Continents championships and first since 2008. It was also their first victory over training mates Meryl Davis and Charlie White since the 2010 World Championships. Virtue and Moir then competed at the 2012 World Championships and won the gold medal finishing first in both the short and free dance ahead of silver medalists Meryl Davis and Charlie White.

Other skating[link]

Virtue and Moir have toured with Stars on Ice in Canada and performed in ice shows such as Festa on Ice, Shall We Dance On Ice, All That Skate in Los Angeles and 2011 All That Skate Summer.

Programs[link]

{|class="wikitable" style="text-align:center" |- ! Season ! Short dance ! Free dance ! Exhibition |- ! 2011–2012 | Hip Hip Chin Chin by Club des Belugas Temptation by Diana Krall Mujer Latina by Thalia | Funny Face by George Gershwin Basal Metabolism by Adolph Deutsch 'S Wonderful by George Gershwin | Ain't No Mountain High Enough by Marvin Gaye & Tammi Terrell

---

I Want to Hold Your Hand by The Beatles cover by T. V. Carpio |- ! 2010–2011 | Schenkst du beim Tango mir dein Herzby Dajos Bela & Sein TanzorchesterNights and Days soundtrack by Waldemar Kazanecki | Hip Hip Chin Chin by Club des Belugas Temptation by Diana Krall Mujer Latina by Thalia | I Want to Hold Your Hand by The Beatles cover by T. V. Carpio |- ! ! Original dance ! Free dance ! Exhibition |- ! 2009–2010 | Farrucas by Pepe Romero | Symphony No. 5 by Gustav Mahler arranged by Ryner Stoetzer | Everybody Dance Now by C & C Music Factory

---

Jack & Diane by John Mellencamp |- ! 2008–2009 | Won't You Charleston with Me? from The Boyfriend | The Great Gig in the Sky Money by Pink Floyd | Jack & Diane by John Mellencamp |- ! 2007–2008 | Dark Eyes Russian Folk Song | Umbrellas of Cherbourg by Michel Legrand | I Could Have Danced All Night by Jamie Cullum

---

Dare You to Move by Switchfoot |- ! 2006–2007 | Assassination Tango Building the Bullet by Luis Bacalov | Valse Triste by Jean Sibelius | Black Magic Woman by Santana

---

Tennessee Waltz by Holly Cole Trio |- ! 2005–2006 | Beautiful Maria by The Mambo Kings Do You Only Wanna Dance by Julio Daviel Big Band | Malaguena by Raúl di Blasio | No Me Ames by Jennifer Lopez & Marc Anthony

---

Everybody Dance Now by C & C Music Factory |- ! 2004–2005 | Call Me Irresponsible by Bobby Darrin Puttin On The Ritz | Adiós Nonino by Ástor Piazzolla | Everybody Dance Now by C & C Music Factory |- ! 2003–2004 | Tears on My Pillow by Little Anthony Tutti Frutti by Little Richard | Russian Medley by Johann Christian Bach | Tears on My Pillow by Little Anthony Tutti Frutti by Little Richard |- ! 2002–2003 | Les Poissons Concerto Sopra Motivi dell'Opera by Johann Christian Bach | Magaienha by Sérgio Mendes Eres Todo En Mi by Ana Gabriel Tres Deseos by Gloria Estefan | |}

Competitive highlights[link]

(with Virtue)

Post-2006[link]

6th bgcolor=cc9966 bgcolor=silver bgcolor=silver 4th

Event			! 2007–2008	! 2008–2009	! 2009–2010	! 2010–2011	! 2011–2012
align=left>Winter Olympic Games		|		1st
align=left	World Championships	|	2nd	3rd	1st	2nd	1st
align=left	Four Continents Championships	3rd ||	1st	2nd		WD	1st
align=left	Canadian Championships	2nd ||	1st	1st	1st		1st
align=left	Grand Prix Final	|	4th		2nd		2nd
align=left	Skate Canada International	2nd ||	1st		1st		1st
align=left	Trophée Eric Bompard	|			1st		1st
align=left	NHK Trophy	|	2nd
align=left	Finlandia Trophy	|					1st

Pre-2006[link]

bgcolor=cc9966

Event			! 2002–2003	! 2003–2004	! 2004–2005	! 2005–2006
align=left>Four Continents Figure Skating Championships	Four Continents Championships		|			3rd
align=left	World Junior Championships	|		11th	2nd	1st
align=left	Canadian Championships	3rd N. ||	7th J.	1st J.	4th	3rd
align=left	Junior Grand Prix Final	|			2nd	1st
align=left	Junior Grand Prix, Canada	|				1st
align=left	Junior Grand Prix, Andorra	|				1st
align=left	Junior Grand Prix, China	|			1st
align=left	Junior Grand Prix, France	|			2nd
align=left	Junior Grand Prix, Croatia	|		4th
align=left	Junior Grand Prix, Slovakia	|		6th
align=left	NACS Thornhill	|		1st J.
align=left	Western Ontario Sectionals	|	1st J.	1st J.	1st

Detailed results[link]

(with Virtue)

Post-2006[link]

2011–2012 season
! Date	! Event	! SD	! FD	! Total
March 26 – April 1, 2012
February 7–12, 2012
January 16–22, 2012	2012 Canadian Figure Skating Championships
December 8–11, 2011
November 17–20, 2011
October 27–30, 2011
October 6–9, 2011	2011 Finlandia Trophy
2010–2011 season
! Date	! Event	! SD	! FD	! Total
April 24 – May 1, 2011
February 15–20, 2011

2009–2010 season
! Date	! Event	! CD	! OD	! FD	! Total
March 22–28, 2010
February 14 – 27, 2010
January 11 – 17, 2010	2010 Canadian Figure Skating Championships
December 3 – 6, 2009
November 19 – 22, 2009
October 15–18, 2009
2008–2009 season
! Date	! Event	! CD	! OD	! FD	! Total
April 16–19, 2009
March 24–28, 2009
February 2–8, 2009
January 14–18, 2009	2009 Canadian Figure Skating Championships
2007–2008 season
! Date	! Event	! CD	! OD	! FD	! Total
March 16–23, 2008
February 11–17, 2008
January 16–20, 2008	2008 Canadian Figure Skating Championships
December 13–16, 2007
November 28 – 12, 2007
November 1–4, 2007
2006–2007 season
! Date	! Event	! CD	! OD	! FD	! Total
March 20–25, 2007
February 7–10, 2007
January 15–21, 2007	2007 Canadian Figure Skating Championships
October 15 – 18, 2006

CD = Compulsory Dance; OD = Original Dance; FD = Free Dance.

SD = Short Dance.

Personal bests highlighted in bold.

References[link]

External links[link]

Official Site

Skate Canada Profile

Photos of Scott Moir

Category:1987 births Category:Canadian ice dancers Category:People from London, Ontario Category:Figure skaters at the 2010 Winter Olympics Category:Olympic figure skaters of Canada Category:Living people Category:Olympic gold medalists for Canada Category:Olympic medalists in figure skating

cs:Scott Moir de:Scott Moir et:Scott Moir fr:Scott Moir ko:스콧 모이어 hu:Scott Moir ja:スコット・モイア no:Scott Moir pl:Scott Moir pt:Scott Moir ru:Моир, Скотт simple:Scott Moir tr:Scott Moir uk:Скотт Моїр

}}

name	Roman Kostomarov
country
birth date	February 08, 1977
residence	Moscow, Russia
height
partner	Tatiana Navka
formerpartner	Ekaterina Davydova, Anna Semenovich
coach	Alexander Zhulin
formercoach	Natalia Linichuk, Gennadi Karponosov, Elena Tchaikovskaia, Natalia Dubova
skating club	SC Moskvitch
dance score	227.81 (WR)
dance date	2005 Worlds
cd score	45.97 (WR)
cd date	2005 Worlds
od score	68.67
od date	2005 Worlds
fd score	117.14 (WR)
fd date	2003 Cup of Russia
medaltemplates	}}

}}

Roman Sergeyevich Kostomarov () (born February 8, 1977 in Moscow) is a Russian ice dancer. With partner Tatiana Navka, he is the 2006 Olympic champion, two-time World champion (2004-05), three-time Grand Prix Final champion (2003-05), and three-time European champion (2004-06).

