Das Lied von der Erde (The Song of the Earth)

The horns play a three-note call. Flutes flutter-tongue, muted trumpets rattle, and Öhmann sings high against the orchestra. The heading is Allegro pesante.

The song derives from Li Bai’s “Tale of Sorrowful Song”, which begins: “Sorrow comes; sorrow comes. Host has wine; pour not yet.” Bethge rendered this as “Schon winkt der Wein im goldnen Pokale, doch trinkt noch nicht”, and gave the song its refrain, “Dunkel ist das Leben, ist der Tod”.

“Wenn der Kummer naht” — when sorrow draws near. The boast falls quiet. A solo violin and the harps accompany the lines about a garden in which joy and song wither, and Mahler marks the voice “düster, zart” — gloomy, tender.

“Dunkel ist das Leben, ist der Tod” (dark is life, dark is death). The tenor sings the refrain in G minor, accompanied by solo horn and harp arpeggios. At each later return the same sentence is set a semitone higher.

The horn call and the flutter-tongued flutes return at Tempo I subito. The next stanza is addressed to the host and his well-stocked cellar. The singer has brought a lute, and he holds a full cup to be worth more than all the kingdoms of the earth.

In 1907 Mahler resigned from the Vienna Court Opera, “because I can no longer endure the rabble”, and on 21 June signed a contract with the Metropolitan Opera. Within weeks his elder daughter Maria died of scarlet fever and diphtheria. A doctor then found a defect in Mahler’s own heart.

The second refrain is a semitone higher, in A♭ minor, and Öhmann sings the same words. Schuricht takes the refrains much more slowly than the drinking music around them.

The tenor rests for a long interlude. An oboe plays a solo, the flutes flutter-tongue and a muted trumpet plays above pizzicato strings. The harmony moves to A♭ major before the voice returns.

In August 1908 Paul Hammerschlag visited Mahler at Toblach and found him curious about China and Chinese music. Hammerschlag bought him phonograph cylinders of Chinese music recorded in China.

“Das Firmament blaut ewig” — the heavens are blue for ever. Bethge’s line sets the earth’s returning spring beside the short human life. After the strings play sempre ff, the tenor enters p ma appassionato.

At bars 298–⁠299 the tenor sings “Du aber, Mensch, wie lang lebst denn du?”, asking how long a man lives. Not a hundred years, he continues, to enjoy this rotten earth. A long intensification follows.

The opening fanfares return with glockenspiel, triangle and muted brass. The tenor sings of a shape crouching on the graves, an ape howling into the sweet scent of life.

The singer now permits the wine. The toast opens in A major before the final dark refrain. Schuricht takes an extreme ritardando at bar 381 for the emptying of the cup, and Öhmann draws out “zu Grund” — to the bottom.

The final refrain is in A minor. On the last “Tod” (death), Mahler writes a diminished-seventh chord above the tonic bass. The horns and flutes then return to the opening tempo, and the orchestra ends the song on a short, hard chord.

Muted first violins play unbroken quavers. Above them a solo oboe, marked molto espressivo, begins a long melody. Mahler marks the movement Etwas schleichend. Ermüdet (somewhat creeping, weary), and the violin quavers continue while the oboe rests.

The song is based on a poem by Qian Qi in which a woman weaves through a long autumn night beside a failing lamp. Judith Gautier’s French adaptation omitted the loom. The frost, the fading light and the loneliness passed through Hans Bethge’s German version to Mahler.

The flute echoes the oboe. The alto enters in D minor with the first stanza, in which autumn mist drifts blue over a lake and frost lies on the grass like jade dust scattered by an artist. The moving violin line continues beneath the voice.

In July 1908, while he was composing these songs, Mahler was struggling with his doctors’ restrictions on exercise. He wrote to Bruno Walter: “I can’t work at a desk. For my inner activity I need outer activity.”

After the lines about the golden lotus petals on the water, the singer stops. At figure 10 the violins and violas play a melody marked Zart drängend, zart leidenschaftlich, and the winds and horns crescendo with them. The cellos then play a diminuendo.

