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Main heading: The Music of Gustav Mahler: A Catalogue of Manuscript and Printed Sources [rule] Paul Banks

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Index to this page

 

Title

 

Date

 

Songs

 

Dedication

 

Texts

 

Scoring

 

Duration

 

Manuscripts

 

Printed editions

 

Performance History

 

Chronology

 

Notes

 
 

Title and numbering

 
 

Texts

 

 

Performance, transpositions and pre-publication

 

 

Early publishing History

 
 

Critical Edition

 

Supplementary material

     

 
   

1

Initially the concert was announced for 6 January, but was soon rescheduled for 29 January (see Neues Wiener Journal 3942 (15 October 1904), 9.

2

Recordings of all the singers involved in these concerts, made in the period 1902–1907, can be heard on Mahler's Decade in Vienna (Marston Records: 53004-2 (3 CDs 2003)).

 
3

It is perhaps worth noting that in the week up to 28 January Schmedes was scheduled to sing in the Generalprobe and three performances of a new production of Das Rheingold, and the day after the Mahler concert was due to sing the title role in Lohengrin.

 

4

It is possible that an unpublished, and undated letter addressed to a 'Verehrter Herr Kammersänger' is connected with Mahler's preparation of these copies for Hoffmann. In it Mahler asks the singer to return manuscripts of his songs because they are to be published and his publisher wishes to see them. If this does refer to some of the songs published by Kahnt, the addressee must be either Anton Moser or (perhaps less likely) Erik Schmedes, both of whom had been appointed Kammersänger by 1905; Fritz Schrödter sang only one song, and Weidemann had not received the court appointment. On the other hand it is possible that the letter is rather earlier in date, and relates to the publication of either the Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen (1897) or the Wunderhornlieder (1898).
See
Sothebys: Music, Continental and Russian Books and Manuscripts, London: 28 May 2015, lot 204.

 
     
     

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sieben Lieder

 

This whole area of the site is currently work in progress: many links will not work, some pages are incomplete, and others not yet available.

 

 

Title

  Lieder für eine Singstimme mit Klavier oder Orchester.

This is the collection title employed on title pages of individual songs into the 1920s.

 

Sieben Lieder aus letzter Zeit für eine Singstimme mit Klavier oder Orchester.

This collection title was employed on title pages of printed compilation volumes containing all seven songs issue issued from 1917 onwards.

Date

  [1898–1902]

For composition dates (or possible date-ranges) of individual songs, see the notes below.

Songs

 

The keys listed below are those of versions prepared or supervised by the composer; there is limited circumstantial evidence that the version of Revelge for medium voice and piano might also fall into one of those categories (see the catalogue description of PV1m1) and it is included here. Um Mitternacht is unique: it was composed in a key (BGraphic: flat sign minor) that was used in neither of the performing versions prepared by Mahler. For the keys of transpositions prepared by the publisher after the composer's death, follow the links to individual songs in the overview of early editions, or the lists of manuscripts and printed editions given below.

The numbering of the songs is that adopted by Kahnt on all the title pages and advertising up to 1917 (for a further discussion, see the note below). The voice ranges at notated pitch use Helmholtz notation and the ossias provided by Mahler are placed in parentheses; the timings are derived from PFMD2.

 
 

Key

Range

Duration

1. 

Revelge

D minor

C minor

(bGraphic: flat sign) d'–a"

(aGraphic: flat sign) c'–f (g", fGraphic symbol for a sharp")  

5:50–8:05

2.

Der Tamboursg'sell

D minor–C minor  

a–g"

4:29–7:00

3.

„Blicke mir nicht in die Lieder!‟

F major

c'–f"

1:05–2:09

4.

„Ich atmet' einen linden Duft‟

D major

bGraphic: flat sign–fGraphic symbol for a sharp"

2:06–3:44

5.

„Ich bin der Welt abhanden gekommen‟ 

F major

EGraphic of a flat sign major

c–g"

bGraphic: flat sign–f"

4:22–9:25

6.

Um Mitternacht‟

B minor

A minor

cGraphic symbol for a sharp'–a"

b–g"

4:30–7:51

7.

„Liebst du um Schönheit‟

C major

eGraphic: flat sign'–f"

1:27–3:21

Dedication

  Nos 1–6: none; no. 7: Alma Mahler

Texts

 

The texts are from Des Knaben Wunderhorn (nos 1–2) or by Friedrich Rückert (nos 3–7):

 

Scoring

 

Voice and piano or voice and orchestra (except No. 7, which was not orchestrated by the composer). Mahler's orchestral versions of songs 1–6 differ from one another in instrumentation and there is good evidence that:

  • the choice of small venues (i.e. the Kleiner Musikvereinsaal (Brahmssaal) in Vienna and the Stephaniesaal in Graz) for the first performances was the composer's preference; and that

  • he used a orchestra with a string section of probably no more than 10, 8, 6, 6, 4 (probably reduced in some cases) for these songs (see SHRL, 343; RHVSS, 9).

 

1. 

Revelge

   
   

Fl 1–2 (2 = picc), ob 1–2, cl 1–2 in A/BGraphic: flat sign, bsn 1–2, cbsn

   

Hn 1–4 in F, tpt 1 in BGraphic: flat sign/F, tpt 2-3 in BGraphic: flat sign

   

Timp 1–2, bd with cym (1 player), cymb (suspended), tam-tam, sd, tr

   

Strings (the db part extends down to D)

     
 

2.

