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Which early composition failed to win Gustav Mahler the Conservatory’s Beethoven Prize?
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Gustav Mahler
Gustav Mahler.
The early composition with which Gustav Mahler failed to win the Vienna Conservatory’s Beethoven Prize was the cantata Das klagende Lied (The Song of Complaint), completed in 1880. Following this disappointment, Mahler shifted his primary professional focus toward conducting to secure a more stable livelihood, limiting his composition work to his summer vacations.1