Sieben Lieder – Printed Editions of Individual Songs

Under the terms of their contract with Mahler, C.F. Kahnt was entitled to make 'the usual arrangements, abridgements, adaptations for one or more instruments or voices, as well as transpositions.... and translations...' (GMBsV, 162).  Over a period of about five years (1915–1919) Kahnt not only commissioned an orchestration of the seventh song, but also added further transpositions  of orchestral or piano versions where necessary, so that by mid-1919 all seven songs were available in three vocal ranges (hoch, mittel, tief). Moreover, during WWI Kahnt decided to issue the songs with English or English and French translations of the text, and in such cases the piano and voice versions of the songs were re-engraved and provided with a new plate number: see the list below and the working paper on translations.

In 1910, as part of Emil Hertzka's policy of acquiring rights to distribute works by Mahler not owned by UE, the company began issuing the piano and voice scores of individual songs under licence, but the November/December 1916 issue of the Hofmeister Monatsbericht announced high- and low-voice collective piano-vocal volumes containing all the songs, to be issued by UE. This was followed up in April/May with an announcement of high-, medium- and low-voice versions of such collective volumes, with texts in German and English: in this both publishers are named.  The full scores and orchestral parts were also listed in UE catalogues up to 1938, but the Verlagsbuch shows that very few copies were ever ordered by UE; the licence was terminated on 15 July 1939. An overview of all the UE issues of Kahnt's Mahler publications is provided in the section devoted to Universal Edition.

The list below attempts to give an overview of the history of all songs published separately in the period 1905–c. 1920. A siglum in bold indicates that the publication derives from Mahler; all others were created in-house by Kahnt. (The distinction is particular important in the case of the orchestral versions, as some of the publisher's transpositions required re-orchestration.) Two additional listings document the appearance of individual songs in other types of publication: the listing of the collective publications of all seven songs by C.F. Kahnt and Philharmonia (1916–1926), and the Working Paper: Mahler's Music in Supplements, Albums, Magazines and Libraries.

The establishment of the precise date of first publication is problematic because (a) the Kahnt printing/publication records seem not to have survived and (b) because it is not clear how consistent or expeditious the firm was when notifying new publications to the Hofmeister Monatsbericht; nevertheless the latter is one of the source of the dates in the list below. Precise dates of the relevant Hofmeister entries are given in the relevant catalogue entry. The form '1916/17' is used to indicate publication at the turn of the year; '1916–17' is used for publication sometime in 1916 or 1917.

The other, more conjectural source for dating, is the Working Paper: Kahnt Plate Numbers 1888–1920. Where no plate number is given in the list below, no relevant copy has yet been located: however if a number can be supplied with some degree of certainty from other sources, it is given in square brackets.

The hyperlinks in the list below may be used to navigate to descriptions of the printed editions of individual songs first published by Kahnt in the period 1905–c.1920. The sigla printed in bold identify the earliest issues of a particular song (Um Mitternacht was exceptional in being initially published in two keys).

The vocal ranges listed below in Helmholtz notation, are given as if notated in the treble clef (sounding an octave lower for male voices).