Songs of a Wayfarer

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The songs of a traveling journeyman are Gustav Mahler's first song cycle , which he composed between 1884 and 1885, initially with piano accompaniment. Only later (around 1893-1896) did he orchestrate the songs. The premiere under Mahler's direction took place in Berlin on March 16, 1896 with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra and the baritone Anton Sistermans as soloists.

Emergence

Identical theme in Mahler's 1st Symphony and in the second song of the songs of a traveling journeyman

The song cycle was created between 1883 and 1885 when Gustav Mahler was choirmaster and conductor in Kassel and met the soprano Johanna Richter. Mahler fell passionately in love with the young singer, but since Johanna did not return his love, the relationship failed.

From this situation Mahler created the songs of a traveling journeyman between 1884 and 1885 , in which he set four poems that he had written for his beloved to music. However, part of the text for the first song When my sweetheart is wedding can also be found in the Des Knaben Wunderhorn collection .

Orchestral line-up

2 flutes , piccolo flute (also 3rd flute), 2 oboes , 2 clarinets in Bb, bass clarinet in Bb, 2 bassoons , 4 horns , 2 trumpets , 3 trombones , timpani , percussion , ( bass drum , cymbals , triangle , glockenspiel , tam-tam ), Harp , strings , voice: baritone .

The Austrian composer and conductor Gerhard Present wrote an arrangement for medium voice and chamber ensemble (violin, viola, cello, piano, the line-up of Mahler's movement for piano quartet ) in 2017 .

Structure and keys

The cycle consists of four songs:

  • When my darling is getting married
  • Went across the field this morning
  • I have a hot knife
  • The two blue eyes of my darling

These are written in the following key:

  • When my sweetheart is getting married starts in D minor and ends in G minor.
  • Went this morning across the field starts in D major and leads over B major to F sharp major.
  • I have a glowing knife that leads through D minor, chromatically ascending to E flat minor.
  • The two blue eyes of my sweetheart starts out in E minor and turns to F major in the second part, but ends in F minor.

Interpretations and relation to other works

The songs portray the thoughts of a journeyman who at the same time tries to process an unhappy love affair while he is traveling . In this respect, the subject of the song cycle shows similarities with Franz Schubert's cycles Die Schöne Müllerin and Winterreise , which are intended by the composer.

The content of the song cycle is closely related to Mahler's first symphony, which was written a little later : the main theme of the 1st movement ( bars 62 to 71 in the cellos ) is identical to the theme of the song Ging heute 'morgen über's Feld ( bars 2 to 9 of the vocal part ), and the trio of the 3rd movement is borrowed from the “Lindenbaum” passage (3rd stanza) from The Two Blue Eyes .

World dualism

According to the musicologist Peter Revers, Mahler shows two opposing worlds in his songs, namely the real world and a dream world. Gustav Mahler depicts the real world as sadly filled reality in which he expresses his emotional pain. This is shown very clearly in the third song of this cycle. In contrast to this, there is a dream world that Gustav Mahler uses as a musical space for the imaginary fulfillment of his longings. The dream world can be recognized in the second and fourth song. However, Peter Revers also called the dream world an emotional dead end, as Gustav Mahler could not be happy through it.

Mahler's sounds

According to the musicologist Hubert Wißkirchen , Gustav Mahler shows three different types of sound in his songs, namely:

  • Sounds of civilization such as drum rolls, marching dots and minor keys; The sounds of civilization show Mahler's real world and express his suffering.
  • Natural sounds such as natural sound imitations, natural tones and major tones; Gustav Mahler emphasizes the aesthetics of his dream world with the sounds of nature, thereby creating a locus amoenus .
  • Artificial sounds such as chromatisms , dissonances and major-minor changes; This is how Gustav Mahler describes his emotional world. The artificial sounds are often used to move from one world to the other.

The four songs

I - "When my sweetheart makes wedding"


When my darling is wedding
Happy wedding makes
I have my sad day!
I go to my little room
Dark room,
Weep, weep for my darling
To my dear darling!