Career [link]

Kostomarov began skating at the age of nine and a coach put him in ice dancing at eleven. He won the 1996 World Juniors Championships with Ekaterina Davydova.

Kostomarov began competing with Tatiana Navka during the 1998–99 season. They were coached by Natalia Linichuk. They won the bronze medal at the Russian Championships and were sent to the World Championships in their first season together, placing 12th. Linichuk then dissolved the team and paired Kostomarov with Anna Semenovich. He competed with Semenovich during the 1999-2000 season.

In mid-2000, Kostomarov called Navka and asked to skate with her again. They were coached by Alexander Zhulin in New Jersey. Navka and Kostomarov won the World title in 2004 and again in 2005. They also won three European titles from 2004–2006. They then won gold at the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, Italy. Navka and Kostomarov retired from competition after the Olympics but continue to skate in shows together. He also skates with celebrity partners in Russian ice shows such as Ice Age.

Personal life [link]

In June 2004, Kostomarov married Austrian champion Julia Lautowa but later separated. In 2010, he was engaged to World Champion ice dancer Oksana Domnina. Their daughter, Anastasia, was born on January 2, 2011.

Programs [link]

(with Navka) {|class="wikitable" style="text-align:center" |- ! Season ! Original dance ! Free dance ! Exhibition |- ! 2005–2006 |

Chilly Cha Cha

Rhumba:

Samba:

| Carmen by Georges Bizet | |- ! 2004–2005 |

Quickstep: Sing, Sing, Sing

Slow foxtrot: Fever

Quickstep: Sing, Sing, Sing

| Tosca by Giacomo Puccini | |- ! 2003–2004 | Blues: Ain't No Sunshine performed by Al Jerreau Rock'n roll: Rock Around the Clock by Bill Haley | The Pink Panther by Henry Mancini

Austin Powers

| |- ! 2002–2003 | Waltz: My Sweet and Tender Beast by Eugen Doga

March

| The Feeling Begins (from Passion) by Peter Gabriel | |- ! 2001–2002 |

Flamenco

Libertango by Astor Piazzolla | In the Closet by Michael Jackson | |- ! 2000–2001 | Fever by Peggy Lee

Dancin' Fool

| Funeral for a Friend by Elton John | |- ! 1998–1999 | Have You Ever Really Loved a Woman? by Bryan Adams | Boléro by Maurice Ravel | |}

Competitive highlights[link]

With Navka [link]

12th 11th bgcolor=cc9966 bgcolor=cc9966 5th

Event			! 2000–01	! 2001–02	! 2002–03	! 2003–04	! 2004–05	! 2005–06
align=left>Olympic Winter Games	Winter Olympics		|	10th				1st
align=left	World Championships	|	12th	8th	4th	1st	1st
align=left	European Championships	|	9th	7th	3rd	1st	1st	1st
align=left	Russian Championships	3rd ||	2nd	2nd	1st	1st		1st
align=left	Grand Prix Final	|			2nd	1st	1st	1st
align=left	Skate America	|		4th	2nd
align=left	Skate Canada	|				1st
align=left	Cup of China	|				1st		1st
align=left	Trophée Eric Bompard	|					1st
align=left	Cup of Russia	3rd ||	4th	4th	2nd	1st	1st	1st
align=left	NHK Trophy	|	6th				2nd

With Semenovich [link]

{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center" |- ! Event ! 1999–2000 |- | align=left | World Championships || 13th |- | align=left | European Championships || 10th |- | align=left | Russian Championships || bgcolor=silver | 2nd |- | align=left | Cup of Russia || 4th |}

With Davydova [link]

{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center" |- ! Event ! 1995–1996 ! 1996–1997 ! 1997–1998 |- | align=left | World Junior Championships || bgcolor=gold | 1st || || |- | align=left | Russian Championships || || bgcolor=cc9966 | 3rd || |- | align=left | Cup of Russia || || 5th || |- | align=left | Finlandia Trophy || || || bgcolor=silver | 2nd |- | align=left | Karl Schäfer Memorial || || || bgcolor=silver | 2nd |- | align=left | Winter Universiade || || WD || |- | colspan=4 align=center | WD = Withdrew |}

References[link]

External links[link]

Official website of Tatiana Navka / Roman Kostomarov

Care to Ice Dance? – Navka / Kostomarov

Category:Russian ice dancers Category:Olympic figure skaters of Russia Category:Figure skaters at the 2002 Winter Olympics Category:Figure skaters at the 2006 Winter Olympics Category:Living people Category:Olympic gold medalists for Russia Category:Sportspeople from Moscow Category:1977 births Category:Olympic medalists in figure skating

de:Roman Sergejewitsch Kostomarow fr:Roman Kostomarov hu:Roman Szergejevics Kosztomarov nl:Roman Kostomarov ja:ロマン・コストマロフ no:Roman Kostomarov pl:Roman Kostomarow pt:Roman Kostomarov ru:Костомаров, Роман Сергеевич sr:Roman Kostomarov sv:Roman Kostomarov tr:Roman Kostomarov

Gustav Mahler (; 1860 – 1911) was a late-Romantic Austrian composer and one of the leading conductors of his generation. He was born in the village of Kalischt, Bohemia, in what was then the Austrian Empire, now Kaliště in the Czech Republic. Then his family moved to nearby Iglau (now Jihlava) where Mahler grew up.

As a composer, he acted as a bridge between the 19th century Austro-German tradition and the modernism of the early 20th century. While in his lifetime his status as a conductor was established beyond question, his own music gained wide popularity only after periods of relative neglect which included a ban on its performance in much of Europe during the Nazi era. After 1945 the music was discovered and championed by a new generation of listeners; Mahler then became one of the most frequently performed and recorded of all composers, a position he has sustained into the 21st century.

Born in humble circumstances, Mahler displayed his musical gifts at an early age. After graduating from the Vienna Conservatory in 1878, he held a succession of conducting posts of rising importance in the opera houses of Europe, culminating in his appointment in 1897 as director of the Vienna Court Opera (Hofoper). During his ten years in Vienna, Mahler—who had converted to Catholicism from Judaism to secure the post—experienced regular opposition and hostility from the anti-Semitic press. Nevertheless, his innovative productions and insistence on the highest performance standards ensured his reputation as one of the greatest of opera conductors, particularly as an interpreter of the stage works of Wagner and Mozart. Late in his life he was briefly director of New York's Metropolitan Opera and the New York Philharmonic.

Mahler's ''œuvre'' is relatively small in number though extremely wide in scope, depth and complexity. For much of his life composing was necessarily a part-time activity while he earned his living as a conductor, but he devoted as much time as he could to his compositions, faithfully reserving his summer months for intense periods of creative concentration, supplemented as time permitted during his active concert seasons with the tasks of editing and orchestrating his expansive works. Aside from early works such as a movement from a piano quartet composed when he was a student in Vienna, Mahler's works are designed for large orchestral forces, symphonic choruses and operatic soloists. Most of his twelve symphonic scores are very large-scale works, often employing vocal soloists and choruses in addition to augmented orchestral forces. These works were often controversial when first performed, and several were slow to receive critical and popular approval; exceptions included his Symphony No.2, Symphony No. 3, and the triumphant premiere of his Eighth Symphony in 1910. Some of Mahler's immediate musical successors included the composers of the Second Viennese School, notably Arnold Schoenberg, Alban Berg and Anton Webern. Shostakovich and Benjamin Britten are among later 20th-century composers who admired and were influenced by Mahler. The International Gustav Mahler Institute was established in 1955, to honour the composer's life and work.

