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Das Lied von der Erde: Mahler's Symphony for Voices and Orchestra — or PianoAuthor(s): Stephen E. HeflingSource: The Journal of Musicology, Vol. 10, No. 3 (Summer, 1992), pp. 293-341Published by: University of California PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/763653Accessed: 28/07/2010 15:01
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Das Lied von der Erde:
Mahler's
Symphony
for
Voices and
Orchestra
or Piano*
STEPHEN
E.
HEFLING
rom
many
perspectives,
Das Lied von der Erde
is
arguably
Mahler's
greatest
masterpiece-"the
most
'Mahleresque'
of his
works,"
as
Bruno
Walter observed.1
It is a
culminating synthesis
of
symphony
and
song,
an
ideal
that had
occupied
Mahler
since the
time of his Lieder einesfahrenden Gesellen
and First
Symphony (1884- 293
1888);
moreover,
Das Lied is a
splendid
fusion
of
expressive
detail and
overall
structure that
the
composer
never
surpassed.
And this is his
most
poignant
utterance on the
religious
and
philosophical
concerns
intimately
intertwined
with
his
oeuvre
as a
whole.
As is
well
known,
Volume
X
*
Number
3
*
Summer
1992
The
Journal
of
Musicology
?
1992
by
the
Regents
of
the
University
of
California
*
I am
deeply
indebted to Mr.
John
Kallir of
Scarsdale,
New
York,
for
making
this
study possible.
For
kind assistance
of
various sorts
I am
also
grateful
to: Ms. Lilian Kallir
(New
York);
Prof. R.
Larry
Todd
(Duke
University);
Prof. Edward
R.
Reilly
(Vassar
College);
Prof. Robert
Bailey
(New
York
University);
Mr. Knud Martner
(Copenhagen);
Messrs.
Troy
Sartain,
David
Condon,
and
Gary
Wright
(Case
Western
Re-
serve
University);
and
European
American Music Distributors
Corporation,
sole U.S. and Canadian
agent
for
Universal Edi-
tion.
Manuscript photographs reproduced
here were
gra-
ciously supplied
by
Mr.
John
Kallir,
as well as
by
the Ge-
meentemuseum
in The
Hague
(with
special
thanks to Dr.
Frits W.
Zwart,
Curator,
Music
Department)
and the Biblio-
theque
Musicale Gustav
Mahler,
Paris
(through
the
courtesyof M.
Henry-Louis
de La
Grange).
A
preliminary paper
on
this
topic
was
presented
at the
Forty-Ninth
Annual
Meeting
of
the
American
Musicological
Society,
Louisville,
October
1983.
Bruno
Walter,
Gustav
Mahler,
trans.
James
Galston
(New
York:
Greystone
Press,
1941;
reprinted,
New York:
Vienna
House,
1973),
p.
124.
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THE
JOURNAL
OF
MUSICOLOGY
the work
was written
in
the wake of three crises that
violently
trans-
formed Mahler's life
during
1907-his
departure
from
the Vienna
Court Opera, the death of his elder daughter, and the diagnosis of his
potentially
fatal heart condition.2
The
following
summer,
in
the
midst
of the work's
gestation,
he
wrote to Bruno
Walter:
"I
stood
vis
a vis de
rien and
now
at
the end of
a
life
I must
learn to stand and
move
again
as a
beginner."3
And
when
it was
finished,
he wrote Walter
again:
"I
myself
do not
know how to
express
what the whole
thing
could
be
called
... I
believe
it is the most
personal thing
I
have
yet
created."4
Mahler's hesitation about
naming
this
composition
was
appar-
ently owing
to its
unique
interfusion
of
genres,
and
also
to his
super-
stitious
fear of
christening
a Ninth
Symphony-the last such
work for
Beethoven
and Bruckner.5
On
one
provisional
title
page
he
called
it
a
"Symphony
for a Tenor and an Alto
Voice
with
Orchestra."6
But
2
For
detailed
documentation of
these
events
see
Henry-Louis
de
La
Grange,
Gustav Mahler:
Chronique
d'une
vie,
vol.
3:
Le
genie foudroye,
1907-1911
(Paris:
Fayard,
1984),
pp.
9-90, 337-348,
and
1120
ff.
Alma
Mahler
suggests
that Mahler
began
work
on Das
Lied
von der
Erde
during
the
summer
of
1907,
shortly
after
they
fled
together
from their
Maiernigg
home
to
Schluderbach
following
their
daughter's
death:
"Before
294
we
left
Schluderbach
he had sketched out, on our
long,
lonely
walks, those
songs
for
orchestra
which took final
shape
as Das
Lied
von der
Erde
a
year
later."
(Alma
Mahler,
GustavMahler:Memoriesand Letters,3rd ed., rev. and enl. by Donald Mitchell and Knud
Martner,
trans. Basil
Creighton
[Seattle:
University
of
Washington
Press,
1975],
p.
123).
But
according
to
the Bdrsenblatt
ir
den Deutschen Buchhandel
(Leipzig,
1907,
p.
10130)
Hans
Bethge's
Die chinesischeFlote:
Nachdichtungen
chinesischerLyrik
(Leipzig:
Inselverlag),
the source
of
the
poetry
for
Das
Lied,
was first
published
on
5
October
1907.
Mahler had
left
Schluderbach
on
24
August
that
year
(de
La
Grange,
3:
94),
which
would
indicate
that
most
(if
not
all)
of Das
Lied von
der
Erde was written
during
the summer
of
1908;
the dated
manuscripts surviving
from the
composition
of the
work
support
this
chronology
as well
(see
below). (I
am
especially
grateful
to Knud
Martner
for
providing
me with the citation from
the Borsenblatt.As outlined in the issue
of
2
January
1907,
the Borsenblattwas
quite rigorous
in
monitoring
the
publication
dates of new
materials.)
3
GustavMahlerBriefe, new ed., enl. and rev. by Herta Blaukopf [cited hereafter
as
GMB2]
(Vienna:
Paul
Zsolnay,
1982),
no.
396,
18
July.
This and the
following
translations are
mine,
unless
specifically
indicated
otherwise;
the
entire letter is also
included
in
SelectedLetters
of
Gustav
Mahler,
ed. Knud
Martner,
trans. Eithne
Wilkins,
Ernst
Kaiser,
and
Bill
Hopkins
[hereafter
GMBE] (New
York:
Farrar, Straus,
Giroux,
1979),
no-
375-
4
GMB2,
no.
400
(GMBE,
no.
378).
5
See Alma
Mahler,
pp.
115,
124,
and
139,
and Bruno
Walter,
Gustav
Mahler,
pp.
58-59.
6
"Das
Trink=
Lied
von der
Erde
/
nach dem Chinesichen
[sic]
der 8.
Jahrhun-
dert
n. Ch.*
/
Symphonie
fur
eine
Tenor
=
und
eine Altstime
/
und
Orchester.
/
von
/
Gustav
Mahler /
*dem
Text ist die
deutsche
Ubertragung
von H.
Bethgen
zu Grunde
gelegt" (Trink= and deutscheare later additions made with insert signs); Vienna, Ge-
sellschaft
der
Musikfreunde,
A
315;
see
also Table
1
below.
A
document
that
may
mark
Mahler's
final decision about the title is now
preserved
in
the Stadt- und
Landesbib-
liothek
in
Vienna
(formerly
in
the Moldenhauer
Archive,
Spokane,
Washington).
