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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 possible that a new set
of material for medium voice had to be prepared at short
relatively notice
in the second half of January 1905.
The plate number of the first edition (4476) has been added on
fol. 1v in red pencil and at the top of the title page an annotation
(presumably by a member of the publisher's editorial staff),
notes 1)
Ausgabe wie steht – 2) Ausgabe einen ganzen Ton / höher
also: /
 C /
Original in H-Moll This situation is paralleled in the the
case of „Ich bin der Welt abhanden gekommen‟, the only other song in the set to
be published in two keys in 1905: again no manuscript piano-vocal score
for high voice has been located, and the printer's copy for
the medium-voice piano-vocal score (ACV5m) has a similar
note:
1) Stechen
in der Tonart – 2) eine zweite Ausgabe / einen Ton höher
– nach F-Dur transponieren / Original in F-Dur
The implication appears to be that the necessary
transpositions of both songs would have to be made in-house.
In the top left-hand corner of fol. 1r of
the copyist's medium-voice piano vocal score of Um
Mitternacht is a
reference
number 56891/2 and below this Rev.[idiert] have been
added in an unknown hand (pencil), but there is no indication
elsewhere in the copy of any of the publisher's textual matter
(performance rights, copyright etc) that would normally appear
on the first page of printed music. At some date this document
was folded both vertically and horizontally.
There are no rehearsal numbers, but bar
numbers have been added at the start of each system in pencil.
As in
ACV5m
there is evidence that this manuscript of Um
Mitternacht for medium voice by
Emil Zöphel was used for rehearsal by
Weidemann, although the relevant annotations here (e.g.
phrasing, breath marks, textual emphasis) are more extensive and
practically orientated than those in the comparable copy of „Ich bin der Welt abhanden gekommen‟.
This is a working document of
considerable importance.
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