Donald Mitchell's new book on Mahler, like its two predecessors, will prove to be a monument in Mahler studies. The third volume of his epic account of the composer and his works concentrates on the vocal music and, in particular, on some of his most famous, most original and best loved compositions: the late Ruckert orchestral songs and Kindertotenlieder; Das Lied von der Erde, one of the composer's supreme masterpieces, analysed and interpreted here as never before; and finally, Donald Mitchell takes a long look at the vast Eighth Symphony.