Headed "Gustav Mahler
/
New
York
/
Hotel
Savoy,"
this
sheet commences with
the
title
"'Das
Lied von
der
Erde'/
aus
dem Alt
[= inserted]
Chinesischen",
followed
by
the
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DAS LIED
VON
DER ERDE
there was
another
side to the
issue,
which is
vaguely apparent
in
the
preliminary manuscripts preserved
from
the
work's
genesis:
the
short-score draft of the finale
is
labeled
"Clavierauszug" ("Piano
Ver-
sion"),
and the orchestral
draft
of the
third movement
specifies
"Tenor
or
Soprano
and
Orchestra
or Piano."7
It
has
long
been known
that
in
addition to the
autograph
full
score,
various
preliminary
drafts,
and the
Stichvorlage,
another
major
source
for Das
Lied von
der
Erde had
probably
survived. Albrecht's
1953
Census
of Autograph
Music
Manuscripts
ists
a "First
draft,
for
voice
and
piano,
without
orchestral
interludes,
and
lacking
the definitive
title"
in
possession
of
Alma
Mahler.8
This
autograph
version for
voices and
keyboard
has
again
come to
lights-a fascinating manuscript
that
illuminates
many
as-
pects
of the
work's
composition.
And there now
remains
no
doubt
that all
of Das
Lied von
der
Erde was
originally
conceived for
perfor-
mance
with
orchestra or
piano,
like
the
majority
of
Mahler's
other
songs:
the last twelve
Wunderhornlieder
(1892-1901),
four of the Ruck-
ert
lieder
(1901),
and
especially
the
Kindertotenlieder
(1901-1904).10
To
be
sure,
the
piano autograph
differs
in
important
respects
from
295
titles of the movements as we know them, except for " '5) Der Trinker im Fruhling' ";
numbers
i,
3,
and
5
are
designated
for
tenor,
the
other movements
for
alto. Below all
this
is written
"9.
Symphonie
von
4
Satzen."
7
"Der
Pavilion
aus Porzellan
/
aus
dem Chinesichen
[sic]
des
/
Li-Tai-Po/
tibersetzt von
Bethgen
[sic]
/
fur
Tenor oder
Sopran
/
und
Orchester
oder Clavier
/
1.
August
1908
Gustav
Mahler /
Nro
3"
(Vienna,
Gesellschaft
der
Musikfreunde,
A
315);
see
also
Table
1
below.
8
Otto E.
Albrecht,
A
Census
of
Autograph
Music
Manuscriptsof
European Composers
in American Libraries
(Philadelphia: University
of
Pennsylvania
Press,
1953),
No. 11
14,
p.
177.
9
Collection
of
Mr.
John
Kallir,
Scarsdale,
New
York;
published
as
Supplement
Band II
in
the Kritische
Gesamtausgabe
Vienna:
University
Edition,
1989),
edited
by
the
present author; recorded by Brigitte Fassbaender, mezzo soprano, Thomas Moser,
tenor,
and
Cyprien
Katsaris,
piano,
Teldec
2292-46276-2.
During
the
1950S
Alma
Mahler
presented
the
manuscript
to
the late
Dr.
Otto
Kallir
(father
of the
present
owner),
the
Viennese
connoisseur
and
art dealer who
established the
Galerie St. Eti-
enne
in
New
York
in
1939.
The
gift
was a
token
of
gratitude
for his efforts
to obtain
the release of five
paintings
Alma left
behind when
she fled
Vienna in
1938;
among
them were three works
by
her
father,
Emil
Schindler,
and a
portrait
of
herself
by
Kokoschka.
All
had been lent to
the
Osterreichische Galerie six
months
before the
AnschluBS,
and after the
war the
museum
regarded
all but the
Kokoschka
as its own.
The
ensuing legal
battle lasted
more than a
decade,
and
Kallir's
negotiations
on
Alma's
behalf were
only
partially
successful.
(See
Andrew
Decker,
"A
Legacy
of
Shame:
Nazi
Art
Loot
in
Austria,"
Art
News
83/10
[December
1984],
54
ff.,
esp. pp.
64-65).
'0 Mahler himself occasionally performed his lieder at the keyboard, including
the Kindertotenlieder
with
Johannes
Messchaert)
in
1907,
after the
orchestral
premiere
of the
cycle
had
already
taken
place;
see Eduard
Reeser,
Gustav
Mahler
und
Holland:
Briefe,
Bibliothek
der
Internationalen Gustav
Mahler Gesellschaft
(Vienna:
Universal
Edition,
1980),
pp.
74-84,
and
de La
Grange,
vol.
2:
L'dge
d'or
de
Vienne,
1900-1907
(Paris:
Fayard, 1983),
pp.
1053-1057.
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THE
JOURNAL
OF MUSICOLOGY
the
published
orchestral
version.1l
But
it is no
mere
"first
draft";
on
the
contrary,
this is a
highly
developed
score of
the
work,
including
the instrumental interludes, and replete with detailed indications for
keyboard performance.
The
Keyboard
Version
and the
Compositional
Process
Two factors
are essential
to our
understanding
the
significance
of
Mahler's
piano
version:
first,
it
represents
a
stage
in
the
compositional
process
of the work
as
a
whole,
but not the latest
stage;
and
second,
Das Lied von der
Erde was the
first of
Mahler's
composi-
tions not to be
completed
in his usual
way-through performance,
subsequent retouching,
and
overseeing
the
printing
process.
To
grasp
these
matters in
perspective,
one must be familiar
with Mahler's
char-
acteristic
composing
methods,
which
can
be
briefly
summarized as
follows.
12
For
symphonic
works,
Mahler
began
with
preliminary
sketches
written
in
pocket
notebooks and on full-size
manuscript
worksheets.
296
He developed these first ideas further and established the basic
con-
tinuity
of
a work in
the short
score
(German:
Particell),
an
ink
draft
usually
containing
three to five
staves,
with minimal indications of
instrumentation.
Next
came
the orchestral
draft score
(Partiturent-
wurf), typically
about
twenty
staves
in
oblong
format,
where
Mahler
worked
out
the essence
of
the
orchestration. These were the
most
essential
stages,
which,
beginning
in
1893,
he
reserved for his
summer
holidays;
the
fair
copy
of the full orchestral
score
(Partiturreinschrift)
could
be written
during
the hectic
operatic
season.
Then followed
the
printer's
copy
or
Stichvorlage
in
the hand of
a
copyist,
which
was
thoroughly
corrected
in
conjunction
with the
first
performance.
The
proof
sheets
usually
contain additional
corrections;
and Mahler con-
tinued
to
incorporate
orchestral
retouchings
into his works until
the
I
Unless
otherwise
indicated,
all
discussion
of
the
orchestral version refers to vol.
IX of the Kritische
Gesamtausgabe,
d. Erwin Ratz
(Vienna:
Universal
Edition,
1962),
which is also
published
as a
Philharmonia miniature score
(no.
217).
12
For
more
precise
details see
Edward
R.
Reilly,
"An
Inventory
of
Musical
Scores,"
News
About
Mahler
Research
(Vienna:
Internationale Gustav Mahler
Gesell-
schaft),
no.
2
(December,
1977), 3-5;
Deryck
Cooke, ed.,
A
Performing
Version
of
the
Draftfor
the Tenth
Symphony
New
York:
Associated Music
Publishers,
1976),
pp.
xv-xxii
and passim; Stephen E. Hefling, " 'Variations in nuce':A Study of Mahler Sketches and
a Comment
on
Sketch
Studies,"
Gustav
Mahler
Kolloquium
1979.
Beitrage
'79-81
der
Osterreichischen
Gesellschaft ir
Musik
(Kassel:
Barenreiter,
1981),
pp.
102-126;
and
idem,
"The
Composition
of Mahler's
'Ich bin der Welt
abhanden
Gekommen,'"
in
Gustav
Mahler,
ed. Hermann
Danuser,
Wege
der
Forschung,
Vol
653
(Darmstadt:
Wissenschaftlichen
Buchgesellschaft,
1992),
pp.
96-158.
