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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). Schmedes withdrew from
the concert in January 1905, and the song was first sung by the baritone Friedrich Weidemann, so it is
likely that a new set
of material, for medium voice, had to be prepared at relatively short notice
in the second half of January 1905.
It was probably from this
copy that Mahler conducted the first two performances.
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