Biography[link]

Early life[link]

Family background[link]

The Mahler family came from eastern Bohemia and were of humble circumstances; the composer's grandmother had been a street pedlar. Bohemia was then part of the Austrian Empire; the Mahler family belonged to a German-speaking minority among Bohemians, and was also Jewish. From this background the future composer developed early on a permanent sense of exile, "always an intruder, never welcomed".

Bernhard Mahler, the pedlar's son and the composer's father, elevated himself to the ranks of the petite bourgeoisie by becoming a coachman and later an innkeeper. He bought a modest house in the village of Kalischt (Kaliště), on a straight line roughly half way between Prague in Bohemia and Brno in Moravia, in the geographic center of today's Czech Republic. Bernhard's wife Marie gave birth to the first of the couple's 14 children, a son Isidor, who died in infancy. Two years later, on 1860, their second son, Gustav, was born.

Childhood[link]

In December 1860, Bernhard Mahler moved with his wife and infant son to the town of Iglau (Jihlava), 25 km to the south-east, where he built up a distillery and tavern business. The family grew rapidly, but of the 12 children born to the family in Iglau only six survived infancy. Iglau was then a thriving commercial town of 20,000 people where Gustav was introduced to music through street songs, dance tunes, folk melodies, and the trumpet calls and marches of the local military band. All of these elements would later contribute to his mature musical vocabulary.

When he was four years old, Gustav discovered his grandparents' piano and took to it immediately. He developed his performing skills sufficiently to be considered a local ''Wunderkind'' and gave his first public performance at the town theatre when he was ten years old. Although Gustav loved making music, his school reports from the Iglau Gymnasium portrayed him as absent-minded and unreliable in academic work. In 1871, in the hope of improving the boy's results, his father sent him to the New Town Gymnasium in Prague, but Gustav was unhappy there and soon returned to Iglau. In 1874 he suffered a bitter personal loss when his younger brother Ernst died after a long illness. Mahler sought to express his feelings in music: with the help of a friend, Josef Steiner, he began work on an opera, ''Herzog Ernst von Schwaben'' ("Duke Ernest of Swabia") as a memorial to his lost brother. Neither the music nor the libretto of this work has survived.

Student days[link]

Bernhard Mahler was supportive of his son's ambitions for a music career, and agreed that the boy should try for a place at the Vienna Conservatory. The young Mahler was auditioned by the renowned pianist Julius Epstein, and accepted for 1875–76. He made good progress in his piano studies with Epstein and won prizes at the end of each of his first two years. For his final year, 1877–78, he concentrated on composition and harmony under Robert Fuchs and Franz Krenn. Few of Mahler's student compositions have survived; most were abandoned when he became dissatisfied with them. He destroyed a symphonic movement prepared for an end-of-term competition, after its scornful rejection by the autocratic director Joseph Hellmesberger on the grounds of copying errors. Mahler may have gained his first conducting experience with the Conservatory's student orchestra, in rehearsals and performances, although it appears that his main role in this orchestra was as a percussionist.

Among Mahler's fellow students at the Conservatory was the future song composer Hugo Wolf, with whom he formed a close friendship. Wolf was unable to submit to the strict disciplines of the Conservatory and was expelled. Mahler, while sometimes rebellious, avoided the same fate only by writing a penitent letter to Hellmesberger. He attended occasional lectures by Anton Bruckner and, though never formally his pupil, was influenced by him. On 1877, he attended the disastrous premiere of Bruckner's Third Symphony, at which the composer was shouted down, and most of the audience walked out. Mahler and other sympathetic students later prepared a piano version of the symphony, which they presented to Bruckner. Along with many music students of his generation, Mahler fell under the spell of Richard Wagner, though his chief interest was the sound of the music rather than the staging. It is not known whether he saw any of Wagner's operas during his student years.

Mahler left the Conservatory in 1878 with a diploma but without the prestigious silver medal given for outstanding achievement. He then enrolled at Vienna University (he had, at Bernhard's insistence, sat and with difficulty passed the "matura", or entrance examination) and followed courses which reflected his developing interests in literature and philosophy. After leaving the University in 1879, Mahler made some money as a piano teacher, continued to compose, and in 1880 finished a dramatic cantata, ''Das klagende Lied'' ("The Song of Lamentation"). This, his first substantial composition, shows traces of Wagnerian and Brucknerian influences, yet includes many musical elements which musicologist Deryck Cooke describes as "pure Mahler". Its first performance was delayed until 1901, when it was presented in a revised, shortened form.

Mahler developed interests in German philosophy, and was introduced by his friend Siegfried Lipiner to the works of Arthur Schopenhauer, Friedrich Nietzsche, Gustav Fechner and Hermann Lotze. These thinkers continued to influence Mahler and his music long after his student days were over. Biographer Jonathan Carr says that the composer's head was "not only full of the sound of Bohemian bands, trumpet calls and marches, Bruckner chorales and Schubert sonatas. It was also throbbing with the problems of philosophy and metaphysics he had thrashed out, above all, with Lipiner."

Early conducting career 1880–88[link]

First appointments[link]

In the summer of 1880, Mahler took his first professional conducting job, in a small wooden theatre in the spa town of Bad Hall, south of Linz. The repertory was exclusively operetta; it was, in Carr's words "a dismal little job", which Mahler accepted only after Julius Epstein told him he would soon work his way up. In 1881, he was engaged at the Landestheater in Laibach (now Ljubljana, in Slovenia), where the small but resourceful company was prepared to attempt more ambitious works. Here, Mahler conducted his first full-scale opera, Verdi's ''Il trovatore'', one of more than 50 that he presented during his time in Laibach. After completing his six-month engagement, Mahler returned to Vienna and worked part-time as chorus-master at the Vienna Carltheater.

In January 1883, Mahler became conductor at a run-down theatre in Olmütz (now Olomouc). He later wrote: "From the moment I crossed the threshold of the Olmütz theatre I felt like one awaiting the wrath of God." Despite poor relations with the orchestra, Mahler brought five new operas to the theatre, including Bizet's ''Carmen'', and won over the press that had initially been hostile to him. After a week's trial at the Royal Theatre in the Hessian town of Kassel, Mahler became the theatre's "Musical and Choral Director" from August 1883. The title concealed the reality that Mahler was subordinate to the theatre's Kapellmeister, Wilhelm Treiber, who disliked him and set out to make his life miserable. Despite the unpleasant atmosphere, Mahler had moments of success at Kassel. He directed a performance of his favourite opera, Weber's ''Der Freischütz'', and, on 1884, conducted his own incidental music to Joseph Victor von Scheffel's play ''Der Trompeter von Säkkingen'' ("The Trumpeter of Säkkingen"), the first professional public performance of a Mahler work. An ardent, but ultimately unfulfilled, love affair with soprano Johanna Richter led Mahler to write a series of love poems which became the text of his song cycle ''Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen'' ("Songs of a Wayfarer").

In January 1884, the distinguished conductor Hans von Bülow brought the Meiningen Court Orchestra to Kassel and gave two concerts. Hoping to escape from his job in the theatre, Mahler unsuccessfully sought a post as Bülow's permanent assistant. However, in the following year his efforts to find new employment resulted in a six-year contract with the prestigious Leipzig Opera, to begin in 1886. Unwilling to remain in Kassel for another year, Mahler resigned in July 1885, and through good fortune was offered a standby appointment as an assistant conductor at the Neues Deutsches Theater (New German Theatre) in Prague.

Prague and Leipzig[link]

In Prague, the emergence of Czech National Revival had increased the popularity and importance of the new Czech National Theatre, and had led to a downturn in the Neues Deutsches Theater's fortunes. Mahler's task was to help arrest this decline by offering high-quality productions of German opera. He had early success presenting works by Mozart and Wagner, composers with whom he would be particularly associated for the rest of his career, but his individualistic and increasingly autocratic conducting style led to friction, and a falling out with his more experienced fellow-conductor, Ludwig Slansky. In April 1886, Mahler left Prague to take up his post at the Neues Stadttheater in Leipzig, where rivalry with his senior colleague Arthur Nikisch began at once. This was primarily over how the two should share conducting duties for the theatre's new production of Wagner's ''Ring'' cycle. Nikisch's illness, in January 1887, meant that Mahler took charge of the whole cycle, and scored a resounding public success. This did not win him popularity with the orchestra, who resented his dictatorial manner and heavy rehearsal schedules.