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DAS LIED
VON DER
ERDE
last
weeks of
his
life.l3
As
was
customary
at
the
time,
piano
reductions
of his
symphonies
were
issued,
but Mahler
took
no
part
in
their
prep-
aration; all were made by other distinguished musicians commis-
sioned
by
the
publishers
for the
task.'4
His
modus
operandi
was
slightly
different
in
the
composition
of
lieder,
for
two
apparent
reasons.
Writing
a
song
was
generally
a
quicker,
more
spontaneous
undertaking;
whereas
a
symphony
might
occupy
Mahler
for
weeks,
he
could write a
song
one
day
and
orchestrate
it
the
next.l5
And as noted
above,
from
1892
on,
the
instrumental medium
for
all
of
Mahler's
songs (except
"Liebst du um
Sch6nheit")
was either
orchestra or
piano,
which is
reflected
in
the
nature of
the
preliminary
manuscripts. After the early sketches, Mahler proceeded to make one
or more
quasi-pianistic
drafts,
usually
on
three
staves.
Here,
as
in
the
symphonic
short
score,
he
established
the
continuity
of
the
composi-
tion,
occasionally
noting
essential
features of
instrumentation-yet
elements
of
pianist
conception
are
frequently
apparent
in
the
texture.
These
drafts were
followed
by
the fair
copy
for
voice
and
piano.
To
the
best
of
our
knowledge,
Mahler
made no
orchestral drafts
for his
lieder,
but
instead
proceeded
directly
to the
fair
copy
of
the
orchestral
score;
then
came revisions in
the
Stichvorlage,
proof
sheets,
etc.
Thus,
297
the quasi-pianistic drafts and fair copy of the piano version effectively
replace
the
symphonic
short
score
in
the
compositional
process
of
Mahler's
songs.
'3
In
December
1909
Mahler
wrote to
Bruno
Walter,
apparently
in
all
serious-
ness,
that "... I
should
like to
publish
new editions of
my
scores
every
5
years
. .
."
(GMB2,
no.
429
[GMBE,
no.
407]).
He
completed
his
last
revision of
the Fifth
Sym-
phony
in
February
1911,
a
fortnight
before the
onset
of
his
fatal illness
(see
GMB2,
no.
463
[GMBE,
no.
443]).
14
Viz.,
Josef
Venantius von
Woss
(Das
klagende
Lied and
the
Third,
Fourth,
Eighth,
and Ninth
Symphonies);
Bruno Walter
(First
and
Second
Symphonies,
four
hands); Hermann Behn (Second Symphony, two pianos, four hands); Otto Singer
(Fifth
Symphony);
Alexander von
Zemlinsky
(Sixth
Symphony);
and
Alfredo
Casella
(Seventh
Symphony).
'5
According
to the
chronicle
of
Natalie
Bauer-Lechner,
this
was
Mahler's
pro-
cedure
in
writing
seven
songs
during
the
summer
of
1901:
three
Rickert
lieder
("Ich
bin
der Welt
abhanden
gekommen"
was
composed slightly
later),
the
last of
the
Wunderhorn
songs,
and
apparently
three
Kindertotenlieder;
ee
Herbert
Killian,
ed.,
Gustav
Mahler
in
den
Erinnerungen
von
Natalie
Bauer-Lechner,
revised
and
expanded
ed.
with
annotations
by
Knud
Martner
[hereafter
NBL2]
(Hamburg:
Karl
Dieter
Wagner,
1984),
p.
193;
the
original
edition
of
Bauer-Lechner
(1923)
has
been
translated
by
Dika
Newlin as
Recollections
of
Gustav
Mahler,
ed. and
annotated
by
Peter
Franklin
(Cam-
bridge:
Cambridge
University
Press,
1980)
[hereafter
NBLE];
see
p. 173.
(Concerning
the complex chronology of the Kindertotenlieder,ee de La Grange,
2:
1140-1142, and
Christopher
0.
Lewis,
"On
the
Chronology
of
the
Kindertotenlieder,"
Revue
Mahler
Review
[Paris]
1
[1987],
21-37.)
Another
case
in
point
is
the
Wunderhorn
song
"Rhein-
legendchen":
the
piano
fair
copy
is
dated
9
August
1893
(Berlin,
Staatsbibliothek
PreuB3ischer
Kulturbesitz,
Mus.
ms.
Autogr.
Mahler
i),
and
the
orchestral
score
was
completed
the next
day
(New
York,
Pierpont
Morgan Library,
Lehman
Deposit).
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TABLE
1
The Sources for Das Lied von der Erde
Movement
Date
Description
1
14.
Aug.
1908
2 Juli 1908
3
1.
August
1908
298
4 21.
Aug.
1908
5
6
1. September 908
All
Sketch
page.'
One
side,
related
to mm.
199-236
of
the orchestral
version,
but
from m.
203
on a half tone
higher
(F#
minor
instead
of F
minor).
Plate
2 below.
Piano Version*
Orchestral Draft+
(currently
missing)
Full
Score
o
Piano Version*
Orchestral
Draft-:
(currently
missing)
Full Score
o
Short
Score'
(Accolade:
Tenor
oder
Sopran
Clavier)
Piano
Version*
Orchestral
Drafts
Full
Score
o
Piano Version*
Orchestral Draft
Full
Score
0
Piano
Version*
Orchestral Draft0
Full
Score
Short Score?
(Title
page:
Der
Abschied
Clavierauszug
Mong-Kao-Jen
Wang-
Wei)
Piano
Version*
Orchestral Draft?
Full
Score
o
Stichvorlage;' copyist
unidentified. Con-
tains
autograph
markings,
but far
fewer
than
usually
encountered in
such
scores;
also
includes corrections
by
other hands.
Prepared
for
press
by Josef
Venantius
von
Woss.
Collection of
Henry-Louis
de La
Grange,
Bibliotheque
Musicale Gustav
Mahler, Paris; reproduced below, Plate II.
*Collection of
John
Kallir,
Scarsdale,
NY.
+Formerly
in
possession
of
Richard
Specht; photofacsimiles
of
the last
page
in
Moderne
Welt,
Gustav Mahler
Heft,
III/7
(1921-22),
32;
of
the title
page
and
opening
sheet
of
music,
in
Specht,
Gustav
Mahler
(Berlin
and
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DAS LIED
VON
DER ERDE
TABLE
1
(cont.)
Leipzig:Schuster& Loeffler, 1913), plates 55 and 58, and also
in
Die Musik
XIII/6
(1913),
between
pp.
368-69.
The
first
page
is
also
reproduced
in
Kurt
Blaukopf,
Gustav
Mahler derder
Zeitgenosse
er
Zukunft
Vienna:
Fritz
Molden,
1969),
p.
284;
paperback
edition
(Kassel:
Barenreiter/Munchen:Deutscher
Taschenbuch
Verlag,
1973),
p.
256.
?New
York
City, Pierpont
Morgan Library,
Robert Owen Lehman De-
posit; photofacsimiles
of the full score in Donald
Mitchell,
Gustav
Mahler,
ol.
3:
Songs
and
Symphonies
f
Life
and Death
Berkeley:
University
of
California
Press,
1985),
pp.
172, 214, 250, 274,
312,
and
338.
@lTwo
pages
are
reproduced
in
Specht,
GustavMahler
1913),
plates
56
and
57.
"Vienna,
Gesellschaftder Musikfreunde,A
315;
photofacsimile,
irst
page
of
the short
score,
in
Kurt
Blaukopf, comp.
and
ed.,
Mahler:
A
Documentary
Study
(New
York: Oxford
University
Press,
1976),
plate
284.
"Vienna,
Stadt-
und
Landesbibliothek,
MH
9482/c.
?The
Hague,
Gemeentemuseum,
Willem
Mengelberg
Stichting;
photofac-
similes
in Rudolf
Stephan, comp.
and
ed.,
Gustav
Mahler.Werk nd
Interpre-
tation
Cologne:
Arno
Volk
Verlag,
1979), 48-50;
Hermann
Danuser,
Gustav
Mahler:Das
Liedvonder
Erde,
Meisterwerkeder
Musik
(Munich:
Wilhelm Fink
Verlag,
1986),
facsimilesII
and III
following
p.
