Mahler's Symphonies: The Artistic Transition from Romanticism to Modernism

Abstract

This paper takes Gustav Mahler's symphonies as the object of study, to sort out their stylistic transition between the two musical traditions of Romanticism and Modernism, as well as their psychological lineage. Through a combination of documentary research and music ontology analysis, the paper focuses on modernist elements such as fragmentation of motifs, tonal ambiguity and the use of dissonance, as well as Romantic features such as melodic lyricism, rich harmonic colors and orchestral innovations, and explores in depth the mapping mechanism of Freud's theory of the unconscious and Jung's concept of the collective subconscious in the work. It also assesses the inspiration and influence of Mahler's stylistic innovations on subsequent composers such as Arnold Schoenberg, Dmitri Shostakovich, and Olivier Messiaen. It is found that Mahler, through the transformation of psychological concepts and musical elements, both expanded the expressive dimensions of symphonic writing and provided a source of motivation for the development of modernism. This paper provides a new academic perspective for understanding the deeper significance of Mahler's works and their positioning in the history of modern music, as well as pointing out the direction for contemporary symphonic writing and interdisciplinary research.