Joseph Wheeler

Who was Joseph Wheeler?

Joseph Hugh Wheeler was a British musician and musicologist.

A civil servant by profession, Wheeler's most famous work was his realisation of Gustav Mahler's Tenth Symphony which he began in 1952 and took him some thirteen years to complete.

Wheeler was born in Bromley, England, the son of a professional brass band player. Wheeler had similar musical abilities, becoming a founder member of the Guild of Gentlemen Trumpeters. After completing his National Service with the RAF in 1948, Wheeler's consuming interest in Mahler and the championing of the unfinished Tenth by fellow enthusiast Jack Diether in the USA led him to begin work on the score, unaware that another musicologist, Deryck Cooke, was tackling the same project.

Although Cooke's performing version is by far the most familiar, many regard Wheeler's version as closest in texture to the more leanly orchestrated works Mahler was composing towards the end of his life. Unsurprisingly in Wheeler's version the brass features more heavily than in any other realisation. However what cannot be doubted is that Wheeler's is the least speculative of all versions and hence can be regarded as a snapshot of a work-in-progress rather than an attempt at a 'completion'.