139;
and
Mitchell,
369, 375,
299
417, 421, 423,
and
426.
>Vienna, Stadt- und Landesbibliothek,on loan from Universal Edition.
See
also
Ernst
Hilmar,
"Mahleriana n der
Wiener Stadt-
und
Landesbi-
bliothek,"
Nachrichtenur
Mahler-Forschung,
o.
5
(June 1979),
7.
The
exceptional hybrid
nature
of
Das
Lied
von
der
Erde is
readily
apparent
from the documents
preserved
from
its
gestation.
We
know
of the
autograph
sources shown in
Table
1.16
These sources
unques-
tionably
indicate that
in
the
composition
of
Das Lied von der
Erde,
unlike the earlier
songs,
the
piano
fair
copy
did
not
replace
the
short
score; rather, Mahler considered the version for voices and
piano
essential to
his
conception
of
the work
throughout
its
genesis.
Careful
comparison
of
the
manuscripts
reveals that all
movements
of
the
key-
board
setting
were written
before
the
fair
copy
of
the orchestral
full score.
Many
details
suggest
that
for
movements
2
and
4,
the
piano
version antedates
the
corresponding
orchestral
draft,
while for
movements
3
and
5,
the order was
probably
the
reverse
(orchestral
draft before
piano
version).
It is
difficult
to
establish this
chronol-
ogy
with utter
certainty
because Mahler
frequently-although
not
consistently-incorporated the additions and revisions made in one of
these
manuscripts
into
the
other. For the
final
movement,
however,
16
Cf. also Edward R.
Reilly,
"The
Manuscripts
of
Das
Lied
von der
Erde,"
Appen-
dix
A in
Mitchell,
pp.
617-619.
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THE
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traces
of
the
compositional
process
in
the
long
instrumental
interlude
clearly
indicate that
the orchestral draft
of this section
preceded
the
keyboard manuscript (see
also
below,
pp.
332-337).
As
noted
above,
both
the dates found in
the
sources and
the
publication
of
Bethge's
texts
indicate that
the
majority
of
Das Lied
von
der
Erde,
and
perhaps
the whole of
it,
was written
during
the
summer
of
1908.I7
With
respect
to the
chronological
relation
between
the
orchestral drafts and
the
piano
version
tentatively
suggested
above,
these dates
may
designate
the
points
at
which
Mahler
considered
the
various
movements
essentially
complete,
in
that
they
had
achieved a
stage
of
continuity
and
refinement
beyond
the short
score:
apparently
for
movements
2
and
4
this
was
the
keyboard manuscript,
and
for
movements
1
and 6
the
orchestral draft. In
any
case,
it is
noteworthy
that these four
movements of
Das Lied
are the
last of
Mahler's com-
positions
dated
in
the
manuscript.
After
he left Toblach
for
the summer
Mahler
copied
out
the full
score,
presumably
during
the autumn
and
winter of
1908-09.
While
working
on
the full
score he
returned to
the
piano
version to
make at
least one
further revision in
the first
movement:
originally,
neither
300
manuscript
contained four bars
that
are
added
as
inserts in
both
(see
below,
pp.
308-311).
Thus the
setting
for
voices
and
piano
was still
part
of Mahler's overall
conception
as
the fair
copy
of
the full
score
was
being
written.
All
of
the
preceding
evidence
indicates
that
the
composer
planned
on
a
thorough
editing
of
the
piano
version-a
task
he never
completed.
On
21
May
1910
he
signed
a
contract with
Universal
Edition for
the
publication
of
both
the
Ninth
Symphony
and Das
Lied
von
der
Erde;
thereby
UE
was
"obligated
to
publish
a
piano
reduction
of each of
the two
works,"
and an
insertion in
Mahler's hand
specifies
"of the
Song
of
the Earth a
2-hands
[reduction]
with
text."'8
Very
likely
he knew that this task would be
undertaken
by
Josef
Venantius
von
Woss,
whose
piano-vocal
score
of
the
Eighth
Symphony
pleased
Mahler
greatly.s9
We do not
know
precisely why
he
abandoned his
own
version of
Das Lied for
piano,
but
lack of
time
doubtless influ-
enced this
decision:
Mahler knew
that
his
heart
condition
could
17
See n.
2 above.
18
"Sie
sind
verpflichtet
Partitur und
Stimmen der
beiden
Werke in
Stich
her-
stellen zu
lassen u.
z.
hat die
Fertigstellung
des
Materiales
innerhalb
9
Monate nach
der
Urauffiihrung
zu
erfolgen.
Ueberdies
sind
Sie
verpflichtet
von
jedem
der
beiden
Werke einen Klavierauszug / vom Lied von der Erde einen 2 handigen mit Text / heraus-
zugeben
und
die Partitur
zu
Studienzwecken in
der
iiblichen
billigen
Ausgabe
zum
Vertrieb zu
bringen."
Archives of
Universal
Edition, Vienna;
the
italicized insert
is
in
Mahler's hand.
19
Letter
of
26 November
1909
to Emil
Hertzka,
Director of
Universal
Edition;
see Hans
Moldenhauer,
"Unbekannte
Briefe
Gustav
Mahlers
an Emil
Hertzka,"
Neue
Zeitschriftfiir
Musik
135 (1974),
544.
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DAS LIED
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ERDE
shorten
his
life;
his duties
in
New
York
were
taxing;
the
previous
summer
(1909)
he had been
engrossed
in the
composition
of the
Ninth
Symphony,
and
may already
have
begun
the
Tenth;
and the
complex preparations
for
the
September
1910
premiere
of
the
Eighth
Symphony
were
already
underway.
It
is not
known whether von
Woss
was familiar with
Mahler's
piano autograph
of Das Lied von der
Erde;
in
any
case,
the reduction
published
by
Universal
in
1912
differs
greatly
from
the
composer's
version.
Whereas
von
W6ss
attempted
to transcribe
all
of the
orches-
tral texture
that could
possibly
be realized at the
keyboard,
Mahler
had
sought
to create
not
merely
a
reduction,
but a
setting
of
the work
for
keyboard eminently
suited
to the nature of
the instrument.
Thus,
despite
the
complexity
of
the music
in
the
short
scores and orchestral
drafts,
he
did
not hesitate
occasionally
to
dispense
with
notable fea-
tures
of the musical fabric
in
making
it more
idiomatic
for
the
piano.20
Thirty
years
after
von
W6ss's
arrangement
appeared,
a
less
compli-
cated
keyboard
reduction was
prepared
by
Erwin
Stein,
who
may
have
known of Mahler's
version.2"
If
so,
he made but little use of
it,
for his solutions
to
the
problems
of
adapting
this
music for
piano
are
notably
less
elegant
than Mahler's.
301
The
State
of the
Manuscript
On the
whole,
the
piano autograph
of Das
Lied von
der
Erde is a fair
copy.22
We
will
examine several
instructive variants
20
It
is
noteworthy
that Bruno Walter
apparently
considered
giving
the first
Vi-
ennese
performance
of
Das
Lied von der Erde at
the
keyboard,
as
a
recently
published
letter
from
Alban
Berg
to Arnold
Schoenberg
reveals:
"I
heard
privately
that the
Merker is
sponsoring
a matinee
during
the Music Festival
[Wiener
Musikfestwoche,
ate
June
1912]:
Rose
will
play
a
Beethoven
Quartet-and,
of
all the tasteless
things:
Walter
will play Das Lied von der Erde on the piano with Weidemann and Miller...." (dated 5
June
1912;
in
Juliane
Brand,
Christopher
Hailey,
and
Donald
Harris,
eds.,
The
Berg-
Schoenberg
Correspondence:
elected
Letters,
trans.
