ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that analysis of the musical texts offers the greatest chance of approaching a biographical description more objectively. The marriage of Alma Schindler to Gustav Mahler on 9 March 1902 in the Karlskirche, Vienna, was the union of two people for whom music constituted in both cases the central element of their lives. Comparison of the two songs with piano accompaniment by Alma Schindler and Gustav Mahler analysed here confirms and defines how their individual concepts of love, as evidenced in letters, documents and biographical events, diverge. The incompatibility of the two notions of love expressed artistically in the Lieder examined here aligns with the real life experiences of Alma and Gustav Mahler, whereby two differing concepts of love collide, making it difficult for the marital partners to translate their feelings into a harmonious life together.
