Sieben Lieder, No. 4

„Ich atmet' einen linden Duft‟ – S4

A-Wn Mus.Hs.41954

Sieben Lieder – Manuscript sources

Sieben Lieder – main page

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1

During the vacation they had briefly resumed their physical relationship (GKIB, 22).

Title

None

Dedication & Date

[6–9 June 1901]

Calligraphy

Mahler: pencil; revisions and annotations in black ink

Paper

20 staves, [logo] J.E. & Cọ, / Nọ 12ª / 20 linig., oblong format, no watermark visible on this sheet, 263 x 342 (r=223)

Manuscript structure and collation

1 fol.

1r: sketch

1v: blank

Provenance

This sketch was presumably one of those mentioned by Bauer-Lechner (NBL2, 195):

Als Zeichen unseren besten Übereinstimmung in dieser Ferien schenkte er mir die Skizzen aller seiner heurigem Lieder.

As a token of our best rapport during this holiday he gave me the sketches of all his recent songs.¹

It was listed in both inventories of her collection of Mahler manuscripts prepared after her death in 1921 (Inv. I, III/5; Inv. II, 9).

The subsequent history of the manuscript is unkinown: it has an inked stamp that has been partially erased (presumably to obscure the identity of a previous owner) and this now reads : CASTELLO / [erased text] / ARCHIVIO.

Facsimiles

Complete colour facsimile

Select Bibliography

Library catalogue record

Notes

This interesting, undated early sketch seems not to have been discussed by previous commentators. The essence of the song is already present, but there are significant differences and absences, for example:

a) The song was originally notated throughout in 3/4 but most of the ink annotations show Mahler combining pairs of bars into 6/4 bars to create an pattern of alternation of the two metres close to that of the final version.

b) The first three 6/4 bars of the song are absent: it starts at what is now b. 4, but without the L.H. part.

c) The vocal line has a different text underlay in the bars equivalent bb. 5–9 in the final version:

Sketch

Published version

O Linden duft

Im Zimmer stand

Ein Zweig der Linde

The conjectural dating offered here is based on the date of Mahler's arrival in Maiernigg (HLGII, 358) and the date of the fair copy of the song (AV4, dated 9 June 1901).

This is a single sheet used upside-down and back to front; at some date it has been folded in half vertically.