Der Tamboursg'sell

   

Ob 1–2, cl 1–2 in BGraphic: flat sign, bcl in BGraphic: flat sign, bsn 1–2, cbsn

   

Hn 1–4 in F, tuba

   

Timp 1–2 (2 players), sd, bd, cymb, tam-tam 

   

Vcl, db*

   

*With one exception the part – which is usually notated an octave above the vcl part, so that it would sound at the same octave as the cellos – is briefly notated at the same octave (D), i.e. D (sounding pitch). Whether this is an error or intentional is not immediately apparent.

     
 

3.

„Blicke mir nicht in die Lieder!‟

   

Fl 1, ob 1, cl 1 in BGraphic: flat sign, bsn 1

   

Hn 1 in F

   

Harp

   

Strings: vn I, vn II, vla, vcl

     
 

4.

„Ich atmet' einen linden Duft‟

   

Fl 1, ob 1, cl 1 in A, bsn 1–2

   

Hn 1, 2 & 4 in F

   

Harp

   

Strings: vn, vla

     
 

5a.

„Ich bin der Welt abhanden gekommen‟ (F major)

   

Ob 1, ca, cl 1–2 in BGraphic: flat sign, bsn 1–2

   

Hn 1–2 in F

   

Harp

   

Strings: vn I, vn II, vla, vcl, db (extends down to C)

     
 

5b.

„Ich bin der Welt abhanden gekommen‟ (EGraphic: flat sign major)

   

Ob 1, ca, cl 1–2 in BGraphic: flat sign, bsn 1–2

   

Hn 1–2 in EGraphic: flat sign

   

Harp

   

Strings: vn I, vn II, vla, vcl, db (extends down to EGraphic: flat sign)

     
 

6a.

Um Mitternacht (B minor)

   

Fl 1–2, ob 1–2, cl 1–2 in A, bsn 1–2, cbsn

   

Hn 1–4 in F, tpt 1–2 in F, trb 1–3, Btuba

   

Timp 1–2

   

Harps (mehrfach besetzt), piano

     
 

6b.

Um Mitternacht (A minor)

   

Fl 1–2, oboe d'amour, cl 1–2 in A, bsn 1–2, cbsn

   

Hn 1–4 in EGraphic: flat sign, tpt 1–2 in EGraphic: flat sign, trb 1–3, Btuba

   

Timp 1–2

   

Harps (mehrfach besetzt), piano

 

Duration

 

For the duration ranges for individual songs (derived from PFMD2) see the contents list above. In the absence of any timings of performances during Mahler's lifetime, the following, taken from the Orchesterwerke Haupkatalog 1937 (Vienna: Universal-Edition, May 1937), p. 18, offer interesting points of comparison:

1. 6:00;    2. 4:30;    3. 1:30;     4. 2:00     5. 5:00;    6. 5:30;    7. 2:00

Manuscripts

 

Printed Editions

 
Performance history
  Performances 1905-1914
  Radio broadcasts 1923–1930
  Selected Recordings 1928–1968            
Chronology
 
1899.06 Mahler left Vienna c. 10. June, but the accommodation booked in Laussa was unsatisfactory, so he eventually moved to Alt-Aussee where by 2 July preliminary work on Revelge was completed; he had probably drafted the orchestral version by the middle of the month (NKGXIV/2, 382–3).
1899.07.07 Mahler played through Revelge for Natalie Bauer-Lechner, Justine Mahler and Arnold Rosé (HLGII, 177).
1901.03.02 Bauer-Lechner recorded in her memoires that Mahler was thinking of preparing Revelge along with the Fourth Symphony to be handed to the printers in the spring (NKGXIV/2, XVII).
1901.06.05 Mahler arrived in Maiernigg for his summer vacation (HLGII, 358).
1901.06.09 Mahler completed the piano and voice fair copy of „Ich atmet' einen Linden duft‟ (AV4).
1901.06.14 Mahler completed the composition draft of „Blicke mir nicht in die Lieder‟ (SS3).
1901.07.12 Mahler completed the composition draft of Der Tamboursg'sell (SS2).
1901.08.05 Mahler was already working on the Scherzo of the Fifth Symphony (NBLE, 172).
1901.08.10 Mahler played seven songs to Bauer-Lechner: six Rückert settings, including some (probably three) of the Kindertotenlieder, „Ich atmet' einen Linden duft‟, „Blicke mir nicht in die Lieder‟, Um Mitternacht and Der Tamboursg'sell (HLGII, 368–9).
1901.08.16 Mahler completed the second of two drafts (SS2) of 'Ich bin der Welt abhanden gekommen' (the song had been begun before work started on the Fifth Symphony) (NBLE 174).
1901.08.23/4   Mahler left Maiernigg for Vienna (GMB2a, 285–8; GMSL, 253–5).
1902.06.06 Date on the proofs of the full score of Revelge engraved by Jos. Eberle & Co./EWZG (ACPF1pr1).
1902.06.20 Gustav and Alma Mahler arrive at Maiernigg for the summer (HLGII, 533).
1902.08.10 Mahler presented 'Liebst du um Schönheit' to Alma (HLGII, 538).
1904.04.23 Mahler elected as honorary President of the Vereinigung schaffender Tonkunster Wiens (NfP, 06.05.1904)
1904 Mahler composed two more songs (probably nos 2 and 5) to complete the Kindertotenlieder.
1904.11.28 Mahler discussed the publication of his new songs with Alfred Hoffmann, the director of C.F. Kahnt Nachfolger (GMBaA, 234; GMBaAE, 192).
1905.01.28 Generalprobe for the concert of Mahler's orchestral songs for the Vereinigung schaffender Tonkunster Wiens.
1905.01.29 The first performance of Kindertotenlieder and six of the other new songs by Friedrich Weidemann, Anton Moser and Fritz Schrödter, conducted by Mahler under the auspices of the Vereinigung schaffender Tonkunstler Wiens.
1905.02.03 Repeat of the concert of Mahler's orchestral songs, with the addition of Verlor'ne Müh, Lob des hohen Verstandes (world première) and Wer hat dies Liedlein erdacht?
1905.03.?? Early in March 1905 Mahler wrote to Alfred Hoffmann (C.F. Kahnt) that he was having his songs copied, and would send them to Hoffmann the following week for inspection. (GMBsV, 161)
1905.03.07 Mahler wrote to Ludwig Karpath who had apparently offered to approach Lauterbach & Kuhn as possible publishers for Mahler's new songs GMB2a, 323; GMSL, 284–5.
1905.03.?? Mahler sent Hofmann copies of his new songs for inspection (GMBsV, 161).
1905.04.13 Mahler signed a publishing contract with Kahnt for the songs (excluding 'Liebst du um Schönheit') (GMBsV, 162–3).
1905.05.10 Publication of the Kindertotenlieder and the other six songs was announced in the Neue Zeitschrift für Musik and probably followed in the next month or so.
1905.06.01 Mahler conducted Kindertotenlieder and three of the other new songs at Graz (HLGIII, 211ff.).
1906.12.08 Mahler signed the copyright assignment for 'Liebst du um Schönheit' (GMBsV, 172–3).
1907.02.14 Mahler accompanied Johannes Messchaert in Kindertotentlieder and four of the other Rückert settings at a concert in Berlin (MPL).
1907.03 'Liebst du um Schönheit' was listed in Hofmeister, though publication may have been delayed to April 1907.
1907.05.02 'Liebst du um Schönheit' appeared as the music supplement in Musikalisches Wochenblatt/Neue Zeitschrift für Musik.
1910.10 From this date the existing piano-vocal scores of the various transpositions of individual songs were gradually 'In die Universal-Edition aufgenommen'.
1916.03 Scores and parts of transposed versions of songs 4 and 6 announced in Hofmeister.
1916.11 Collective volumes for voice and piano entitled Sieben Lieder aus Letzter Zeit (high and low versions only), issued by Universal-Edition listed in Hofmeister.
1917.01 Piano-vocal scores of songs 1–4, with texts in German and English and no. 7 in German, English and French were listed in Hofmeister.
1917.05

