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Depending on who you ask, Mahler's Eighth (1906) is either a massive, ecstatic musical monument or a colossal embarrassment. Called the "Symphony of a Thousand" because of the massive performing forces required, it is written for a huge orchestra, vocal soloists and large chorus. The symphony is divided into two large parts: the first is a vast setting of the traditional hymn text Veni, creator spiritus, while the second is based on the last scene of Goethe's Faust.
Whereas the Seventh and Ninth symphonies are full of harmonic, orchestrational and formal novelties and subtleties, Mahler's Eighth is a straight-on assault of radiant orchestral and choral color and rhetorical triumphalism. There are soft parts, of course, and many touches of Mahler's orchestral genius, but in the end there is little ambiguity about this work; the composer's characteristic sardonic humor is absent, replaced by a rousing cosmic joy. The least typical of Mahler's works, the "Symphony of a Thousand" can also be one of the most uplifting.
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