The opening tempo returns at “Mein Herz ist müde” (my heart is weary). The alto sings p, without expression, over quavers in the violas and cellos. As the text tells of the little lamp going out with a crackle, the violas play am Steg, close to the bridge.

In July 1907, after Maria’s death, a doctor at Maiernigg found a valvular defect in Mahler’s heart, and a specialist in Vienna confirmed it. The defect was not fatal in itself, but such defects were known to lead to bacterial endocarditis, which killed him four years later. He set these words in July 1908.

At figure 13 the alto sings “Ich komm zu dir, traute Ruhestätte”, marked innig. A solo violin plays against the voice. Beneath them the strings continue in quavers.

At figure 18, marked Mit großem Aufschwung, two harps play in unison under the voice in E♭ major as the singer asks whether the sun of love will never shine again. The voice holds “Liebe” across the bar, then moves on to the bitter tears.

The full orchestra drops out. Over pizzicato cellos, the alto asks whether the tears will ever be dried. Mahler added the word “mild” to Bethge’s poem, and the remaining music goes to the instruments.

Bruno Walter conducted the first performance in Munich on 20 November 1911, six months after Mahler’s death, with the Americans Sara Cahier and William Miller. At the alto’s entry in this song Mahler noted that, if necessary, the part may be sung by a baritone.

Oboe, bassoon and horn finish their phrases over continuing quavers in the first violins. The violins slow and hold their last note. A few wind notes remain, marked to die away.

The movement opens with a horn note and the triangle. Flutes, oboe and clarinets exchange trills and short, quick figures. When the tenor describes the porcelain pavilion, violins and violas enter with a bouncing bow-stroke.

At figure 5 the music moves to G major, with clarinets and a muted trumpet. Inside the little pavilion, friends drink, talk and write verses. Their silk sleeves are pushed back, and their caps sit low on their necks.

The porcelain pavilion came from a mistranslation. Li Bai’s poem is called “Banquet at Tao’s Family Pavilion”, and the Chinese word for the surname Tao can also mean porcelain. Judith Gautier’s French made the family’s house into porcelain, and Bethge and Mahler kept her reading.

At figure 10, marked Ruhiger, the music slows into G minor and a solo violin plays above rocking strings. The tenor describes the still surface of the pond and the reflection in it.

Mahler composed the songs largely in the summer of 1908, when he was forbidden the long walks he needed. From Bethge’s 83 paraphrases of 38 poets he chose seven. In early September he wrote to Bruno Walter: “I was very diligent … I believe it is the most personal thing I have yet created.”

At figure 14 the first tempo returns subito in B♭ major, and the strings remove their mutes. The tenor sings of the reflected scene standing on its head, with pavilion, friends and the bridge, whose arch becomes a half-moon.

Trilling flutes and muted violins open the movement in G major. Thorborg’s first words are “Junge Mädchen pflücken Blumen” (young girls pick flowers). The melody moves between bars of two and three beats.

The poem descends from Li Bai’s “Lotus-plucking Song”, set at Ruoye Brook near Shaoxing. The Marquis d’Hervey de Saint-⁠Denys put it into French, Bethge into German verse, and Mahler retouched Bethge’s text. Li Bai’s original is far shorter than the song.

The harmony moves from G major down to E major. The violins remove their mutes, and a solo violin plays above the words about the breeze lifting the girls’ sleeves. The harp plays chords beneath the long vocal line.

Thorborg finishes on “Luft” — air — and the orchestra takes over, Allmählich belebend. Stopped horns and muted trumpet and trombones enter over harp glissandi. The voice is silent until the horsemen stanza (rehearsal figures 7–⁠10).

The march adds a mandolin to the drums and brass. The tambourine rattles, bass drum and cymbal mark the beat, and both harps play chords.

The orchestra drops to p subito for the singer’s return: “O sieh, was tummeln sich für schöne Knaben” (see the handsome boys romping there). Timpani played with wooden sticks keep the rhythm of the hooves, and the vocal part becomes faster and more crowded.