Collective volumes for voice and piano entitled Sieben Lieder aus Letzter Zeit (high, medium and low versions), issued by Kahnt and Universal-Edition listed in Hofmeister.

1926.05

The newly engraved miniature score containing all seven songs, issued by Wiener Philharmonischer Verlag, listed in Hofmeister.

Notes

 

Title and Numbering

Until 1916/17 there was no collective title for this group of songs: up to that date they were published only as individual Lieder. It is notable that it was not the copyright owner, C.F. Kahnt Nachfolger, but Universal-Edition (which distributed the songs under licence from 1910 onwards) that announced in the November 1916 issue of Hofmeister's Monatsbericht the first collective volume that brought all the piano and voice versions together under one cover: such a volume fitted in with UE's strategy of attempting to establish itself as the distributor of all of Mahler's original compositions, and there were clear production and marketing advantages in offering the songs in a single-volume. When in 1913 UE had acquired a licence to issue Mahler's earlier Lieder und Gesänge (published by Schott in Mainz), it was apparently considered advisable to differentiate that collection from the group of Lieder already licensed from Kahnt, so the collective volumes were re-titled 14 Lieder und Gesänge (aus der Jugendzeit); when the collective volume of the Kahnt songs was announced by UE in 1916 it was under a title that was partly modelled on, but differentiated from that of the earlier collection – Sieben Lieder aus Letzter Zeit – and this new form was also adopted for copies subsequently issued by Kahnt. For practical reasons a collective title is useful in a catalogue such as this, so a shorted form, Sieben Lieder, has been adopted.

When Mahler reviewed the manuscript copies of the piano and voice versions of Der Tamboursg'sell (that for Revelge has not been traced) and the four Rückert settings that were to be sent to Kahnt in March 1905 (and which were subsequently used as the printer's copies), he added a number to each song in a way that suggests that he envisage two distinct groups:

[1.] Revelge; 2. Der Tamboursg'sell

1. „Blicke mir nicht in die Lieder!‟; 2. „Ich atmet' einen linden Duft‟;

3. „Ich bin der Welt abhanden gekommen‟; 4. Um Mitternacht

Thus, although Mahler specified no ordering of the groups in these annotations, the ordering of the songs on printed title pages and wrappers issued during his lifetime may well reflect an overall preference, and (as a single continuous sequence, 1–6) has been adopted here for the catalogue entries documenting the collection. On the other hand Mahler's four performances of songs from this collection offer no grounds for supposing that this sequence was envisaged by him as a preferred order of performance.

When the piano-vocal scores of the songs were issued in collective volumes from 1916 onwards the sequence of the seven songs was modified to 4, 7, 3, 5, 6, 1, 2, but the miniature score of the collection, issued by the Wiener Philharmonischer Verlag A.G. in 1926, re-adopted the original listing sequence (with „Liebst du um Schönheit“ added as the seventh song).

Texts

Mahler had known and drawn on Des Knaben Wunderhorn since the mid 1880s, but the date and circumstances under which he became interested in Rückert's poetry are unknown and his source(s) for the texts has/have not been identified. Presumably he had begun to consider the possibility of using Rückert as a source before the summer of 1901, and took the texts of all nine (i.e. including those for Kindertotenlieder) from Vienna to his newly-completed villa at Maiernigg when he and Justine moved in for the first time in June. (Another, less likely scenario is that he had taken them with him in the summer of 1900, when he rented the Villa Antonia while his own was being built, and left them there for collection the following year).