In Leipzig, Mahler befriended Carl von Weber, grandson of the composer, and agreed to prepare a performing version of Carl Maria von Weber's unfinished opera ''Die drei Pintos'' ("The Three Pintos"). Mahler transcribed and orchestrated the existing musical sketches, used parts of other Weber works, and added some composition of his own. The premiere at the Stadttheater, in January 1888, was an important occasion at which Tchaikovsky was present, as were the heads of various opera houses. The work was well-received; its success did much to raise Mahler's public profile, and brought him financial rewards. His involvement with the Weber family was complicated by a romantic attachment to Carl von Weber's wife Marion which, though intense on both sides, ultimately came to nothing. At around this time Mahler discovered the German folk-poem collection ''Des Knaben Wunderhorn'' ("The Youth's Magic Horn"), which would dominate much of his compositional output for the following 12 years.

In May 1888, Mahler's new-found financial security enabled him to resign his Leipzig position after a dispute with the Stadttheater's chief stage manager. Without a post, Mahler returned to Prague to work on a revival of ''Die drei Pintos'' and a production of Peter Cornelius's ''Der Barbier von Bagdad''. This short stay ended unhappily, with Mahler's dismissal after an outburst during rehearsals. However, through the efforts of an old Viennese friend, Guido Adler, Mahler's name went forward as a potential director of the Royal Hungarian Opera in Budapest. He was interviewed, made a good impression, and was offered the post from October 1888.

Apprentice composer[link]

In the early years of Mahler's conducting career, composing was a spare time activity. Between his Laibach and Olmütz appointments he worked on settings of verses by Richard Leander and Tirso de Molina, later collected as Volume I of ''Lieder und Gesänge'' ("Songs and Airs"). Mahler's first orchestral song cycle, ''Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen'', composed at Kassel, was based on his own verses, although the first poem, "Wenn mein Schatz Hochzeit macht" ("When my love becomes a bride") closely follows the text of a ''Wunderhorn'' poem.

There has been frequent speculation about lost or destroyed works from Mahler's early years. The Dutch conductor Willem Mengelberg believed that the First Symphony was too mature to be a first symphonic work, and must have had predecessors. In 1938, Mengelberg revealed the existence of the so-called "Dresden archive", a series of manuscripts in the possession of the widowed Marion von Weber. The archive was almost certainly destroyed in the bombing of Dresden in 1945; according to Mahler historian Donald Mitchell "the strong possibility remains that some important manuscripts, either early symphonies or parts of early symphonies, were to be found in Dresden."

Budapest and Hamburg, 1888–97[link]

Royal Opera, Budapest[link]

On arriving in Budapest in October 1888, Mahler encountered a cultural conflict between conservative Hungarian nationalists who favoured a policy of Magyarisation, and progressives who wanted to maintain and develop the country's Austro-German cultural traditions. In the opera house a dominant conservative caucus, led by the music director Sándor Erkel, had maintained a limited repertory of historical and folklore opera. By the time that Mahler began his duties, the progressive camp had gained ascendancy following the appointment of the liberal-minded Ferenc von Beniczky as intendant. Aware of the delicate situation, Mahler moved cautiously; he delayed his first appearance on the conductor's stand until January 1889, when he conducted Hungarian language performances of ''Das Rheingold'' and ''Die Walküre'' to initial public acclaim. However, his early successes faded when plans to stage the remainder of the ''Ring'' cycle and other German operas were frustrated by a renascent conservative faction which favoured a more traditional "Hungarian" programme. In search of non-German operas to extend the repertory, Mahler visited Italy where among the works he discovered was Pietro Mascagni's recent sensation ''Cavalleria rusticana''.

In February 1889, Bernhard Mahler died; this was followed later in the year by the deaths both of Mahler's sister Leopoldine and his mother. Mahler himself suffered poor health, with attacks of haemorrhoids and migraine and a recurrent septic throat. Shortly after these family and health setbacks the premiere of the First Symphony, in Budapest on 1889, was a disappointment. The critic August Beer's lengthy newspaper review indicates that enthusiasm after the early movements degenerated into "audible opposition" after the Finale. Mahler was particularly distressed by the negative comments from his Vienna Conservatory contemporary, Viktor von Herzfeld, who had remarked that Mahler, like many conductors before him, had proved not to be a composer.

In 1891, Hungary's move to the political right was reflected in the opera house when Beniczky was replaced as intendant by Géza Zichy, a conservative aristocrat determined to assume artistic control over Mahler's head. Mahler began negotiating with the director of the Hamburg Stadttheater; in May 1891, having agreed to a contract there, he resigned his Budapest post. His final Budapest triumph was a performance of ''Don Giovanni'' which won him praise from Brahms who was present. During his Budapest years Mahler's compositional output had been limited to the ''Wunderhorn'' song settings that became Volumes II and III of ''Lieder und Gesänge'', and amendments to the First Symphony.

Hamburg Stadttheater[link]

Mahler's Hamburg post was as chief conductor, subordinate to the director, Bernhard Pohl (known as Pollini) who retained overall artistic control. Pollini was prepared to give Mahler considerable leeway if the conductor could provide commercial as well as artistic success. This Mahler did in his first season, when he conducted Wagner's ''Tristan und Isolde'' for the first time and gave acclaimed performances of the same composer's ''Tannhäuser'' and ''Siegfried''. Another triumph was the German premiere of Tchaikovsky's ''Eugene Onegin'', in the presence of the composer, who called Mahler's conducting "astounding". Mahler's demanding rehearsal schedules led to predictable resentment from the singers and orchestra with whom, according to music writer Peter Franklin, the conductor "inspired hatred and respect in almost equal measure." He found support, however, from Hans von Bülow, who was in Hamburg as director of the city's subscription concerts. Bülow, who had spurned Mahler's approaches in Kassel, had come to admire the younger man's conducting style, and on Bülow's death in 1894 Mahler took over the direction of the concerts.

In the summer of 1892 Mahler took the Hamburg singers to London to participate in a six-week season of German opera—his only visit to Britain. His conducting of ''Tristan'' enthralled the young composer Ralph Vaughan Williams, who "staggered home in a daze and could not sleep for two nights." However, Mahler refused further such invitations as he was anxious to reserve his summers for composing. In 1893 he acquired a retreat at Steinbach, on the banks of Lake Attersee in Upper Austria, and established a pattern that persisted for the rest of his life; summers would henceforth be dedicated to composition, at Steinbach or its successor retreats. Now firmly under the influence of the ''Wunderhorn'' folk-poem collection, Mahler produced a stream of song settings at Steinbach, and composed his Second and Third Symphonies there.

Performances of Mahler works were still comparatively rare. On 1893, at Hamburg's Ludwig Konzerthaus, Mahler conducted a revised version of his First Symphony; still in its original five-movement form, it was presented as a ''Tondichtung'' (tone poem) under the descriptive name "Titan". This concert also introduced several recent ''Wunderhorn'' settings. Mahler achieved his first relative success as a composer when the Second Symphony was well-received on its premiere in Berlin, under his own baton, on 1895. Mahler's future conducting assistant Bruno Walter, who was present, said that "one may date [Mahler's] rise to fame as a composer from that day." That same year Mahler's private life was disrupted by the suicide of his younger brother Otto.

At the Stadttheater Mahler introduced numerous new operas: Verdi's ''Falstaff'', Humperdinck's ''Hänsel und Gretel'', and works by Smetana. However, he was forced to resign his post with the subscription concerts after poor financial returns and an ill-received interpretation of his re-scored Beethoven's Ninth Symphony. Mahler had made it clear that his ultimate goal was an appointment in Vienna, and from 1895 onward was manoeuvring, with the help of influential friends, to secure the directorship of the Vienna Hofoper. He overcame the bar that existed against the appointment of a Jew to this post by what may have been a pragmatic conversion to Roman Catholicism in February 1897. Two months later Mahler was appointed to the Hofoper, provisionally as a staff conductor with the title of Kapellmeister.