J.
Brand
and C.
Hailey
[New
York:
W. W. Norton &
Co.,
1987],
p.
94;
the German text
will
be found in Hermann
Danuser,
Gustav
Mahler: Das Lied
von der
Erde,
Meisterwerke
der Musik
[Munich:
Wilhelm Fink
Verlag,
1986],
p.
117).
This
projected
performance
did not
take
place,
and
was not
publicly
announced
in
either Der Merker
or the Neue
Freie
Presse;
nonetheless,
it
suggests
that
Walter
(unlike
Berg)
knew
Mahler had
originally planned
the
work for
orchestra
or
piano.
(Walter
had
given
the orchestral
premiere
of Das
Lied
in
Munich on
20
November
1911;
he,
Miller,
and
Weidemann
duly
presented
the first
Viennese
performance-with
orchestra-on
4
November
1912.)
21
Stein's edition
is
copyrighted
1942,
Universal Edition/Hawkes & Son Ltd.
(London), plate number 3391. His book Orpheusn New Guises London: Rockliff, 1953),
opp.
p.
7,
includes a facsimile of one
page
from the fourth
movement
of
Mahler's
piano
autograph.
22
The format is
upright,
34.5
X
26.2
cm.,
on
16- and
18-line
bifolia
bearing
the
colophon
"J.[oseph]
E.[berle]
&
Co.,"
a
paper type
Mahler used
regularly
after his
return
to
Vienna
in
1897.
The basic
layer
of
writing
is
black
ink,
with
corrections and
additions
in
pencil,
red
ink,
red
pencil,
and blue
crayon.
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from the orchestral version
below,
but
a
preliminary
overview here
will be useful
for
orientation. The three inner
songs
are
the clearest
(see e.g.
Plate
4
from the third
movement), and contain fewer cor-
rections and substantive differences from
the orchestral version than
the more
complex
outer movements. The first
movement is
the least
refined
in
the
keyboard
manuscript,
and
includes a
major
structural
transposition
as well as a
notably
different
reading
in
the final stro-
phe.
And numbers
2,
3,
and
6 contain a few short
passages
that were
slightly expanded
in
the full score.
In
all
movements
except
the
third
and fourth Mahler
subsequently
modified the
poetic
texts,
and
re-
vised the
punctuation
in all of
them. The titles of
numbers
2
through
5
were
changed
as well.
Every
movement
of
the
piano
autograph
contains
differences
from
the
orchestral version in
pitch,
accidentals,
and
precision
of
rhythmic
notation. And
characteristically,
Mahler
continually
modi-
fied the
performance
indications
(tempo,
dynamics,
phrasing
and ar-
ticulation,
special
nuances)
throughout
the
genesis
of
the
composi-
tion. No
doubt he would have
corrected most of
the
discrepancies
between
keyboard
and
orchestral scores had
he
supervised
the
pub-
302
lication of the
work,
yet
this
cannot be
assumed
unilaterally.
Careful
comparison
of the
sources
for
the Rtickert
songs
and the Kindertoten-
lieder reveals that while
the
piano
and
orchestral versions
gradually
grew
more
concordant-especially
in
details of
pitch
and
poetic
text-
discrepancies
between the two
published
versions,
which
Mahler saw
through
the
press,
nevertheless remain.23
Some are
perhaps
inadvert-
ent,
but others seem
clearly
intentional,
the
product
of the
compos-
er's
long
experience
as
pianist
and vocal
coach,
which cannot
be re-
duced
to editorial
principles.24
An
exhaustive
examination
of
Das Lied von
der Erde in
Mahler's
keyboard setting
is
beyond
the
scope
of a
single
article.
What follows
here is a
review
of
the
autograph's
more
instructive
features,
with
special
attention
to
musical and
textual
divergences
from
the full
score that illuminate
significant
aspects
of
the work
in
its latest
stage
of
gestation.
And this will
include examination of
several
questionable
passages
in
the orchestral
score
of
the
Kritische
Gesamtausgabe-spots
that
in
some
cases
probably,
and
in
several
instances almost
certainly,
23
See also vols.
XIII/3-4
and
XIV/3-4
of the
Kritische
Gesamtausgabe,
d. Zoltan
Roman.
24
Accordingly,
after
considerable
reflection
it
was
decided that for
the
Kritische
Gesamtausgabe
he
piano
version would
be
presented
with
minimal
editorial
revision;
details
concerning problematic
passages
are
provided
in
the
critical
report.
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DAS
LIED
VON
DER ERDE
contain
wrong
notes.
The
principal
subheadings
of
the next six sec-
tions
reproduce
the titles
of
the movements
as
they
appear
in the new
source.
Nro.
1. / Das Trinkliedvom
/Jammer
der Erde Aus dem
Chinesischen
es Li-Tai-Po. / mit theilweiser
Beniitzung
der
Bethgenschen
[sic]
Ubertragung.
[Accolade:]
Tenor Clavier
Form and
Tonality
Robert
Bailey
has
lucidly
observed
that the first movement of Das
Lied von der
Erde
is
an
extraordinary
union of
strophic
lied and sonata
form,
as illustrated
in
the
proportional diagram
of
Figure
1
below.25
It
is
a
perfect
binary
structure: the
first half
(202 mm.)
consists
of
two
expositions
(the
second
varied),
which
present
the first two stanzas
of
the
poem,
while the
second half
(203
mm.)
comprises
a
development
and curtailed
recapitulation spanned
by
the
third
strophe,
which bi-
sects
the
development
and
presses
forward into the
reprise.26
Motific
element
X
is the main orchestral
motive
based
on
the
pentatonic
cell
that
pervades
much of the
work.
The tonal center
of
the movement as
a whole is
A
(major/minor),
and
as is
well
known,
each
of
the
three
303
poetic
stanzas
is
punctuated by
the
recurring
refrain
(1),
"Dunkel
ist
25
Bailey,
"Das Lied von
der
Erde:
Tonal
Language
and Formal
Design,"
paper
presented
at the
Forty-Fourth
Annual
Meeting
of
the American
Musicological Society,
Minneapolis,
October
1978;
a modified version
of
Professor
Bailey's
analytical diagram
is
presented
here with his
kind
permission.
Analysis
of the first
movement with
respect
to sonata-form
procedure
dates at least to the work of
Ernest
W.
Mulder,
Gustav
Mahler: "Das Lied von der
Erde,"
een
critisch-analytische
tudie
(Amsterdam:
Uitgerers
Maatschappij
[1951]),
pp.
9-26,
and has
recently
been
pursued
by
Danuser,
p.
37
ff.
For discussion
of the
literature
on the work see
Susanne
Vill,
Vermittlungsformen
er-
balisierterund musikalischer nhalte in derMusikGustavMahlers,Frankfurter Beitrage zur
Musikwissenschaft,
vol.
6
(Tutzing:
Hans
Schneider,
1979),
pp.
155-190,
and de La
Grange,
3, 1136-1 138.
Mitchell's
Songs
and
Symphoniesof
Life
and
Death includes
de-
tailed examination
of all six
movements.
26
The first movements
of
Mahler's Second and
Fourth
Symphonies
are addi-
tional
examples
of sonata form with a
varied second
exposition (beginning
at mm.
64
and
72
respectively);
in
the
latter
case,
Mahler's
familiarity
with the historical
notion of
sonata form as
binary
is documented
by
a
page
of
the short
score
containing
references
to the
development
as both
"Durchfiihrung"
and as
"zweiter Theil."
(This
sheet is
located
at
Stanford
University;
see Nathan van
Patten,
A
Memorial
Library
of
Music
at
Stanford
University
Stanford,
Cal.: Stanford
University
Press,
1950],
no.