In the lines about the horse Mahler added words that are not in Bethge: “Hei! Wie flattern im Taumel seine Mähnen, dampfen heiß die Nüstern!” (how his mane flies in a frenzy, how hot the nostrils steam). He also changed the word for the girl’s pride from “Lüge” (lie) to “Verstellung” (pretence).

The text describes the horse’s flying mane and steaming nostrils. At rehearsal 16 the opening tempo returns subito (Tempo I, Andante). Muted violins and harp play, and Thorborg repeats the words “Gold’ne Sonne” — golden sun.

In the text, the girl’s proud bearing is a pretence; her eyes follow the rider, and her heart still trembles after he has gone. Mahler marks the passage “Ganz ruhig” (quite calm). Clarinet phrases and the violins continue beneath Thorborg’s last words.

Carl Schuricht, born in Danzig in 1880, was Wiesbaden’s music director from 1912. He conducted the Eighth Symphony there in 1913 and gave Mahler weeks in 1920 and 1921. He conducted this performance in Amsterdam on 5 October 1939, by which time Mahler’s music had vanished from German concert programmes.

Oboes and clarinets trill above the horns, which play figures with grace notes; the strings rest. In bar 5 Öhmann enters with “Wenn nur ein Traum das Leben ist” (if life is only a dream), and asks why toil and trouble are worth the effort.

The poem began as Li Bai’s “Feelings upon Awakening from Drunkenness on a Spring Day”. The Marquis d’Hervey de Saint-⁠Denys translated it into French as “Un jour de printemps”, Hans Heilmann put that into German, and Bethge rhymed it. The opening thought, that life is a great dream and toil pointless, comes from Li Bai.

The drinker wakes to birdsong; “Ein Vogel singt im Baum” — a bird sings in the tree. A solo violin plays above the softer orchestra, followed by the flute and then the harp. Mahler holds back the tempo here, marking it Noch ruhiger and Zurückhaltend.

The tenor asks whether spring has come. Under Rit. and Langsam he repeats “mir ist” before “als wie im Traum” (as though in a dream). Solo violin and harp accompany the question, with only a few low winds and strings beneath.

In July 1908, composing again with difficulty, Mahler wrote to Bruno Walter that he had lost all the clarity and reassurance he ever won and stood “vis-à-vis de rien”, face to face with nothing. His doctors had forbidden exertion. The poem calls life a dream and spring beside the point.

The music moves to D♭ major beneath the drinker’s line, and Mahler marks the passage “Zögernd” and “Ganz langsam” (hesitant, very slow). Muted strings, bassoons and horns hold sustained chords.

“Ich fülle mir den Becher neu” (I fill my cup again). The first tempo returns suddenly, with harp arpeggios and pizzicato cellos, and the violins have removed their mutes. The voice continues until the text reaches the appearance of the moon.

“Laßt mich betrunken sein!” (let me be drunk!) With these final words Öhmann dismisses the bird and its good news. In an A major Allegro, woodwind runs pass over string chords, and triangle and trumpet join the last flourish.

A low C sounds in contrabassoon and low strings, with horns, harps and a soft tam-tam stroke. A solo oboe then enters. The marking is Schwer (heavy).

Mahler joined two poems. Meng Haoran’s speaker waits for a friend among the mountains, and Wang Wei’s offers a traveller a farewell drink. Mahler knew them through French versions by d’Hervey de Saint-⁠Denys and German poems by Hans Bethge.

Alma Mahler wrote that the songs were sketched on lonely walks in the summer of 1907. Alfred Roller, who visited that summer, reported: “This summer remained without artistic fruit.” Bethge’s book was announced only on 5 October 1907, and the dated manuscripts indicate that the songs were composed largely in the summer of 1908.

The alto begins in a narrating tone, without expression (In erzählendem Ton, ohne Ausdruck). The text tells of the sun going down behind the mountains and evening falling over the valleys. A cello holds one long note beneath the voice, and a flute plays a countermelody above it.

