Mahler Foundation

A listening guide of Kindertotenlieder – Oft denk’ ich, sie sind nur ausgegangen with Lew Smoley.

Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen (‘Songs of a Wayfarer’) is a song cycle by Gustav Mahler on his own texts. The cycle of four Lieder for low voice (often performed by women as well as men) was written around 1884-1885 in the wake of Mahler’s unhappy love for soprano Johanna Richter (1858-1943), whom he met while conductor of the opera house in Kassel, Germany, and orchestrated and revised in the 1890s.

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A listening guide of Lieder Eines Fahrenden Gesellen – Intro with Lew Smoley.

The final movement is nearly as long as the previous five movements combined. Its text is drawn from two different poems, both involving the theme of leave-taking. Mahler himself added the last lines. This final song is also notable for its text-painting, using a mandolin to represent the singer’s lute, imitating bird calls with woodwinds, and repeatedly switching between the major and minor modes to articulate sharp contrasts in the text.

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A listening guide of Das Lied von der Erde – Der Abschied with Lew Smoley.

The music of this movement is mostly soft and legato, meditating on the image of some 'young girls picking lotus flowers at the riverbank'. Later in the movement there is a louder, more articulated section in the brass as the young men ride by on their horses.

There is a long orchestral postlude to the sung passage, as the most beautiful of the young maidens looks longingly after the most handsome of the young men.

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A listening guide of Das Lied von der Erde – Von der Schönheit with Lew Smoley.

The third movement is the most obviously pentatonic and faux-Asian. The form is ternary, the third part being a greatly abbreviated revision of the first. It is also the shortest of the six movements, and can be considered a first scherzo. First this movement was called ‘Der Pavillon aus Porzellan’ (‘The pavilion made of porcelain’).

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A listening guide of Das Lied von der Erde – Von der Jugend with Lew Smoley.

The final song, “Selbstgefühl” (My mood), starts with a dynamic of forte. To maintain a high level of playfulness, the tubist must observe the strict dynamic indications. Mahler indicated that the octave in the left hand of the piano part can be omitted throughout the song if the additional low notes create too thick of a texture in this register.

The piano extends the melodic line throughout this final song, playing the same melody in the right hand and completing the soloist’s musical thought, as seen in measures 25 and 56-57. 

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A listening guide of Lieder Und Gesänge Aus Dem Jugendzeit – Selbstgefühl with Lew Smoley.

Balancing the soft low texture with piano remains one of the main challenges for tubists in the penultimate song in this collection, “Nicht wiedersehen!” (Never to meet again). It is scored very low on the piano and would be easy to lose the melody inside of the harmony of the accompaniment. Mahler instructs the pianist to use the pedals freely, however perhaps the dampening pedal should be the most important. The effect of the sustain pedal will be too much for this song, especially when the pitches between the piano and tuba overlap.

The first three notes of this song are the most challenging notes on a Germany Rotary bass tuba in F, especially at a soft dynamic, like piano. The performer may modify articulations to assist in increasing the line’s accuracy and clarity. The first note after a breath should have a stronger articulation, as sometimes noted by a tenuto marking above or below the specified note.

“Never to meet again”.

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A listening guide of Lieder Und Gesänge Aus Dem Jugendzeit – Nicht Wiedersehen! with Lew Smoley.

The tenth song in this collection, “Zu Strassburg auf der Schanz” (At Strasbourg on the battlement), starts with a very colorful piano entrance marked “as a folk tune” and “imitating the shawm.” 

As Donald Mitchell points out, this is of a type very characteristic of Mahler in his vocal as well as symphonic output: the slow farewell song or funeral march…We have a relatively simple example of the kind, remarkable chiefly for the piano’s imitation of the “Schalmei,” the chalumeau or herdsman’s pipe, which lures the homesick soldier into swimming the Rhine by night. There is also the imitation, in the left hand, of the military drums that accompany his capture, his conviction as a deserter, and the march to his execution. Mahler explicitly instructs the right hand to play “like a chalumeau,” and notes for the left: “In all those low trills the sound of muted drums is to be imitated by means of the pedal,” a clear indication that he was moving towards a song form with orchestra.

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A listening guide of Lieder Und Gesänge Aus Dem Jugendzeit – Zu Strassburg Auf Der Schanz with Lew Smoley.

One of the challenges with the ninth song in this collection, “Starke Einbildungskraft” (Strong imagination), concerns clarity of articulation. Sixteenth-note passages sound unclear with the piano part due to the imbalance of lower tones produced by both the piano and tuba. Changes have been notated in the tuba version to reflect these issues of clarity. Staccato markings and accents on the fronts of passages as well as the sixteenth-notes should ensure a clearer melodic line. The tubist could perform this work up an octave if he or she could achieve the desired clarity.

The shortest of the songs in this collection is a brief sweet conversation between a boy and a girl, but the simplicity of the melody makes it very musically challenging. 

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A listening guide of Lieder Und Gesänge Aus Dem Jugendzeit – Starke Einbildungskraft with Lew Smoley.

The majority of the songs in this collection begin with very soft dynamics. Eleven of the fourteen songs begin with the dynamic of piano, one song begins at pianissimo, and the remaining two songs (this song and the last song in the collection) begin at the dynamic of forte. The tubist should take advantage of this diversity of dynamics and style. The eighth song in this collection, “Aus! Aus!” (Over! Over!), has a strict sense of time. While some of the songs have a lyrical quality that allows for rubato, this melody is one of only a few that requires a steady march-like tempo.

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A listening guide of Lieder Und Gesänge Aus Dem Jugendzeit – Aus! Aus! with Lew Smoley