Vienna, 1897–1907[link]

Hofoper director[link]

As he waited for the Emperor's confirmation of his directorship, Mahler shared duties as a resident conductor with Joseph Hellmesberger Jr (son of the former conservatory director) and Hans Richter, an internationally renowned interpreter of Wagner and the conductor of the original ''Ring'' cycle at ''Bayreuth'' in 1876. Director Wilhelm Jahn had not consulted Richter about Mahler's appointment; Mahler, sensitive to the situation, wrote Richter a complimentary letter expressing unswerving admiration for the older conductor. Subsequently the two were rarely in agreement, but kept their divisions private.

Vienna, the imperial Habsburg capital, had recently elected an anti-Semitic conservative mayor, Karl Lueger, who had once proclaimed: "I myself decide who is a Jew and who isn't." In such a volatile political atmosphere Mahler needed an early demonstration of his German cultural credentials. He made his initial mark in May 1897 with much-praised performances of Wagner's ''Lohengrin'' and Mozart's ''Die Zauberflöte''. Shortly after the ''Zauberflöte'' triumph, Mahler was forced to take sick leave for several weeks, during which he was nursed by his sister Justine and his long-time companion, the viola player Natalie Bauer-Lechner. Mahler returned to Vienna in early August to prepare for Vienna's first uncut version of the ''Ring'' cycle. This performance took place on 24–, attracting critical praise and public enthusiasm. Mahler's friend Hugo Wolf told Bauer-Lechner that "for the first time I have heard the ''Ring'' as I have always dreamed of hearing it while reading the score." On 8 October Mahler was formally appointed to succeed Jahn as the Hofoper's director. 1897. According to La Grange the decree appointing Mahler to the directorship was dated and signed by the Lord Chamberlain on behalf of the Emperor on .|group=n}} His first production in his new office was Smetana's Czech nationalist opera ''Dalibor'', with a reconstituted finale that left the hero Dalibor alive. This production caused anger among the more extreme Viennese German nationalists, who accused Mahler of "fraternising with the anti-dynastic, inferior Czech nation". During Mahler's tenure a total of 33 new operas were introduced to the Hofoper; a further 55 were new or totally revamped productions. However, a proposal to stage Richard Strauss's controversial opera ''Salome'' in 1905 was rejected by the Viennese censors.

Early in 1902 Mahler met Alfred Roller, an artist and designer associated with the Vienna Secession movement. A year later, Mahler appointed him chief stage designer to the Hofoper, where Roller's debut was a new production of ''Tristan und Isolde''. The collaboration between Mahler and Roller created more than 20 celebrated productions of, among other operas, Beethoven's ''Fidelio'', Gluck's ''Iphigénie en Aulide'' and Mozart's ''Le nozze di Figaro''. In the ''Figaro'' production, Mahler offended some purists by adding and composing a short recitative scene to Act III.

In spite of numerous theatrical triumphs, Mahler's Vienna years were rarely smooth; his battles with singers and the house administration continued on and off for the whole of his tenure. While Mahler's methods improved standards, his histrionic and dictatorial conducting style was resented by orchestra members and singers alike. In December 1903 Mahler faced a revolt by stagehands, whose demands for better conditions he rejected in the belief that extremists were manipulating his staff. The anti-Semitic elements in Viennese society, long opposed to Mahler's appointment, continued to attack him relentlessly, and in 1907 instituted a press campaign designed to drive him out. By that time he was at odds with the opera house's administration over the amount of time he was spending on his own music, and was preparing to leave. Early in 1907 he began discussions with Heinrich Conried, director of the New York Metropolitan Opera, and in June signed a contract, on very favourable terms, for four seasons' conducting in New York. At the end of the summer he submitted his resignation to the Hofoper, and on 1907 conducted ''Fidelio'', his 648th and final performance there. During his ten years in Vienna, Mahler—who had converted to Catholicism from Judaism to secure the post—experienced regular opposition and hostility from the anti-Semitic press, eventually leading to his departure. But in these ten years Mahler had brought new life to the opera house and cleared its debts, but had won few friends—it was said that he treated his musicians in the way a lion tamer treated his animals. His departing message to the company, which he pinned to a notice board, was later torn down and scattered over the floor. After conducting the Hofoper orchestra in a farewell concert performance of his Second Symphony on , Mahler left Vienna for New York in early December.

Philharmonic concerts[link]

When Richter resigned as head of the Vienna Philharmonic subscription concerts in September 1898, the concerts committee had unanimously chosen Mahler as his successor. The appointment was not universally welcomed; the anti-Semitic press wondered if, as a non-German, Mahler would be capable of defending German music. Attendances rose sharply in Mahler's first season, but members of the orchestra were particularly resentful of his habit of re-scoring acknowledged masterpieces, and of his scheduling of extra rehearsals for works with which they were thoroughly familiar. An attempt by the orchestra to have Richter reinstated for the 1899 season failed, because Richter was not interested. Mahler's position was weakened when, in 1900, he took the orchestra to Paris to play at the Exposition Universelle. The Paris concerts were poorly attended and lost money – Mahler had to borrow the orchestra's fare home from the Rothschilds. In April 1901, dogged by a recurrence of ill-health and wearied by more complaints from the orchestra, Mahler relinquished the Philharmonic concerts conductorship. In his three seasons he had performed around 80 different works, which included pieces by relatively unknown composers such as Hermann Goetz, Wilhelm Kienzl and the Italian Lorenzo Perosi.

Mature composer[link]

The demands of his twin appointments in Vienna initially absorbed all Mahler's time and energy, but by 1899 he had resumed composing. The remaining Vienna years were to prove particularly fruitful. While working on the last of his ''Des Knaben Wunderhorn'' settings he started his Fourth Symphony, which he completed in 1900. By this time he had abandoned the composing hut at Steinbach and had acquired another, at Maiernigg on the shores of the Wörthersee in Carinthia, where he later built a villa. In this new venue Mahler embarked upon what is generally considered as his "middle" or post-''Wunderhorn'' compositional period. Between 1901 and 1904 he wrote ten settings of poems by Friedrich Rückert, five of which were collected as ''Rückert-Lieder''. The other five formed the song cycle ''Kindertotenlieder'' ("Songs on the Death of Children"). The trilogy of orchestral symphonies, the Fifth, the Sixth and the Seventh were composed at Maiernigg between 1901 and 1905, and the Eighth Symphony written there in 1906, in eight weeks of furious activity.

Within this same period Mahler's works began to be performed with increasing frequency. In April 1899 he conducted the Viennese premiere of his Second Symphony; 1901 saw the first public performance of his early work ''Das klagende Lied'', in a revised two-part form. Later that year, in November, Mahler conducted the premiere of his Fourth Symphony, in Munich, and was on the rostrum for the first complete performance of the Third Symphony, at the Allgemeiner Deutscher Musikverein festival at Krefeld on 1902. Mahler "first nights" now became increasingly frequent musical events; he conducted the first performances of the Fifth and Sixth Symphonies at Cologne and Essen respectively, in 1904 and 1906. Four of the ''Rückert Lieder'', and ''Kindertotenlieder'', were introduced in Vienna on 1905.

Marriage, family, tragedy[link]

During his second season in Vienna, Mahler acquired a spacious modern apartment on the Auenbruggerstrasse and built a summer villa on land he had acquired next to his new composing studio at Maiernigg. In November 1901 he met Alma Schindler, the stepdaughter of painter Carl Moll, at a social gathering that included the theatre director Max Burckhard. Alma was not initially keen to meet Mahler, on account of "the scandals about him and every young woman who aspired to sing in opera". The two engaged in a lively disagreement about a ballet by Alexander von Zemlinsky (Alma was one of Zemlinsky's pupils), but agreed to meet at the Hofoper the following day. This meeting led to a rapid courtship; Mahler and Alma were married at a private ceremony on 1902. Alma was by then pregnant with her first child, a daughter Maria Anna, who was born on 1902. A second daughter, Anna, was born in 1904.