Rückert had already attracted the attention of some major composers, including Schubert, Brahms, Richard Strauss, and most especially Schumann, so it is notable that in the summer when he composed his first settings of the poet, Mahler talked to Natalie Bauer-Lechner about what he admired in Schumann's Lieder (NBL2, 188–9; NBLE, 169):

Schumann ist einer der größten Liederkomponisten, gleich neben Schubert zu nennen. Die vollendete, in sich abgeschlossene Form des Liedes hat keiner beherrst wie er; sein Vorwurf hält sich immer in den Grenzen des Liedes, daß er nichts verlangt, was sein Gebiet übersteigt. Verhaltene Empfindung, wahre Lyrik und eine tiefe Melancholie liegt in seinen Gesängen...

Schumann is one of the greatest composers of songs, to be mentioned in the same breath as Schubert. Nobody has mastered the perfected, self-contained form of the Lied as he did; his conception always confines itself to the limits of the song, and he never demands anything that oversteps these limits. Restrained feeling, true lyricism and profound melancholy pervade his songs...

Had his exploration of Schumann's Lieder guided Mahler both towards Rückert, and a new, pared-down and intensely intimate conception of song? Interestingly Claudia Wiener (CWVD), without citing this explicit reference by Mahler, uses some of Schumann's Ruckert's settings as a route into a fascinating discussion of the purely poetic features of Rückert's texts that may have drawn Mahler to them.

Performance, Transpositions and Pre-Publication

It was probably no accident that Alfred Hoffmann, the director of C.F. Kahnt visited Mahler at his hotel when the composer was in Leipzig for the local première of his Third Symphony in late November 1904. Hoffmann may have been aware of press announcements, which began to appear in mid-October 1904, for the third concert of the Vereinigung schaffender Tonkunstler Wiens in January 1905,¹ indicating that it would be devoted entirely to Mahler's orchestral songs. If so, he may have surmised that some of these were unpublished. His approach must have seemed fortuitous to Mahler: performance material for the new songs had to be prepared for the concert (and the copying was presumably already under way) so it could be refined and corrected following rehearsals and performance in preparation for publication, and he wrote immediately to Alma (GMBaA, 234; GMBaAE, 192):

Eben war ein Verleger (Kahnt) bei mir un bewarb sich mit Leidenschaft um die neuen Lieder und Balladen. Ich werde ihm von Wien aus die Clavierauszüge schicken, und er wird mir dan ein Angebot machen.

I've just had a visit from a publisher (Kahnt), who is eager to acquire my new Lieder and Ballads. I'll send him the piano arrangements from Vienna and he'll make an offer.

In the event it was perhaps not until March the following year that the copies were dispatched to Hoffmann (see below).

Facsimile of the advert for the series of three concerts mounted by the Vereinigung

  Fig. 1: Advert

Neues Wiener Journal, 15.01.1905, 19

A notable feature of the concert at which the Kindertotenlieder and six other new songs (excluding Liebst du um Schönheit) were first heard along with some of the already-published Wunderhorn Lieder, is that they were all sung by male singers: two baritones, Anton Moser (1872–1909) and Friedrich Weidemann (1871–1919), and a tenor, Fritz Schrödter (1855–1924), all of whom were members of the Court Opera ensemble.² Moser and Weidemann had rather different repertoires and voices; although both sang Mozartian roles, Moser's other repertoire was mostly required a relatively light baritone voice, whereas Weidemann also took on heavier Wagnerian roles, not least Wotan and Hans Sachs. Their contemporary recordings rather confirm this characterisation, and Mahler's assignment of songs to them in the 1905 concert is also consonant with it, with Weidemann singing, for example, Kindertotenlieder, Der Schildwache Nachtlied and Der Tamboursg'sell. However, Wiedemann also sang the two Rückert settings, „Ich bin der Welt abhanden gekommen‟ and „Um Mitternacht‟, that were transposed down, apparently to accommodate his voice and which were the only songs in the collection to published from the outset by Kahnt in both their original high-voice keys and medium-voice versions. Possible reasons for this situation may be linked to changes in the roster of singers: throughout January the advertisements had included the soprano Marie Gutheil-Schoder (1874–1935) and the tenor Erik Schmedes (1868–1931).

Exactly when these two singers cancelled their participation is not known. A brief announcement published on 5 January and press adverts for the Mahler-Abend on 8th and 15th January (Fig.1) list Marie Gutheil-Schoder (soprano) and Erik Schmedes (tenor), alongside Fritz Schrödter (tenor), Anton Moser (baritone) and Friedrich Weidemann (baritone) without specifying who was to sing what. Gutheil-Schoder's withdrawal was the result of a prior engagement: she was due to appear at a late-afternoon popular concert in the Grosser Musikvereinsaal on 29 January 1905, and in December 1904 had also agreed to sing at a literary evening devoted (appropriately enough) to Des Knaben Wunderhorn at the Bösendorfer-Saal, starting at  19:30. When originally announced the latter event was scheduled for 8 January, but by 22 January had been rescheduled for 29 January (see also Martner2, 193–5). Rather remarkably, it was agreed that this literary evening should take precedence: according to an early advert, Gutheil-Schoder probably included two of Mahler's early Wunderhorn settings from the Lieder und Gesänge, Ablösung im Sommer and „Ich ging mit Lust durch einem grünen Wald‟ in her contribution to the celebration. Following the unprecedented success of the Mahler-Abend a 'repeat' performance was quickly arranged for 3 February 1905: Gutheil-Schoder was available, and performed three of Mahler's more recent Wunderhorn settings, Verlor'ne Müh, Lob des hohen Verstandes (world première) and Wer hat dies Liedlein erdacht?. It therefore seems unlikely that Mahler had considered Gutheil-Schoder as the singer for „Ich bin der Welt‟, and certainly not after Wiedemann's première of the song.