The orchestra drops in volume for the line “O sieh! Wie eine Silberbarke schwebt der Mond am blauen Himmelssee herauf”. Translated, it reads: look, the moon floats up like a silver boat on the blue lake of the sky.

At figure 9 a flute solo accompanies the line about the brook singing through the dark. Mahler added two footnotes on p. 102 of the full score. If the flautist lacks a large enough tone, the oboe takes over, and the alto must not cover the flute solo.

Bethge’s “hardworking people” go home longing for sleep. Mahler changed them to “tired people”, who go home to learn forgotten happiness and youth anew in sleep. At the end of the poem he added a cry of his own, “O Schönheit! O ewigen Liebens — Lebenstrunkne Welt!”

After the evening scene, the bare music of narration returns at figure 22, marked “Sehr gleichmäßig. Nicht eilen”. A solo flute plays above a held double-bass note. At “Es wehet kühl”, the singer is in the cool shade of the spruces, waiting for a friend and the last farewell.

On 30 December 1917 Willem Mengelberg conducted Das Lied with the Vienna Philharmonic. Its concertmaster Arnold Rosé, who had played it before, told the tenor Jac. Urlus: “Now we have heard Das Lied von der Erde for the first time.” The same day Alma Mahler gave Mengelberg the manuscripts of this song.

Bruno Walter recalled that Mahler showed him the score of this movement, pointed to one passage and asked: “Can you think of a way of conducting that? Because I can’t.” The voice and solo instruments run across the barlines, and the passage is marked Ohne Rücksicht auf das Tempo (without regard for the tempo).

After the singer’s cry to a world drunk with life, the orchestra plays alone. Cor anglais and strings return to the opening figures. From them a heavy funeral march develops, with pizzicato basses, harp and tam-tam.

Conductors take this march at different speeds. Colin Davis’s 1981 Abschied lasts nearly thirty-five minutes; it is the slowest in Christian Utz’s survey of ninety-two recordings and fills 51 per cent of the whole cycle, against 43 per cent in Klemperer’s 1951 recording. Schuricht’s lasts twenty-eight minutes fifty-two.

The alto returns to plain narration. A friend dismounts and offers the farewell drink, then asks where the traveller is going and why. Low cellos and basses hold C beneath her, and the tam-tam sounds.

Just before this passage, at about 19:30, a woman in the hall shouted. The person who uploaded the recording heard “Deutschland muss raus … Herr Schuricht”, or perhaps “Deutschland über alles”. The concert took place five weeks into the Second World War and seven months before Germany invaded the Netherlands.

The traveller replies with a veiled voice (“seine Stimme war umflort”). Fortune has been unkind to him, and he is going into the mountains for rest. The strings play pianississimo near the fingerboard, and the voice is marked sehr weich und ausdrucksvoll.

In Wang Wei’s poem the traveller says he is “at odds with the world” and goes home to rest by the South Hill. “Please go. Ask no more. Endless, the white clouds.” Bethge kept the clouds (“ewig, ewig”), and Mahler’s ending replaces them.

Bethge’s traveller ends among eternal white clouds. Mahler wrote a new ending, which Stephen E. Hefling identifies as beginning “Still ist mein Herz”. In it the heart waits for its hour, the earth flowers in spring and grows green again, and the far horizons shine blue for ever.

Bruno Walter conducted the première in Munich on 20 November 1911, six months after Mahler’s death. Mahler had avoided numbering the work for fear of a Ninth. He gave it its title on the same sheet on which he gave the number 9 to the symphony he had just completed.

A note on the title page of Willem Mengelberg’s score records that Mahler thought this his most difficult work to perform. On the last page Mengelberg wrote “soft, softer, pianississimo” several times as a reminder to himself.

“Ewig” — for ever — is sung again and again. Harps, mandolin and celesta play short notes against held wind and string chords. The last sung syllables fall from E to D, and the final C major harmony keeps an A within it.