Friends of the couple were surprised by the marriage and dubious of its wisdom. Burckhard called Mahler "that rachitic degenerate Jew", unworthy for such a good-looking girl of good family. On the other hand, Mahler's family considered Alma to be flirtatious, unreliable, and too fond of seeing young men fall for her charms. Mahler was by nature moody and authoritarian—Natalie Bauer-Lechner, his earlier partner, said that living with him was "like being on a boat that is ceaselessly rocked to and fro by the waves". Alma soon became resentful that, on Mahler's insistence that there could only be one composer in the family, she had given up her music studies. She wrote in her diary: "How hard it is to be so mercilessly deprived of ... things closest to one's heart". Mahler's requirement that their married life be organised around his creative activities imposed strains, and precipitated rebellion on Alma's part; the marriage was nevertheless marked at times by expressions of considerable passion, particularly from Mahler.

In the summer of 1907 Mahler, exhausted from the effects of the campaign against him in Vienna, took his family to Maiernigg. Soon after their arrival both daughters fell ill with scarlet fever and diphtheria. Anna recovered, but after a fortnight's struggle Maria died on . Immediately following this devastating loss, Mahler learned that his heart was defective, a diagnosis subsequently confirmed by a Vienna specialist, who ordered a curtailment of all forms of vigorous exercise. The extent to which Mahler's condition disabled him is unclear; Alma wrote of it as a virtual death sentence, though Mahler himself, in a letter written to her on 1907, said that he would be able to live a normal life, apart from avoiding over-fatigue. The illness was, however, a further depressing factor; at the end of the summer the villa at Maiernigg was closed, and never revisited.

Last years, 1908–11[link]

New York[link]

Mahler made his New York debut at the Metropolitan Opera on 1908, when he conducted Wagner's ''Tristan und Isolde'' in the cut version still standard in New York, though long since superseded in Vienna. In a busy first season Mahler's performances were widely praised, especially his ''Fidelio'' on 1908, in which he insisted on using replicas being made of Roller's Vienna sets. On his return to Austria for the summer of 1908, Mahler established himself in the third and last of his composing studios, in the pine forests close to Toblach in Tyrol. Here, using a text by Hans Bethge based on ancient Chinese poems, he composed ''Das Lied von der Erde'' ("The Song of the Earth"). Despite the symphonic nature of the work, Mahler refused to number it, hoping thereby to escape the "curse of the Ninth Symphony" that he believed had affected fellow-composers Beethoven, Schubert and Bruckner. On 1908 the premiere of the Seventh Symphony, in Prague, was deemed by Alma Mahler a critical rather than a popular success.

For its 1908–09 season the Metropolitan management brought in the Italian conductor Arturo Toscanini to share duties with Mahler, who made only 19 appearances in the entire season. One of these was a much-praised performance of Smetana's ''The Bartered Bride'' on 1909. In the early part of the season Mahler conducted three concerts with the New York Symphony Orchestra. This renewed experience of orchestral conducting inspired him to resign his position with the opera house and accept the conductorship of the re-formed New York Philharmonic. He continued to make occasional guest appearances at the Met, his last performance being Tchaikovsky's ''The Queen of Spades'' on 1910.

Back in Europe for the summer of 1909, Mahler worked on his Ninth Symphony and made a conducting tour of the Netherlands. The 1909–10 New York Philharmonic season was long and taxing; Mahler rehearsed and conducted 46 concerts, but his programmes were often too demanding for popular tastes. His own First Symphony, given its American debut on 1909, was one of the pieces that failed with critics and public, and the season ended with heavy financial losses. The highlight of Mahler's 1910 summer was the first performance of the Eighth Symphony at Munich on , the last of his works to be premiered in his lifetime. The occasion was a triumph—"easily Mahler's biggest lifetime success", according to biographer Robert Carr— but was overshadowed by the composer's discovery, before the event, that Alma had begun an affair with the young architect Walter Gropius. Greatly distressed, Mahler sought advice from Sigmund Freud, and appeared to gain some comfort from his meeting with the psychoanalyst. Alma agreed to remain with Mahler, although the relationship with Gropius continued surreptitiously. In a gesture of love, Mahler dedicated his Eighth Symphony to her.

Illness and death[link]

In spite of the emotional distractions, during the summer of 1910 Mahler worked on his Tenth Symphony, completing the Adagio and drafting four more movements. He and Alma returned to New York in November 1910, where Mahler threw himself into a busy Philharmonic season of concerts and tours. Around Christmas 1910 he began suffering from a sore throat, which persisted. On 1911, with a temperature of 40 °C (104 °F), Mahler insisted on fulfilling an engagement at Carnegie Hall, with a relatively nondescript programme. This was Mahler's last concert. After weeks confined to bed he was diagnosed with bacterial endocarditis, a disease to which sufferers from defective heart valves were particularly prone, and for which the survival rate in pre-antibiotic days was almost zero. Mahler did not give up hope; he talked of resuming the concert season, and took a keen interest when one of Alma's compositions was sung at a public recital by the soprano Frances Alda, on . On the Mahler family and a permanent nurse left New York on board SS ''Amerika'' bound for Europe. They reached Paris ten days later, where Mahler entered a clinic at Neuilly, but there was no improvement; on he was taken by train to the Lŏw sanatorium in Vienna, where he died on .

On 22 May 1911 Mahler was buried in the Grinzing cemetery (de), as he had requested. Alma, on doctors' orders, was absent, but among the mourners at a relatively pomp-free funeral were Arnold Schoenberg (whose wreath described Mahler as "the holy Gustav Mahler"), Bruno Walter, Alfred Roller, the Secessionist painter Gustav Klimt, and representatives from many of the great European opera houses. ''The New York Times'', reporting Mahler's death, called him "one of the towering musical figures of his day", but discussed his symphonies mainly in terms of their duration, incidentally exaggerating the length of the Second Symphony to "two hours and forty minutes". In London, ''The Times'' obituary said his conducting was "more accomplished than that of any man save Richter", and that his symphonies were "undoubtedly interesting in their union of modern orchestral richness with a melodic simplicity that often approached banality", though it was too early to judge their ultimate worth.

Alma Mahler survived her husband by more than 50 years, dying in 1964. She married Walter Gropius in 1915, divorced him five years later, and married the writer Franz Werfel in 1929. In 1940 she published a memoir of her years with Mahler, entitled ''Gustav Mahler: Memories and Letters''. This account was criticised by later biographers as incomplete, selective and self-serving, and for providing a distorted picture of Mahler's life. The composer's daughter Anna Mahler became a well-known sculptor; she died in 1988. The International Gustav Mahler Society was founded in 1955 in Vienna, with Bruno Walter as its first president and Alma Mahler as an honorary member. The Society aims to create a complete critical edition of Mahler's works, and to commemorate all aspects of the composer's life.

Music[link]

Three creative periods[link]

Deryck Cooke and other analysts have divided Mahler's composing life into three distinct phases: a long "first period", extending from ''Das klagende Lied'' in 1880 to the end of the ''Wunderhorn'' phase in 1901; a "middle period" of more concentrated composition ending with Mahler's departure for New York in 1907; and a brief "late period" of elegiac works before his death in 1911.

The main works of the first period are the first four symphonies, the ''Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen'' song cycle and various song collections in which the ''Wunderhorn'' songs predominate. In this period songs and symphonies are closely related and the symphonic works are programmatic. Mahler initially gave the first three symphonies full descriptive programmes, all of which he later repudiated. He devised, but did not publish, titles for each of the movements for the Fourth Symphony; from these titles the German music critic Paul Bekker conjectured a programme in which Death appears in the Scherzo "in the friendly, legendary guise of the fiddler tempting his flock to follow him out of this world".