By contrast no immediately obvious explanation for Schmedes's non-participation in either of the Vienna performances has come to light,³ although it is worth noting that he had a particularly busy period on stage during January and early February 1905, including Loge in Das Rheingold and the title role in Lohengrin:

 

Date

Performance (conductor)

Singers originally listed

 for Mahler-Abend

Rehearsals

 

01.01.1905

Lustigen Weiber von Windsor (Walter)

GS

 

02.02.1905

Mignon (Spetrino)

FS, FW

 

03.01.1905

Die Hochzeit des Figaro (Mahler)

GS

 

04.01.1905

Tannhäuser (Walter)

 

 

05.01.1905

Czar und Zimmermann (Walter)

FW, FS

 

06.01.1905

Cav./Pag. + Ballet (Spetrino; Bayer)

ES, AM

 

07.01.1905

Rigoletto  + Ballet (Spetrino; Bayer)

FS

 

08.01.1905

Fidelio (Mahler)

FW

 

09.01.1905

Der Evangelimann + Ballet (Walter; Bayer)

ES

 

10.01.1905

Lakme (Spetrino)

AM

 

11.01.1905

Aïda (Spetrino)

FW

 

12.01.1905

Carmen (Walter)

GS, FS, AM

Das Rheingold(piano rehearsal)

13.01.1905

Die Königin von Saba (Walter)

FW

Das Rheingold (piano rehearsal)

14.01.1905

Hoffmann's Erzählungen (Spetrino)

GS, FS

Das Rheingold (piano rehearsal)

15.01.1905

Lohengrin (Schalk)

ES

 

16.01.1905

Die Bohême + Ballet (Spetrino; Bayer)

FS, AM, FW, GS

 

17.01.1905

Der Troubador + Ballet (Spetrino; Bayer)

AM

Das Rheingold (orchestra rehearsal)

18.01.1905

Norma (Spetrino)

 

Das Rheingold (orchestra rehearsal)

19.01.1905

Lakme (Spetrino)

AM

Das Rheingold (orchestra rehearsal)

20.01.1905

Tannhäuser (Walter)

 

 

21.01.1905

Cav./Pag. + Ballet (Spetrino; Bayer)

FS, GS, AM

Das Rheingold (Generalprobe)

22.01.1905

Fidelio (Mahler)

 

 

23.01.1905

Das Rheingold (Mahler)

FW, ES, GS

 

24.01.1905

Die Fledermaus (Walter)

FS

 

25.01.1905

Das Rheingold

FW, ES,

 

26.01.1905

Margarethe (Faust) (Spetrino)

AM

 

27.01.1905

Hoffmann's Erzählungen (Spetrino)

GS, FS

 

28.01.1905

Das Rheingold (Mahler)

FW, ES

Mahler Liederabend (Generalprobe: 14:30)

29.01.1905

Lakme + Ballet (Spetrino; Bayer)

 

Mahler Liederabend

30.01.1905

Lohengrin (Walter)

ES

 

31.01.1905

Carmen (Schalk)

GS, FS, FW, AM

 

01.02.1905

Die Meistersinger (Schalk)

 

 

02.02.1905

3 Ballets + Mignon (Bayer; Spetrino)

WS, FW, AM, GS

 

03.02.1905

Ballet (Bayer)

 

Mahler Liederabend (2)

 

 

 

 

Key:

AM  Anton Moser (bar);  ES  Erik Schmedes (ten);  FS  Fritz Schrödter (ten);  FW Friedrich Weidemann (bar);

GS  Marie Gutheil-Schoder (sop)

Table 1

Extracted from handbills and press adverts [ANNO] and Spielplan der Hofoper, 1897–1907

 

Assuming that Mahler had made decisions about the allocation of songs to singers by the time the Schmedes withdrew, it would seem possible that both „Ich bin der Welt abhanden gekommen‟ and „Um Mitternacht‟, were assigned to Schmedes, particularly as he had the power necessary for the end of Um Mitternacht and his range would probably have enabled him to accommodate the challenging pianissimo g' (sounding pitch) that begins the penultimate vocal phrase of the F major version of „Ich bin der Welt‟ (b. 55). That supposition is partially supported by the fact that at the concert of the Allgemeine Deutsche Musikverein on 1 June 1905, at which a group of thirteen orchestral songs by Mahler were performed under his baton, Wiedemann, Moser and Schrödter were joined by Schmedes, who performed „Um Mitternacht‟. On the other hand, it is striking that Weidemann retained „Ich bin der Welt abhanden gekommen‟ (in EGraphic: flat sign major), presumably because the composer had been impressed by his interpretation in January. As a result Mahler may never have conducted the high-voice version of the song, a possibility made more likely by the striking absence of rehearsal numbers in the autograph score (in F major), the Stichvorlage and the first edition. If that was the case – and it is clear that no-one thought to collate the two versions – this would also explain why, as Zoltan Roman noted in his critical notes to SWXIV/4, refinements in the published EGraphic: flat sign version were not incorporated in the original high-voice edition of the score and parts. If this reconstruction of events is correct, it would appear that the medium voice versions of „Ich bin der Welt abhanden gekommen‟ and „Um Mitternacht‟ were probably prepared relatively quickly in January 1905.

