Gustav Mahler thought of his symphonic writing as being based on personal experience, as autobiographical, and as an expression of his philosophy of life. Thus his symphonies deal with profound existential questions and with programmatic ideas that the composer was at first willing to reveal but later preferred to keep to himself. Important references to musical meaning in Mahlers symphonies can be found in numerous sources - sketches, drafts, autograph scores, and printers proofs. These references take the form of programmatic titles, cues, and mottos, and include literary allusions, outcries of grief, and other emotional expressions; they demonstrate that his symphonies cannot be classified as absolute music but rather as music with personal, biographical, literary, and philosophical meanings. With this thesis in mind, Constantin Floros undertakes a precise and detailed exploration of each of Mahlers ten symphonies and Das Lied von der Erde, bringing to light for the first time various aspects of the works. Professor Floros examines their history and autobiographical origins and discusses the events that profoundly influenced the composers symphonic writing. For example, Mahlers meeting with Alma Schindler (later to become Alma Mahler) in November 1901 and the tragic events of 1907 - the death of the composers older daughter and the diagnosis of his heart trouble - profoundly changed Mahlers attitude toward life and subsequently his music. The compositional techniques employed by Mahler in each symphony are analyzed and related to stylistic and semantic aspects to decode the composers symbolic musical language. The author is thus able to identify certain basic qualities ofthese works: tragic irony, the sense of the grotesque, and the affirmation of Mahlers belief both in life after death and in the power of love to transcend death. Understanding this language leads to a more profound understanding of Mahler the symphonist. Gustav Mahler: The Symphonies is the third book in Professor Floros monumental study of Mahler, his spiritual world, and his position in relation to nineteenth-century symphonic writing in general. The first and second books have not yet been translated into English. Mahlers 10 symphonies and Das Lied von der Erde are intensely personal statements that have touched wide audiences. This survey examines each of the w