The middle period comprises a triptych of purely instrumental symphonies (the Fifth, Sixth and Seventh), the ''Rückert'' songs and the ''Kindertotenlieder'', two final ''Wunderhorn'' settings and, in some reckonings, Mahler's last great affirmative statement, the choral Eighth Symphony. Cooke believes that the Eighth stands on its own, between the middle and final periods. Mahler had by now abandoned all explicit programmes and descriptive titles; he wanted to write "absolute" music that spoke for itself. Cooke refers to "a new granite-like hardness of orchestration" in the middle-period symphonies, while the songs have lost most of their folk character, and cease to fertilise the symphonies as explicitly as before.

The works of the brief final period—''Das Lied von der Erde'', the Ninth and (incomplete) Tenth Symphonies—are expressions of personal experience, as Mahler faced death. Each of the pieces ends quietly, signifying that aspiration has now given way to resignation. Cooke considers these works to be a loving (rather than a bitter) farewell to life; the composer Alban Berg called the Ninth "the most marvellous thing that Mahler ever wrote". None of these final works was performed in Mahler's lifetime.

Antecedents and influences[link]

Mahler was a "late Romantic", part of an ideal that placed Austro-German classical music on a higher plane than other types, through its supposed possession of particular spiritual and philosophical significance. He was one of the last major composers of a line which includes, among others, Beethoven, Schubert, Liszt, Wagner, Bruckner and Brahms. From these antecedents Mahler drew many of the features that were to characterise his music. Thus, from Beethoven's Ninth Symphony came the idea of using soloists and a choir within the symphonic genre. From Beethoven, Liszt and (from a different musical tradition) Berlioz came the concept of writing music with an inherent narrative or "programme", and of breaking away from the traditional four-movement symphony format. The examples of Wagner and Bruckner encouraged Mahler to extend the scale of his symphonic works well beyond the previously accepted standards, to embrace an entire world of feeling.

Early critics maintained that Mahler's adoption of many different styles to suit different expressions of feeling meant that he lacked a style of his own; Cooke on the other hand asserts that Mahler "redeemed any borrowings by imprinting his [own] personality on practically every note" to produce music of "outstanding originality." Music critic Harold Schonberg sees the essence of Mahler's music in the theme of struggle, in the tradition of Beethoven. However, according to Schonberg, Beethoven's struggles were those of "an indomitable and triumphant hero", whereas Mahler's are those of "a psychic weakling, a complaining adolescent who ... enjoyed his misery, wanting the whole world to see how he was suffering." Yet, Schonberg concedes, most of the symphonies contain sections in which Mahler the "deep thinker" is transcended by the splendour of Mahler the musician. The initial connection between song and symphony occurs with the song-cycle ''Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen'' and the First Symphony. Although this early evidence of cross-fertilisation is important, it is during Mahler's extended ''Wunderhorn'' phase, in which his Second, Third and Fourth Symphonies were written, that the song and symphony genres are consistently intermingled. Themes from the ''Wunderhorn'' song ''Das himmlische Leben'' ("The Heavenly Life"), composed in 1892, became a key element in the Third Symphony completed in 1896; the song itself forms the finale to the Fourth (1900) and its melody is central to the whole composition. For the Second Symphony, written between 1888 and 1894, Mahler worked simultaneously on the ''Wunderhorn'' song, ''Des Antonius von Padua Fischpredigt'' ("The Sermon of St Anthony of Padua to the Fishes"), and on the Scherzo based on it which became the symphony's third movement. Another ''Wunderhorn'' setting from 1892, ''Urlicht'' ("Primal Light"), is used as the Second Symphony's fourth (penultimate) movement.

In Mahler's middle and late periods, the song-symphony relationship is less direct. However, musicologist Donald Mitchell notes specific relationships between the middle period songs and their contemporaneous symphonies—the second ''Kindertotenlieder'' song and the Adagietto from the Fifth Symphony, the last ''Kindertotenlieder'' song and the Sixth Symphony finale. Mahler's last work employing vocal and orchestral forces, ''Das Lied von der Erde'', is subtitled "A Symphony..."—Mitchell categorises it as a "song ''and'' symphony".

Style[link]

The union of song and symphonic form in Mahler's music is, in Cooke's view, organic; "his songs flower naturally into symphonic movements, being already symphonic in cast." To Sibelius, Mahler expressed the belief that "The symphony must be like the world. It must embrace everything." True to this belief, Mahler drew material from many sources into his songs and symphonic works: bird calls and cow-bells to evoke nature and the countryside, bugle fanfares, street melodies and country dances to summon the lost world of his childhood. Life's struggles are represented in contrasting moods: the yearning for fulfilment by soaring melodies and chromatic harmony, suffering and despair by discord, distortion and grotesquerie. Amid all this is Mahler's particular hallmark—the constant intrusion of banality and absurdity into moments of deep seriousness, typified in the second movement of the Fifth Symphony when a trivial popular tune suddenly cuts into a solemn funeral march. The trite melody soon changes its character, and in due course re-emerges as one of the majestic Brucknerian chorales which Mahler uses to signify hope and the resolution of conflict. Mahler himself recognised the idiosyncrasies in his work, calling the Scherzo in the Third Symphony "the most farcical and at the same time the most tragic piece that ever existed ... It is as though all nature is making faces and sticking out its tongue."

The range of musical moods, Cooke maintains, comes from Mahler's "amazing orchestration" which, in the writer's view, defies analysis—"it speaks for itself". Franklin lists specific features which are basic to Mahler's style: extremes of volume, the use of off-stage ensembles, unconventional arrangement of orchestral forces, and frequent recourse to popular music and dance forms such as the ländler and the waltz. Musicologist Vladimír Karbusický maintains that the composer's Jewish roots had lasting effects on his creative output; he pinpoints the central part of the third movement of the First Symphony as the most characteristically "Yiddish" music in Mahler's work. The Czech composer-journalist Max Brod has also identified Jewish tunes and rhythms in Mahler's music.

A technical device much used by Mahler is that of "progressive tonality", which Deryck Cooke describes as "the procedure of resolving a symphonic conflict in a different key from that in which it was stated", and which is often used "to symbolise the gradual ascendancy of a certain value by progress from one key to another over the whole course of a symphony". This technique was also used by Mahler's Danish contemporary Carl Nielsen. Mahler first employed the device in an early song, ''Erinnerung'' ("Memory"), and thereafter used it freely in his symphonies. For example, the predominant key of the First Symphony is D major; at the beginning of the Finale, the "conflict" movement, the key switches to F minor, and only after a lengthy battle gets back to D, near the end. The Second Symphony begins in C minor and ends in E flat. The movements of the Fifth Symphony progress successively from C-sharp minor to A minor, then D major, F major and finally to D major. The Sixth Symphony, unusually for Mahler, begins and ends in the same key, A minor, signifying that in this case the conflict is unresolved.

Reception[link]

Early responses, 1889–1911[link]

Mahler's friend Guido Adler calculated that at the time of the composer's death in 1911 there had been more than 260 performances of the symphonies in Europe, Russia and America, the Fourth Symphony with 61 performances given most frequently (Adler did not enumerate performances of the songs). In his lifetime, Mahler's works and their performances attracted wide interest, but rarely unqualified approval; for years after its 1889 premiere critics and public struggled to understand the First Symphony, described by one critic after an 1898 Dresden performance as "the dullest [symphonic] work the new epoch has produced." The Second Symphony was received more positively, one critic calling it "the most masterly work of its kind since Mendelssohn". Such generous praise was rare, particularly after Mahler's accession to the Vienna Hofoper directorship. His many enemies in the city used the anti-Semitic and conservative press to denigrate almost every performance of a Mahler work; thus the Third Symphony, a success in Krefeld in 1902, was treated in Vienna with critical scorn: "Anyone who has committed such a deed deserves a couple of years in prison."

