This mash-up of Toto ‘Africa’ and Mahler’s Fifth Symphony works surprisingly well

4 December 2020, 13:17

Toto and Mahler: two stalwarts of 20th-century music, coming together in one beautiful mash-up.

Mahler’s Symphony No. 5 (1901) is one of the great orchestral masterpieces of all time. You might recognise the symphony’s ‘Adagietto’ movement from the 1971 film A Death in Venice.

And ‘Africa’ by the rock band Toto is, of course, one of the most iconic tunes to comes out of the 1980s.

But it is completely unrelated to classical music… or so we thought.

An internet whiz kid has discovered that ‘Africa’ can be perfectly superimposed onto the opening of Mahler’s Fifth Symphony.

Symphony No. 5 (Mahler, Gustav)

It’s no surprise that Mahler was considered ahead of his time…