This collection of essays and monographs by friends and admirers of Professor Henry-Louis de La Grange was presented to him on the occasion of his seventieth birthday on 26 May 1994. Professor Henry-Louis de La Grange, now widely recognised as the doyen of Mahler research began to take an interest in Mahler in the early 1950s, at a time when musical audiences on both sides of the Atlantic knew little of Mahler’s works, and tended to dismiss what they did know as mere ‘Kapellmeistermusik’. Personal visits and exchanges of letters with Alma Mahler, and a close friendship with her daughter Anna, inspired and encouraged him in his determination to become Mahler’s biographer. In 1973 the first part of the biography, Mahler Volume I, published in English, established his reputation and already displayed the wealth of detail and meticulous coverage of all known and often hitherto unknown sources which were henceforth to characterise his work. In 1986, Henry-Louis de La Grange and Maurice Fleuret founded the Bibliotheque Musicale Gustav Mahler in Paris. Thanks to its impressive and everexpanding collection of sources, autographs, books, records, scores, and documents of every kind, concerning not only Gustav Mahler but the whole repertory of classical music, the facilities and resources the Library provides have already proved it to be an important stimulus for study and further research. The idea of compiling a Festschrift for presentation to Henry-Louis de La Grange on his seventieth birthday was eagerly taken up by Mahler scholars in many countries and they have contributed essays and monographs of impressive range and profundity. This book is being published in the hope that it will prove to be not only a record of the widespread recognition of Henry-Louis de La Grange’s life-long devotion to Mahler research, but also a significant contribution on its own right to the furtherance of that research. This book contains contributions in English, German, and French.
