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The dating offered here for this source is based on two conjectures: firstly, that Mahler
probably initiated the preparation of performance material for
the song (manuscript copies of the full score, orchestral parts and piano-vocal score
for the singer) once the plans for the first performance, under
the auspices of the
Vereinigung schaffender Tonkunstler Wiens
on 6 January (later rescheduled for
29 January 1905) were
well advanced (press announcements began to appear in mid
October 1904); and secondly, that at this stage Mahler envisaged
that it would be sung by a tenor, probably Erik Schmedes (the
evidence is discussed in more detail in the
notes to the collection as a whole).
Although Schmedes withdrew from
the concert in January 1905, and the song was first sung by the baritone Friedrich Weidemann,
the set of orchestral parts for the high-voice version may have
been already completed, and, if so, could have been used (along
with
[ACF6h])
for the third performance, in Graz on
1 June 1905, when Um
Mitternacht was finally sung by Schmedes. Such a conjectural
scenario is not inconsistent with the plate numbers of the
published full score and parts (4502,
4503) which suggest that their engraving and printing may
have been undertaken slightly later than rest of the first batch
of printings of the songs.
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