It has also been suggested (SWXIV/2, pp. 348; NKGXIV/2, 385) that a non-autograph pencil annotation 'Schmedes' on the first proofs of the full score of Revelge (ACPFpr1) indicates that the song was originally assigned to him during the planning of the first Vienna performance, but was subsequently assigned to Schrödter. This seems plausible, and it might be noted that both tenors were listed in the first press announcements of the event that identify the singers (which appeared in early January) so the re-assignment of the song to Schrödter (who sang nothing else in the concert) probably took place before that date. The reason for the reassignment may be bound up with Mahler's description of the song as being 'for a tenor who also has a good middle and lower register' (letter to Oscar Fried, [summer 1905], GMUB, 50) and Schrödter's performance must have been adequate as he repeated it in the sequence of Mahler orchestral songs given in Graz on 1 June 1905.

Just over a month after the first performances, c. 1 March 1905, Mahler wrote to Alfred Hoffmann in Leipzig (GMBsV, 161):

Ich laße meine Lieder copiren, und werde Ihnen dieselben Anfangs nächster Woche zur Durchsicht einsenden.

I'm having my songs copied and will send them to you for perusal at the beginning of next week.

It seems unlikely that Mahler was having new orchestral scores and parts copied: the surviving printer's copies for the scores have annotations that suggest they were used for the first two performances (e.g. for „Blicke mir nicht in die Lieder‟ (ACF3m); „Ich atmet' einen linden Duft‟ (ACF4m); „Ich bin der Welt abhanden gekommen‟ (ACF5m)), and the parts would not have been of use to the publisher while appraising the new works. So it seems that in late February–early March Mahler had the copies of the piano-vocal scores (and presumably those of the Kindertotenlieder) prepared for dispatch to Hofmann. Agreement was quickly reached, and the contract for the publication of all eleven songs (i.e. not including „Liebst du um Schönheit‟), was signed on 13 April 1905 (GMBsV, 162–3).

By the spring of 1905 plans for performances of Mahler's orchestral songs at the 44th Meeting of the Allgemeiner Deutscher Musikverein were being discussed (see GMRSB, 92ff.,  GMRSBE, 76ff. and HLGIII, 211ff.). Mahler's initial proposal was that seventeen should be heard, including all the new songs (including Kindertotenlieder) about to be published by Kahnt, and six of the Wunderhorn Lieder, but by 15 May Mahler had decided to omit „Blicke mir nicht in die Lieder‟,  „Ich atmet' einen linden Duft‟ and Lob des hohen Verstandes.

Early Publishing History

The publication history of these songs is rather complex. Under the terms of §9 of Mahler's contract with the Erster Wiener Zeitungsgesellschaft (signed on 12 August 1898) (see PBMNC) the publisher had the right of first refusal on all new works by Mahler. Although in mid-1903 this became irksome to the composer – when it threatened to prevent him negotiating the sale of the Fifth Symphony to Peters Edition, Leipzig – earlier, on 2 March 1901, he told Natalie Bauer-Lechner that he was thinking of preparing Revelge and the Fourth Symphony for publication and would hand them over to the printer (i.e. EWZG) in the Spring (NKGXIV/2, XVII). However, there seems to have been a delay, because it was not until 6 June 1902 that the proofs of the orchestral and piano-vocal scores were ready for correction and revision by the composer (see ACPF1pr1).

A new factor was, presumably, the composition of a final Wunderhorn setting, Der Tamboursg'sell, in the summer of 1901. At the time Mahler may well have assumed that since it too had to be offered to EWZG, it could also be added to the collection of Wunderhorn settings already published under the Weinberger imprint. But, unlike Revelge, it appears never to have been sent to EWZG for copy-editing and engraving, and the published full score was clearly prepared by C.F. Kahnt's printer, Brandstetter in Leipzig (see the notes on PF2m1 for further information). However, one might note that in the years 1901–1904 Mahler was busy composing his Fifth and Sixth Symphonies, so deciding the future of his rather odd assortment of unpublished songs (two large-scale Wunderhorn songs and seven very diverse, shorter settings of Rückert that included three that were to eventually form part of the Kindertotenlieder) may not have been a priority. In any case, Mahler's successful negotiations with EWZG in 1903 to annul the 'first-refusal' clause in their contract presumably removed any need to come to a swift decision.

Following Alfred Hofmann's approach to Mahler in early 1905 a contract assigning the copyrights of eleven songs to C.F. Kahnt Nachfolger was signed on 13 April. The two Wunderhorn songs and four Rückert settings were published individually by C.F. Kahnt later in the year. Initially the songs were only issued separately (collective volumes of the piano and voice versions appeared from late 1916/early 1917 – see below) and were listed on the passe-partout title page in the order adopted here: the first four for one voice range only, the last two in both high- and medium-voice versions, both prepared by the composer. Kahnt had also published the Kindertotenlieder as a single volume in 1905 and eventually (c. 1907–11) a listing of the song-cycle was added to later variants of the passe-partout title page. In 1906 Mahler decided to publish a fifth Rückert setting, Liebst du um Schönheit, that had originally been composed in 1902 as a birthday present for Alma. The assignment contract was signed on 8 December and the song added to the title pages and wrappers of later issues. The format and content of the wrappers of the published copies (which were on much flimsier paper and have a relatively low survival rate) are those of the title pages, but a potentially confusing feature found in later issues of the songs is the use of evidently late-issue wrappers to enclose an impression of the song that retains an earlier version of the title page. One explanation might be that Kahnt had substantial unsold stock of early printed sheets of the songs and rather than modifying or destroying them, they were 'brought up-to-date' by supplying them with wrappers that incorporated current information about pricing and different publishing formats.