A mix of enthusiasm, consternation and critical contempt became the normal response to new Mahler symphonies, although the songs were better received. After his Fourth and Fifth Symphonies failed to gain general public approval, Mahler was convinced that his Sixth would finally succeed. However, its reception was dominated by satirical comments on Mahler's unconventional percussion effects—the use of a wooden mallet, birch rods and a huge square bass drum. Viennese critic Heinrich Reinhardt dismissed the symphony as "Brass, lots of brass, incredibly much brass! Even more brass, nothing but brass!" The one unalloyed performance triumph within Mahler's lifetime was the premiere of the Eighth Symphony in Munich, on 1910, advertised by its promoters as the "Symphony of a Thousand". At its conclusion, applause and celebrations reportedly lasted for half an hour.

Relative neglect, 1911–50[link]

Performances of Mahler's works became less frequent after his death. In the Netherlands the advocacy of Willem Mengelberg ensured that Mahler remained popular there, and Mengelberg's engagement with the New York Philharmonic from 1922 to 1928 brought Mahler regularly to American audiences. However, much American critical reaction in the 1920s was negative, despite a spirited effort by the young composer Aaron Copland to present Mahler as a progressive, 30 years ahead of his time and infinitely more inventive than Richard Strauss. Earlier, in 1916, Leopold Stokowski had given the American premieres of the Eighth Symphony and ''Das Lied von der Erde'' in Philadelphia. The Eighth was a sensationally successful performance that was immediately taken to New York where it scored a further triumph. In Britain the Hallé Orchestra brought ''Das Lied'' and the Ninth Symphony to Manchester in 1931; Sir Henry Wood staged the Eighth in London in 1930, and again in 1938 when the young Benjamin Britten found the performance "execrable" but was nevertheless impressed by the music. In the main, during this period British critics treated Mahler with condescension and faint praise. Thus Dyneley Hussey, writing in 1934, thought the "children's songs" were delightful, but that the symphonies should be let go. Composer-conductor Julius Harrison described Mahler's symphonies as "interesting at times, but laboriously put together" and as lacking creative spark. George Bernard Shaw, in his role as music critic, thought that the musical audiences of the 1930s would find Mahler (and Bruckner) "expensively second-rate".

Before Mahler's music was banned as "degenerate" during the Nazi era, the symphonies and songs were played in the concert halls of Germany and Austria, often conducted by Bruno Walter and Mahler's younger assistant Otto Klemperer and Willem Mengelberg. In Austria, Mahler's work experienced a brief renaissance between 1934 and 1938, a period known today as 'Austrofascism', when the authoritarian regime with the help of Alma Mahler and Bruno Walter, who were both on friendly terms with the new chancellor Kurt Schuschnigg, sought to make Mahler into a national icon (with a status comparable to that of Wagner in Germany). Mahler's music was performed during the Nazi era in Berlin in early 1941 and in Amsterdam during the German occupation of the Netherlands by Jewish orchestras and for Jewish audiences alone; works performed included the Second Symphony (Berlin), the First and Fourth Symphonies, and the Songs of a Wayfarer (Amsterdam).

Modern revival[link]

According to American composer David Schiff, his compatriot Leonard Bernstein used to imply that he had single-handedly rescued Mahler from oblivion in 1960, after 50 years of neglect. Schiff points out that such neglect was only relative—far less than the disregard of Bach in the years after his death. Although Bernstein gave the Mahler revival further impetus, it was well under way before 1960, sustained by conductors such as Stokowski, Dimitri Mitropoulos and John Barbirolli, and by long-time Mahler advocate Aaron Copland.

Deryck Cooke argues that Mahler's popularity escalated when a new, postwar generation of music-lovers arose, untainted by "the dated polemics of anti-romanticism" which had affected Mahler's reputation in the inter-war years. In this more liberated age, enthusiasm for Mahler expanded even into places—Spain, France, Italy—which had long been resistant to him. Robert Carr's simpler explanation for the 1950s Mahler revival is that "it was the long-playing record [in the early 1950s] rather than the ''Zeitgeist'' which made a comprehensive breakthrough possible. Mahler's work became accessible and repeatable in the home." In the years following his centenary in 1960, Mahler rapidly became one of the most performed and most recorded of all composers, and has largely remained thus. In Britain and elsewhere, Carr notes, the extent of Mahler performances and recordings has replaced a relative famine with a glut, bringing problems of over-familiarity. Harold Schonberg comments that "it is hard to think of a composer who arouses equal loyalty", adding that "a response of anything short of rapture to the Mahler symphonies will bring [to the critic] long letters of furious denunciation".

In a letter to Alma dated 16 February 1902, Mahler wrote, with reference to Richard Strauss: "My day will come when his is ended. If only I might live to see it, with you at my side!" Carr observes that Mahler could conceivably have lived to see "his day"; his near-contemporary Richard Strauss survived until 1949, while Sibelius, just five years younger than Mahler, died only in 1957.

Later influence[link]

Donald Mitchell writes that Mahler's influence on succeeding generations of composers is "a complete subject in itself". Mahler's first disciples included Arnold Schoenberg and his pupils Alban Berg and Anton Webern, who together founded the Second Viennese School. Mahler's music influenced the trio's move from progressive tonalism to atonality (music without a key); although Mahler rejected atonality, he became a fierce defender of the bold originality of Schoenberg's work. At the premiere of the latter's First String Quartet in February 1907, Mahler reportedly was held back from physically attacking the hecklers. Schoenberg's Serenade, Op. 24 (1923), Berg's Three Pieces for Orchestra (1915) and Webern's Six Pieces (1928) all carry echoes of Mahler's Seventh Symphony.

Among other composers whose work carries the influence of Mahler, Mitchell lists America's Aaron Copland, the German song and stage composer Kurt Weill, Italy's Luciano Berio, Russia's Dmitri Shostakovich and England's Benjamin Britten. In a 1989 interview the pianist-conductor Vladimir Ashkenazy said that the connection between Mahler and Shostakovich was "very strong and obvious"; their music represented "the individual versus the vices of the world." Mitchell highlights Britten's "marvellously keen, spare and independent writing for the wind in ... the first movement of the Cello Symphony of 1963 [which] clearly belongs to that order of dazzling transparency and instrumental emancipation which Mahler did so much to establish". Mitchell concludes with the statement: "Even were his own music not to survive, Mahler would still enjoy a substantial immortality in the music of these pre-eminent successors who have embraced his art and assimilated his techniques."

List of compositions[link]

Notes and references[link]

;Notes ;References

Sources[link]

Anon. (1908). 1908|url= http://graphics8.nytimes.com/packages/pdf/arts/mahler1.pdf|accessdate= 2010}} PDF format Anon. (1909). |url= http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9D03E6D91439E733A25753C2A9649C946897D6CF|accessdate= 2009|date=20 February 1909}} PDF format Anon. (1911). |url= http://graphics8.nytimes.com/packages/pdf/arts/105027769.pdf|accessdate= 2010}} PDF format . 1964)|publisher=Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Society |year= 1964}} 2010}} . Also available in print form in ''The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians'', 2nd ed., Stanley Sadie and John Tyrrell, eds., (2001), ISBN=1-56159-239-0 2007}} 2010}} 2010|url= http://www.spectator.co.uk/arts-and-culture/all/5704108/mahlers-mass-following.thtml|accessdate= 2010}} 1989|url= http://www.nytimes.com/1989/02/03/arts/ashkenazy-mining-a-mahler-vein.html?pagewanted=1|accessdate= 2010 | date=3 February 1989}} }} 2001|accessdate= 2010}}

External links[link]

Public domain recordings of many of Mahler's compositions

Category:1860 births Category:1911 deaths Category:20th-century classical composers Category:Austrian composers Category:Austrian conductors (music) Category:Austrian Jews Category:Austrian Roman Catholics Category:Converts to Roman Catholicism from Judaism Category:Deaths from sepsis Category:Jewish classical musicians Category:Jewish composers and songwriters Category:People from Pelhřimov District Category:Romantic composers Category:University of Vienna alumni

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