Alma is Awesome

Alma Mahler might be one of the most fascinating women of the late romantic period. She started off writing music at a very young age, before her teens, and wrote some very intelligent music. Her artistically inclined father encourage this, which was very uncommon for these times. The other composers we read about were encourage to learn music, but not like Alma's father it seems. After such an influence it is hard to understand why she gave up music-making so easily when she married Gustav. Although, who knows what kind of a fight she put up when he told her not to compose anymore. Something that interested me after reading the snippet about her in the chapter was the father figure reference to Gustav. Gustav was considerably older than she was, and was a very dominant figure in the relationship(well before the cheating ensued). This is basically an example of the Oedipus complex for a woman. She wanted to marry a man that was very much like a man that was so critical to her love for artistry and culture. Although her track record for keeping a man was not the best in the world. She had three husbands, and who knows how many lovers: one of them being a prominent artist Oscar Kokoschka. Overall, her actions mirrored those of a man, and her charm and personality was so seductive it led Gustav to relinquish his hold over her compositional abilities. Any woman who can become a successful composer in this time period with the way she acted is a very special woman indeed.