Under the terms of the firm's original contract with Mahler, Kahnt was entitled to make 'the usual arrangements, abridgements, adaptations for one or more instruments or voices, as well as transpositions.... and translations...' (GMBsV, 162).  Over the three years 1915–1917 Kahnt not only commissioned an orchestration of the seventh song, but also added further transpositions of orchestral or piano versions where necessary so that by mid-1917 at least six of the seven songs were available in three vocal ranges (hoch, mittel, tief). The possible exception was Revelge: a medium-voice transposition of the orchestral version was listed in Hofmeister in 1906 and in Kahnt advertisements thereafter (see the Working Paper on Kahnt's Advertisements) but no copies of either the score or orchestral parts have been located (see the entry for PF1m1). During WWI Kahnt also decided to issue the voice and piano versions with English or English and French translations of the text: in such cases the piano and voice versions of the songs were re-engraved and provided with a new plate number, but the translations were not added to the orchestral scores. In addition to individual songs, Kahnt also published collective volumes that included all six (after 1907, seven) songs. However, the firm also itself published, or licensed other firms to publish some in albums. (See the separate listings of the collective publications of all seven songs by C.F. Kahnt and Philharmonia (1916–1926), and the Working Paper: Mahler's Music in Supplements, Albums, Magazines and Libraries.)

Drawing on some important working documents from the Kahnt business papers Reinhold Kubik has provided an overview of the print runs for the first four separate Rückert settings in the period 1905–1915 (RKGMK, 172):

  PV

PF

PO

 

Copies

Printings

Copies

Printings

Copies

Printings

„Blicke mir nicht in die Lieder!‟ (m) 1100 3 150 1 300 1
„Ich atmet' einen linden Duft‟ 1500 5 150 1 300 1
„Ich bin der Welt abhanden gekommen‟ (h) 1400 4 150 1 300 1
„Ich bin der Welt abhanden gekommen‟ (m) 1600 4 150 1 300 1
Um Mitternacht (h) 1100 4 150 1 300 1
Um Mitternacht (m) 1200 4 150 1 300 1

Table 1

Total print runs of Rückert settings, 1905–1915

In 1910, as part of Emil Hertzka's policy of acquiring rights to distribute works by Mahler not owned by UE, the company began issuing the piano and voice scores of individual songs under licence, and Table 2 below summarises the numbers of copies of the four songs ordered up to 1915.

  PV
 

Copies

Orders

„Blicke mir nicht in die Lieder!‟ (m) 401 2
„Ich atmet' einen linden Duft‟ 606 4
„Ich bin der Welt abhanden gekommen‟ (h) 505 4
„Ich bin der Welt abhanden gekommen‟ (m) 705 4
Um Mitternacht (h) 404 2
Um Mitternacht (m) 402 2

Table 2

Total no. of copies of Rückert settings ordered by UE, 1910–1915

It remains unclear whether these UE orders were included in or excluded from the totals given in Table 1. The November/December 1916 issue of the Hofmeister Monatsbericht announced the publication of these four songs, together Revelge and Der Tamboursg'sell in high- and low-voice collective piano-vocal volumes containing to be issued by UE:

Facsimile of the entry in Hofmeister, Monatsbericht, xi/xii 1916, p. 171

Fig. 2

Hofmeister, Monatsbericht, xi/xii 1916, p. 171

There are a number of features that are unexpected:

  • that the entry names only Universal-Edition as a publisher: it seems unlikely that this was a publishing initiative that UE could have undertaken without consulting C. F. Kahnt, and the omission of that firm's name would have made it difficult for users to identify the songs included in the volumes, as the choice of title reflected UE priorities not those of the licensor;

  • that only versions for high and low voice are listed (why not all three voice-ranges?);

  • that (by omission) it seems that this was to be a German-only issue, although Kahnt had English and (and in two cases) French translations available.

Nevertheless, despite these features the announcement is corroborated in part by the UE Verlagsbuch which records deliveries of copies of the high- and low-voice versions (but not the medium-voice version) in October 1916. The possibility that there was an unrecorded parallel issue by Kahnt cannot be wholly discounted, but the next Hofmeister announcement, in the April/May 1917 issue seems to be an attempt to clarify a muddled situation: 

Facsimile of the entry in Hofmeister, Monatsbericht, iv/v 1917, p. 50

Fig. 3

Hofmeister, Monatsbericht, iv/v 1917, p. 50

This entry normalises all the exceptional features of the earlier listing (see the entry above):

  • both publishers are listed (and in a way that reflects the hierarchical relationship);

  • versions for all three voice ranges are included;

  • the text languages are identified.

The full scores and orchestral parts were also listed in UE catalogues up to 1938, but the Verlagsbuch shows that very few copies in these formats were ever ordered by UE; the licence was terminated on 15 July 1939. An overview of all the UE issues of Kahnt's Mahler publications is provided in the entry devoted to Universal Edition.

Performance Practice

Performance practice issues, some of which are relevant to these songs, are discussed in a separate essay, Mahler on the performance of his Lieder (1906–7). [Hereafter MPL].

