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The dating offered here for this missing
source is based on two conjectures: firstly, that Mahler
probably initiated the preparation of performance material for
the song (a 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, and the song was first heard in a
medium-voice version, sung by Friedrich Weidemann. Nevertheless,
when Mahler conducted a selection of his new songs at the
opening concert of the Allgemeine Deutsche Musikverein on 1 June
1905, Schmedes was the singer assigned to Um Mitternacht.
It cannot be firmly established that the
manuscript piano-vocal score prepared for Schmedes was
subsequently sent to C.F. Kahnt to function as the printer's
copy for the first edition (PV6h):
see the entry for the manuscript of the medium-voice piano-vocal
score of Um Mitternacht for a discussion of the issues (ACV6m). |