633;
a
photo-
facsimile
will
be found
in
Constantin
Floros,
Gustav
Mahler,
vol.
3:
Die
Symphonien
[Wiesbaden: Breitkopf & Hartel, 1985], p. 332. Concerning historical terminology in
discussions
of
sonata form see Fred
Ritzel,
Die
Entwicklung
der
"Sonatenform"
m
musik-
theoretischen
Schrifttum
des 18. und 19.
Jahrhunderts,
2nd
ed.
[Wiesbaden:
Breitkopf
&
Hirtel,
1969],
pp.
196-237,
and
Birgitte
Plesner
Vinding Moyer,
"Concepts
of
Musical
Form in
the Nineteenth
Century,
with
Special
Reference
to A. B.
Marx and
Sonata
Form"
[Ph.D.
diss.,
Stanford
University, 1969].)
-
8/20/2019 Das Lied Von Der Erde Mahler's Symphony for Voices and Orchestra — or Piano
13/50
THE
JOURNAL
OF
MUSICOLOGY
FIGURE
1. Formal
scheme,
first
movement
(final version).
Exposition1
1 17
33
49 65
81
1
st
Strophe
I
1~~~~~~~~~-,
(P)
x
_
u
00
Bb
a-CC
a
g
V
Dn
Exposition
97 112 129 145 161 177 193
12nd
Strophe
ex.
?
IB
ext.
~
IX
X
I
~I
-I
I-
BC-
C
' a
Development
203 219
235
304
X X
251
Recapitulation
267
283 299
315
331 347 363 379
395
3rd
Strophe (R) (
I
YX
f
;
f^
f;^
Yv ka-
-C
(A,;A
- a
xf
r.
$1
.I
.
j.
11
l~~' ifr'
Ir'
J.
?'lf'~r'-i
1J.
JIc
(welkt
hin und
stirbt...)
Dun-kel ist
das
-ben, ist der Tod.
Le-ben,
ist der Tod.
das
Leben,
ist
der
Tod": its
first
occurrence
is in
G
minor,
the second
in
Ak
minor,
and the third
in
the
tonic,
A
minor. The successive
appearances
of
the
refrain,
rising by
semitone,
intensify
the
poi-
gnance
of this crucial line
of
poetry.27
This
ascending
tonal
progres-
27
This
compositional
procedure,
characteristic
of
Wagner's
mature
works,
has
been termed
"expressive tonality" by
Bailey
(see
his article "The Structure of
the
Ring
f
k,
-
8/20/2019 Das Lied Von Der Erde Mahler's Symphony for Voices and Orchestra — or Piano
14/50
DAS
LIED
VON
DER ERDE
sion is not
merely
an
expressive
detail,
but underscores
the
integra-
tion of the three
strophes
into a musical
structure that is
binary
and
sonata-like.28 Ab is the movement's main secondary tonal center: the
double
exposition
concludes
in
that
tonality,
and
the
development
focuses
on
Al,
coupled
with
the
adjunct
third-related
key
of F
minor.
And
the abbreviated
reprise,
concurrent
with the return to
the tonic
of
A,
arrives
mid-way through
the
third
strophe.
In
short,
the blend-
ing
and balance of
symphonic
and
strophic procedures
is
utterly
re-
markable.
But the
piano
autograph
contains
evidence of a
different tonal
organization
in
the movement's
first
strophe,
as is
readily
apparent
from Plate
i:
this earlier
version
is
diagrammed in the lower half of
Figure
2
(and
for
convenient
reference,
the
upper
half of
Figure
2
reproduces
from
Figure
1
the
analysis
of the
corresponding
section in
the orchestral
version).
Originally,
mm.
45-52
of
the
printed
score
(which
contain
a
foreshadowing
of
the
refrain)
were not
part
of
the
piece.
Instead,
at the
top
of folio
1)2
in
the
piano autograph,
bars
45-46
were
as shown in
Example
1
(cf.
also
Plate
i;
the lower version
of the voice
part
is
probably
the
later).29
Except
for
the
vocal
cadence,
this is music familiar from
m.
53
ff. of
the orchestral
score-but
one
305
tone
higher (locally,
E minor
instead of
D
minor). The rest
of
the
strophe
proceeded
at this
relative
pitch
level,
cadencing
with
the re-
frain
in A
minor
rather
than
G minor.
Mahler
changed
all
of
this
by
marking
an insert
sign
(Y)
at
the
end
of
m.
44
on folio
1)'
and
writing
the
passage
we
know as
bars
45-52
on
the verso of
the movement's
title
sheet,
beginning
in
Bb,
minor
(see
Example
2).
He marked this
splice
with
the insert
sign
as
well,
then returned to the
top
of folio
1)2
and
wrote
"'1/
Ton
tiefer/
D-moll"
("one
tone
lower/D
minor")
in
blue
crayon.
In
addition,
he
also canceled the vocal
line of this
spot
with
crayon ("klingen"-see
Plate
1)
and revised bar
44
(the
last measure of
folio
1)1)
to
accom-
modate the
splice. Finally
Mahler made
adjustments
in
ink
to what is
now m.
96,
and wrote "X
Original"
at m.
97
to
indicate that
the
transposition
was
no
longer
in
effect.
and its
Evolution,"
19th
Century
Music 1
[1977],
51-52),
and
it is
by
no means
uncom-
mon in
Mahler's music.
28
To
achieve
this,
Mahler's
setting
of
"Das Trinklied
vom
Jammer
der
Erde"
combines the third and fourth
stanzas of
Bethge's
Nachdichtung,whereby
an
occurrence
of the refrain is omitted.
29
Mahler
regularly
numbered
the bifolia
(Bdgen)
of his
manuscripts
with
arabic
numerals
followed
by
a
single parenthesis,
but did not
number
the
single
sheets;
if
reference to a
specific
page
was
necessary,
he
made
annotations such as
"Einlage
4
Takte
Bogen
5
Seite
2"
(from
instructions for
an insert
in
the
full
score of the
first
movement;
see
below).
His
system
is
preserved
here:
superscripted
numerals
indicate
the
page
within
a numbered bifolium.
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8/20/2019 Das Lied Von Der Erde Mahler's Symphony for Voices and Orchestra — or Piano
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THE
JOURNAL
OF
MUSICOLOGY
PLATE 1.
"Das
Trinklied vom
Jammer
der
Erde,"
piano
autograph,
folio
i)2.
Reproduced
through
the
courtesy
of Mr.
John
Kallir.
1iL-i"*;x.
;
_
.."'".,~
. . . .
~--'
..
"-
306
Equally
instructive
in
light
of
this revision
is the
single
surviving
sketch sheet
for
the first
movement of Das
Lied von der
Erde,
which
is
reproduced as Plate 2 below, p. 310: this is preliminary material for
the
developmental
interlude
preceding
the third
strophe.
From
the
fourth bar
on,
the
sketch
is
clearly
related
to
mm.
203-236
of
the
published
score,
but is
written a
semitone
higher--F$
minor/A
major
instead
of F
minor/Ab
major,
as
indicated
by
the
key
signature
of
--- --
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8/20/2019 Das Lied Von Der Erde Mahler's Symphony for Voices and Orchestra — or Piano
16/50
DAS LIED
VON
DER ERDE
FIGURE
2.
First
movement,
first
half,
comparison
of
final
and earlier
versions.
Exposition
1
Exposition
2
1 17 33 49 65
81
I
1st
Strophe
I
X
((R)
W
X I
X
Y
I
I
I . . . .
I:
'_.
Ba
a-C
\a
I
I g
f
97 112
129
145
161
177
193
2nd
Strophe
et.
I
(R)
Y
I
x
~I
C
I
X
IX
I I
l
BK
Ia
V
\a
I
Earlier
Version
(corrected
n
piano
MS)
I
17
33
1
49
65
181
l
st Strophel
X
X
Y
>
.a
97 113
129
145 161 177
2nd Strophe
x
[etc.]
