Editing Gustav Mahler (section)

====Student days====
Bernhard Mahler supported his son's ambitions for a music career, and agreed that the boy should try for a place at the [[University of Music and Performing Arts, Vienna|Vienna Conservatory]].<ref>Blaukopf, pp. 25–26</ref> The young Mahler was auditioned by the renowned pianist [[Julius Epstein (pianist)|Julius Epstein]], and accepted for 1875–76.<ref name=Franklin1 /> 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 (composer)|Robert Fuchs]] and [[Franz Krenn]].<ref name=Sadie506>Sadie, p. 506</ref><ref>Mitchell, Vol. I, pp. 33–38</ref> 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 Sr.|Joseph Hellmesberger]] on the grounds of copying errors.<ref name=Blaukopf30 /> 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.<ref name=B33 />
[[File:Richard Wagner, Paris, 1861.jpg|thumb|upright|left|alt= Man wearing a cloak and an outsized bow tie, facing to the right with a severe expression|Mahler, as a student, was influenced by [[Richard Wagner]] and later became a leading interpreter of Wagner's operas.]]

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.<ref name=Blaukopf30>Blaukopf, pp. 30–31</ref> He attended occasional lectures by [[Anton Bruckner]] and, though never formally his pupil, was influenced by him. On 16 December 1877, he attended the disastrous premiere of [[Symphony No. 3 (Bruckner)|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.<ref name=B33>Blaukopf, pp. 33–35</ref> 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.<ref>Blaukopf, pp. 39–40</ref>

Mahler left the conservatory in 1878 with a diploma but without the silver medal given for outstanding achievement.<ref name=Carr23>Carr, pp. 23–24</ref> He then enrolled in the [[University of Vienna]] (he had, at his father's insistence, sat and with difficulty passed the {{lang|la|[[Matura]]}}, a highly demanding final exam at a {{lang|de|Gymnasium}}, which was a precondition for university studies) and followed courses which reflected his developing interests in literature and philosophy.<ref name=Franklin1 /> After leaving the university in 1879, Mahler made some money as a piano teacher, continued to compose, and in 1880 finished a dramatic [[cantata]], {{lang|de|[[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".<ref>Cooke, p. 22</ref> Its first performance was delayed until 1901, when it was presented in a revised, shortened form.<ref name=Sadie527>Sadie, p. 527</ref>

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. Mahler's biographer [[Jonathan Carr (writer)|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 [[Franz Schubert|Schubert]] sonatas. It was also throbbing with the problems of philosophy and metaphysics he had thrashed out, above all, with Lipiner".<ref name=Carr24>Carr, pp. 24–28</ref>