Revelge: the orchestral and piano-vocal versions

A reconstruction of the early creative history of this song is hampered by the fact that no early autograph manuscripts have been located (see the entry for [AV1] for an account of this issue). The matter is of some practical significance because the two first editions (PF11h and PV11h) differed not only in details (which is often the case with Mahler's orchestral songs) but more substantially in terms of sung text and the vocal line, to the extent that the first edition of the piano-vocal score could not be used by singers as the sole basis for learning and performing the orchestral version. Further problems accrue from the fact that the medium-voice transposition of the piano-vocal score (PV11m (1906)) presents a further stage in Mahler's conception of song. The major discrepancies  in the vocal part are summarized below:

 

Full score
(PF1h1)

Piano-vocal score

(PV1h1)

Piano-vocal score

(PV1m1)

b. 75–7

 

Text, melodic line

and rhythm modified 

as PV1h1

b. 84–5

continuous vocal line* 

vocal line omitted

as PV1h1

b. 119

 

vocal line modified

as PV1h1

b. 156

 

vocal line modified

1st 2 beats=PF1h1;

2nd 2 beats=PV1h1

b. 161–2

 

as PF1h1

simplified ossia provided 

*  The vocal line was engraved, deleted by Mahler in the proofs (ACPF1pr1), but retained in the printed copies.

Table 3

The initial copy-editing, casting off and engraving was undertaken by the music department at Eberle/EWZG, presumably under the normally watchful eye of Josef V. von Wöss, so it is doubly surprising that these and other anomalies were not spotted and resolved. At some date after 1915 the original plates were revised (presumably by Brandstetter) to bring the vocal part of the piano-vocal score into line with that of the full score (see PV1h1d).

Translations

C.F. Kahnt decided in about 1915 that the piano-vocal scores of all the Mahler songs they published would be provided with English and/or French versions of the texts. All the English adaptations so far traced were prepared by John Bernhoff and the manuscript (possibly autograph) versions (all dated April 1916) of three of the texts survive among the papers presented to the Internationale Gustav-Mahler Gesellschaft by the publisher: Revelge, Der Tamboursg'sell and „Blicke mir nicht in die Lieder‟. For further details see  the Working Paper: Kahnt Lieder Translations, 1905–1920.

Critical Edition

The critical editions of the seven songs are split between four volumes in the Collected Works; Revelge and Der Tamboursg'sell have also appeared in the New Critical Complete Edition:

 

Voice and Piano

SWXIII/2b: Gustav Mahler, Fünfzehn Lieder, Humoresken und Balladen aus Des Knaben Wunderhorn, für Singstimme und Klavier, Sämtliche Werke, Kritische Gesamtausgabe, Band XIII, Teilband 2b, ed. Renate Hilmar-Voit, Thomas Hampson (Vienna: Universal Edition, 1993)

This volume does not include the C minor voice and piano version of Revelge that was either prepared by Mahler or was supervised by him, but incorporates some of its variant readings into the text of the D minor version.

NKGXIII/2b: Gustav Mahler, Des Knaben Wunderhorn, Fünfzehn Lieder, Humoresken und Balladen aus Des Knaben Wunderhorn, für Singstimme und Klavier, Neue Kritische Gesamtausgabe, Band XIII, Teilband 2b, ed. Renate Hilmar-Voit,  (Vienna: Universal Edition, 2008)

This volume does not include the C minor voice and piano version of Revelge that was either prepared by Mahler or was supervised by him, but incorporates some of its variant readings into the text of the D minor version.

SWXIII/4: Gustav Mahler, Lieder nach Texten von Friedrich Rückert für eine Singstimme mit Klavier, Sämtliche Werke, Kritische Gesamtausgabe, Band XIII, Teilband 4, ed. Zoltan Roman (Frankfurt: C.F. Kahnt, 1984)

This volume does not include Mahler's A minor version of Um Mitternacht, or the EGraphic: flat sign major version of „Ich bin der Welt abhanden gekommen‟.

 

Voice and orchestra

SWXIV/2: Gustav Mahler, Des Knaben Wunderhorn, Gesänge für eine Singstimme mit Orchesterbegleitung, Sämtliche Werke, Kritische Gesamtausgabe, Band XIV, Teilband 2, ed. Renate Hilmar-Voit (Vienna: Universal Edition, 1998)

This edition silently omits Mahler's rehearsal numbers. The first orchestral version of Der Tamboursg'sell is included as Appendix II.

NKGXIV/2: Gustav Mahler, Des Knaben Wunderhorn, Gesänge für eine Singstimme mit Orchesterbegleitung, Neue Kritische Gesamtausgabe, Band XIV, Teilband 2, ed. Renate Hilmar-Voit (Vienna: Universal Edition, 2010)

This edition silently omits Mahler's rehearsal numbers. The first orchestral version of Der Tamboursg'sell is included as Appendix II

SWXIV/4: Gustav Mahler, Lieder nach Texten von Friedrich Rückert für eine Singstimme mit Orchester, Sämtliche Werke, Kritische Gesamtausgabe, Band XIV, Teilband 4, ed. Zoltan Roman (Frankfurt: C.F. Kahnt, 1984)

This edition omits Mahler's A minor version of Um Mitternacht, but includes both the F major and EGraphis of a flat sign major versions of „Ich bin der Welt abhanden gekommen‟

Supplementary Material

 

Essay: Mahler on the performance of his Lieder (1906–7)

Working Paper: Kahnt Plate Numbers

Working Paper: C.F. Kahnt's Advertisements in Publications of Mahler's Songs

Working Paper: Title pages of C.F. Kahnt's Publications of Mahler's Songs

Working Paper: C.F. Kahnt and U.E. Wrappers for Individual Songs by Mahler

Working Paper: Kahnt Lieder Translations, 1905–1920

Working Paper: Mahler's Music in Supplements, Albums, Magazines and Libraries

Supplementary Note: Rehearsal numbers in Mahler's Wunderhorn settings

Supplementary Note: An Overview of Early Printed Editions of Individual Songs

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