X
[etc.]
BC
C- -a
Q 9
1I
a,
.q
93
307
0
.0
-
=
)
0
three
sharps.
This
evidence,
together
with the
transposition
found
in
the
piano
autograph, strongly suggests
that
Mahler
initially
planned
to set the text
strophically,
with
expanding
instrumental
interludes,
but without
significant
structural modulation
away
from
the tonic
centrality
of
A;
such had been his
procedure
in
the
first
of the Kinder-
totenlieder,
for
example.
Thus
only gradually
did the
possibility
of
shaping
the structure to
resemble
first-movement
symphonic
form
occur to him. Alma Mahler hints at such an evolution during the
composition
of
Das
Lied when she writes
that Mahler "found himself
drawn
more and more to his true musical
form-the
symphony."30
30
Alma
Mahler,
p.
139.
I
1
i
B
a
I-
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8/20/2019 Das Lied Von Der Erde Mahler's Symphony for Voices and Orchestra — or Piano
17/50
THE
JOURNAL
OF
MUSICOLOGY
EXAMPLE
1. Piano
autograph,
folio
1)2,
mm.
45-46,
original
layer.
Mahler,
Das Lied von der
Erde,
Critical Edition
by
Hef-
ling.
?
Copyright 1989 by
Universal
Edition
A.G.,
Wien.
All
rights
reserved. Used
by
permission
of
Eu-
ropean
American Music Distributors
Corporation,
sole
U.S. and Canadian
agent
for Universal Edition
Vienna.
A
I I
A
--r
klin
- -
gen
rpp
ubit
j
a*
subito
J
--
*
f
*J
J
I
J
I
(etc.)
308
In
that
respect,
these
alterations
in
the first movements
were de-
cisive,
and contribute
to
the balance and
import
of the whole in
at
least
three
ways.
First,
the refrain is now
adumbrated
halfway
through
the
first
exposition,
at the
corresponding point
and in
the
same
key
that
it
was
already
to
be foreshadowed
in
the
second
expo-
sition. This
heightens
the
similarity
between
these
portions
of
the
structure,
even
though
the second
exposition
is
ultimately
a
subtle
expansion
of
approximately
25%
over
the
first
(cf.
Figure
i;
see also
below).
Second,
the addition of
eight
bars to
the
first
half of
the
overall
binary
form
makes
the
double
exposition
more
nearly equal
to
the
development
and
reprise.
Third,
and most
significantly,
both ex-
positions
now modulate-the most essential
characteristic
of
sonata
form-and
Ab/f
is
clearly
established as the
secondary
tonal center of
the
movement
as a
whole.
Meanwhile, however,
the
rising
recurrence
of the refrain is both
tonally
symmetrical
and
dynamically
progressive
in
its threefold
emphasis
of the line
that
so
simply
and
eloquently
epitomizes
the central
poetic
idea of the
movement.
An
Addition
to the
Second
Strophe
As
noted
above,
Mahler made at least one
revision
in
the
piano
autograph
while he was at work on the full score. This was the inser-
tion
of
mm.
163-166,
which
effect the twofold
repetition
of
the words
"ist mehr wert"
in
the
penultimate
sentence
of
the second
strophe:
"Ein
voller Becher
Weins
zur
rechten
Zeit ist
mehr wert als alle
Reiche
dieser Erde"
("A
brimming cup
of
wine
at
the
right
time is
worth
-
8/20/2019 Das Lied Von Der Erde Mahler's Symphony for Voices and Orchestra — or Piano
18/50
DAS LIED VON DER ERDE
EXAMPLE
2.
Piano
autograph,
insert
of
mm.
45-52.
Mahler,
Das
Lied von der
Erde,
Critical
Edition
by
Hefling.
?
Copy-
right 1989 by
Universal Edition
A.
G.,
Wien. All
rights
reserved. Used
by
permission
of
European
American
Music
Distributors
Corporation,
sole U.S.
and Cana-
dian
agent
for Universal Edition
Vienna.
-Y
309
more than all the kingdoms of this earth"; see Example
3).31
Thereby
Mahler takes
advantage
of
potentially
fortuitous
parallelism
in
stro-
phic composition,
as
Schubert
and
other masters of
the lied had
done.
Through
this
expansion
the
passage
from m.
162
to
169
becomes
more
precisely congruent
with
mm.
62-69
in
the
first
strophic expo-
sition,
where the words "die
Garten
der
Seele,
So
er-stirbt
.
."
require
more music than "ist mehr
wert
als
Al-(le)
...
"32
This
further under-
31
In
the
autograph
full
score,
these
measures are an insert
that
appears
following
the last page of the movement, with the directive cited in n. 29 above; in the piano MS
they
were
notated
at the foot of
the
page
they
are to
expand,
with
pen
and ink
distinctly
different
from
what was used on the rest of
the sheet. The same
orange-brown crayon
was used
to
cue both inserts.
32
The
line
quoted
here from the first
strophe
("the
gardens
of
the
soul,
so dies
...")
was
subsequently
altered to
".
. .
welkt
hin
und
stirbt
..."
("dries
up
and
dies")
in
the orchestral
version;
see also below.
-
8/20/2019 Das Lied Von Der Erde Mahler's Symphony for Voices and Orchestra — or Piano
19/50
THE
JOURNAL
OF
MUSICOLOGY
PLATE
2.
First
movement,
sketch
sheet,
related to
mm.
199-236.
Reproduced through
the
courtesy
of the
M.
Henry-Louis
de La
Grange
and the
Bibliotheque
Musicale
Gustav
Mahler,
Paris.
....
i;::_ .~:_:
.....................=~
............::
>.,~
.
:..=
...........................................................................
::::::.:::::..::
:;.:^:
:^-.^-::.::-::::.:.::^.-:^:-..:::::::::.:.::::::::::.:::-:---::--...............-:---^-:-I:^::.-.-.:.-:..:
::::...... . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
.
......... - --
--
-
-:--;
.............------.:--
......
,'.
.
...
.
.
........
fa~~~~~~~~~~~.::......-E:{- k.3...3....._.=.........
..........
;;e
I
...
.....~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~.i..
X~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~---?--=---??
. -h.
~::::
:...
.......- ..
:"""`
~~~----i~~
~~~~~~~~~.
.. ........
.
................ ..........
........
...
;..
.........
......,::.........................
.............
_ ........+..-...-. '"'"
=, "'
;
-.-.
.. T ' ..I.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
...
--- ??----- = =.'----- ;??????
.-
........... ..............
:
...............:::.:-:::::::
{ W... .............~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~.w._...................... ...---.
3.
__
..............
.
....................-::'-:
..... :.--.-^_..
....
..__
:...... . ..........._. ... . .... .
............................._
........................................
.................-.......
..
...~... --~.~.-1;.~1.~..
i
..I
t.??~~~~
""
~
n
:
^
: i
i
i
i::
':i
.;
310
= - . ..
..
.~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~.......
...I........
.. ..
_...
. . .
.. .
. . .
..
.. .
.
....... ........... .
... .. . .........
._
4
.t
.....
- =
.........
-
.........
_ _....
.
.............................
.
..
..
~gk_jfr
. I
i
_
I
I
.
........
.....................=
....
_
?
--======================
.............
= .................
....................
.. ......
..
. ........
.............
..........................................
i-
.
:
..........
............
.........................
_::......
........
........
.
...............
. ............
.................:::: ::: :::::::...-..
......: :
:::
::
......................................
........
...
.
= . - . .
........
_.
...........
..................
.
....
...
.........
..
.......- i ----.--
=
.......
. ......
.
..........
...............
..............
.i
::::::::::
''.-.'..::
.:
''...
_---~ --?- r-i---?. __
_
_^__
__ __
.
.........._._
.. ??:?l-?ri~i~.t_.__i
ii?-....
--- ?I?-- ?---::
f :: ff:
:h
?--- -????-----,
-
8/20/2019 Das Lied Von Der Erde Mahler's Symphony for Voices and Orchestra — or Piano
20/50
DAS
LIED
VON
DER
ERDE
EXAMPLE
3. Piano
autograph,
insert
to
folio
2)'
(mm.
163-166).
Mahler,
Das Lied von der
Erde,
Critical Edition
by
He-
fling.
?
Copyright 1989 by
Universal Edition
A.G.,
Wien.
All
rights
reserved. Used
by permission
of Eu-
ropean
American Music Distributors
Corporation,
sole
U.S.
and
Canadian
agent
for
Universal Edition Vienna.
hr
ert
> >
r
r
werth
i
mehr
werth ist mehr werth
ist
( I [
L J J ^
Lt
3
scores the
similarity
between the two
strophes
and balances
the
binary
structure of
the
movement
as
a
whole;
and more
obviously,
the
word
repetition emphasizes
the
singer's
nihilistic
passion
for
wine as an
311
escape
from
the wretchedness
of
the human condition.
A
Problem
of
Pitch: mm. 75-76 and
177-178
As
discussed
above,
the
autograph
full score of
Das Lied von
der
Erde
clearly represents
a
later
stage
of
composition
than the
piano
version.
Yet because Mahler did not
perform
the work or
correct the
proofs,
it is
not
out of
the
question
that the
orchestral fair
copy
con-
tains
slips
of the
pen
and errors
in
notation
for
transposing
instru-
ments. Mahler
may
also have
overlooked these
in
the
Stichvorlage,
which does
not
contain
his
typically
extensive corrections. Donald
Mitchell has identified one such questionable spot in "Der Ab-
schied";33
others
occur
in
the
finale,
and
in
movements
i,
2
and
5
as
well,
which
will
be noted
presently.
The first movement
presents just
such a case
in
the
recurring
musical
phrase
identified as element
y
in
Figure
1
above.
In
the first
strophic exposition
of the
piano autograph,
the
harmony
of mm.
75-76
includes
eb
'
(see
Example
4a),34
and
the
parallel passage
of
the
second
strophe
shows
fb
,
the
transposed
equivalent,
in mm.
177-178
33
Mitchell,
"Mahler's
'Abschied':
A
Wrong
Note
Righted,"
The
Musical
Quarterly
71
(1985),
200-204.
34
These measures are
in
the
portion
of the
piano autograph
marked
by
Mahler
to be
transposed
down
a whole
tone,
as discussed
above;
the
original
notation of the
pitch
in
question
is f'.
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8/20/2019 Das Lied Von Der Erde Mahler's Symphony for Voices and Orchestra — or Piano
21/50
THE
JOURNAL
OF
MUSICOLOGY
EXAMPLE
4.
rit.
a
>
>
a:
piano
autograph,
mm.
75-76;
b:
piano autograph,
mm.
177-178
(the
voice
rests);
c
and d: KritischeGesamt-
ausgabe,
mm.
75-76
and
177-178 respectively
(har-
monic
reductions);
e:
Japanese pentatonic
scale
form
Hirajoshi,
with
verticalization
forming pitch-class
set
4-Z29.
Mahler,
Das
Lied
von
der
Erde,
Critical
Edition
by
Hefling.
?
Copyright
1989
by
Universal
Edition
A.
G.,
Wien.
All
rights
reserved. Used
by
permission
of
Eu-
ropean
American Music Distributors
Corporation,
sole
U.S. and Canadian
agent
for
Universal Edition Vienna.
b
rit.
-
,
-
cc d
h,bL7bb$ L'$IIIIII Jlbi
-b?
b
e: . bl li b b
ei'I
i
j
~
\\\\~\I-4.
U
Hirajoshi
4-Z29
(Example
4b).
But
in
the Kritische
Gesamtausgabe
we
find
d'I
(English
horn)
instead of
eb1
in
75-76,
and
eb
1
(1st
horn)
instead of
fb1
in
177-178
(the
respective
harmonies
are
displayed
without
rhythm
in
Examples
4c
and
d).
At issue is a
striking
dissonant
sonority
Mahler
deploys
thrice in the
movement,
to
earmark the
[italicized]
syllables
"So er-stirbt
.
.
."
(m.
69),
"al -le Reiche
.
.."
(m.
169),
and-shortly
before the movement's
recapitulation-"Du,
aber,
Mensch wie
lang
lebst denn du? "
(m.
301;
"But
you,
0 man, how
long
then live
you? ").
This
chord
is a
verticalization
of
pitches
from
the
Japanese
pentatonic
scale
form
Hirajoshi,
as
shown in
Example
4e;35
in
pitch-class
nomen-
35
On
pentatonic
scale forms see Tran Van
Khe,
"Le
pentatonique,
est-il
uni-
versel?
Quelques
reflexions
sur le
pentatonisme,"
The World
of
Music
19/1-2
(1977),
85-91. Exactly
what
Mahler
knew about
pentatonicism
remains
open
to
question,
but
it is
clear as
early
as
the
Fourth
Symphony
(1899-1900,
e.g.
first
movement,
m.
125
ff.)
and
especially
"Ich bin der Welt
abhanden
gekommen"
(19o1)
that he was familiar with
the
traditional
pentatonic
forms
usually
called
'Chinese.' Mahler
may
have heard
orig-
inal oriental music at the Paris
Exhibition of
1900
while on tour
there
with
the Vienna
Philharmonic
(see
de La
Grange,
vol. i: Les chemins
de la
gloire
(1860-1900)
[Paris:
Fayard,
1979],
p.
879,
and also
Judith
Gautier,
Les
musiques
bizarresa
l'Exposition
de 1900
[Paris:
Societe
d'editions litt6raires et
artistiques,
1900]).
In
his last
years
Mahler
ad-
mired
Debussy's
music
and conducted several works
in
concerts of the
New York
Philharmonic,
although
it remains
uncertain
when
he
first
came to know the
French
312
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8/20/2019 Das Lied Von Der Erde Mahler's Symphony for Voices and Orchestra — or Piano
22/50
DAS LIED
VON
DER
ERDE
clature,
it is
set
4-229,
which occurs as an
atonal
configuration
in
the
works of
Schoenberg,
Webern,
Berg, Stravinsky,
and Ives.36
In Mahler's piano version of Das Lied, the tension of this special
sonority
is
prolonged
in
both the first and second
strophes
until the
arrival
of
the cadential subdominant
(in
mm.
77
and
179
respectively)
that ushers
in
the refrain.
The
orchestral sources for the work
read as
follows:
in mm.
75-76
the
fair
copy
and the
Stichvorlage
show
d'
(a'
written
for
English
horn),
with no accidental. But in m.
177
of the full
score Mahler
at first
wrote
eb
(notated
as
bbl'
for the
first
horn),
then
changed
it to e
.
This was
copied
into the
Stichvorlage
b'
for
horn,
no
accidental),
but a flat was
subsequently
added-probably
by
an
editor
other than Mahler. Thus, given that the conflict among the sources
cannot be
decisively
resolved,
conductors should
seriously
consider
adopting
the
pitches
found
in
the
piano
version
of
these bars
(Exam-
ples
4a
and
b).
The Close
of
the Movement
For listeners well
acquainted
with
Das
Lied von der
Erde,
the
most
remarkable variant
in
the
piano
score is the
final
appearance
of
the
refrain.
So
convincing
is
this moment
in
the
orchestral
setting
that it
313
is hard to believe Mahler seriously considered any other version; yet
such was the
case,
as
Example
5
shows.37
Major-minor
chiaroscuro is
a renowned
characteristic of
his
style
overall,
and a marked
feature of
the movement at hand.
Whereas the first two
ref