Blue flowers! Do not wither!
Cute bird!
You sing on green heather.
Oh, how beautiful is the world!
Ziküth! Ziküth!

Don't sing! Do not bloom!
Spring is over!
All singing is over now!
In the evening when I go to sleep
I think of my suffering!
Of my suffering!

This first movement is musically arranged according to the scheme A - B - A ′ of an A and B section that is strongly contrasting in all aspects. As is often the case in Mahler's songs, the musical contrast between A and B is based on the juxtaposition of suffering and sadness in view of one's own real state of mind and the dreamed-of, more fulfilled existence.

The initial vocal line of the A section in 2/4 time is characterized by the frequently recurring alternating motif (a - g - f - g - a) in eighth notes and the upward fourth jump ( a - d ). Harmoniously, unaltered minor chords of the function-theoretically associated key predominate . Irritating or ironically alluding to the wedding named in the text, within the framework of the predominant minor and the carried and unrhythmic sound of the strings, is a recurring short major in thirds, primarily carried by the woodwinds , alternating in sixteenths but also performed together with the vocal line -Motiv (bars 1–4, 8–13, 17–21, etc.). The change between two-part (4/8 or 2/4) and three-part (3/8 or 6/8) meter is also relevant and clearly noticeable . This change occurs already in the instrumental introduction (bars 1 to 4) and also repeatedly in the further course of the piece (e.g. in bars 39 and 44) ​​and also in the last seven bars. According to Peter Revers, this change can also be seen as the contrast between the happiness of the beloved due to the marriage and the pain that results from it.

The long course of the A section is characterized by diatonic descents (bars 14 to 28) and the alternating motif that has now been transposed downwards several times (bars 26 to 33). From “I go into my little room” (bar 22) and at the latest from “Weine, Wein '” (bar 30), associations with Richard Wagner's work emerge with more altered harmonics and chromatics .

The B part (bars 44 to 56) in 6/8 time stands out from the A part with a melody that is alternating between quarters and eighth notes, primarily in major, and is almost entirely based on seconds. Fast runs of the strings in high register, sixteenth-note throws of the oboes and clarinets in the same, as well as trills of the first violin support the carefree character of the few bars.

Part A '(bar 57 to the end) brings the motifs known from A in a shortened, reprise- like form.

II - "Went across the field this morning"

The second movement, “Went this morning across the field”, contains the cheerful music of the work. The text celebrates the beauty of nature on a small scale, for example in the song of the birds and in the dew drops in the grass. “Won't it be a beautiful world?” Is the refrain.

However, the traveling journeyman is reminded at the end that despite all the beauty of nature, his happiness has finally faded with his love.

The movement is delicately orchestrated by using particularly high strings, flute and triangle sounds. The melody of this movement, as well as much of the orchestration, are used as the main theme of the 1st movement of Mahler's First Symphony .

Walked across the field this morning
Dew still hung on the grass;
Said to me the lusty finch:
"Hey you! Valid? Good Morning! Is it true?
You! Isn't it going to be a beautiful world?
Zinc! Zinc! Nice and nimble!
How I like the world! "

Also the bellflower in the field
I had fun, good thing '
With the bells, ring, ring,
Rang your morning greeting:
“Isn't it going to be a beautiful world?
Sound, sound! Nice thing!
How I like the world! Hey! "

And there started in the sunshine
To sparkle on the world immediately;
All tone and color won
In the sunshine!
Flowers and birds, big and small!
"Hello, isn't it a beautiful world?
You are good Beautiful world!"

Now is my luck beginning too?
No, no, I mean
Can never bloom for me!

III - "I have a glowing knife"

The third sentence is an expression of despair. With the words “I have a glowing knife in my chest”, the traveling companion compares the loss of his love with a knife that pierces his chest. A recurring motif is the plaintive "Oh dear!"

The music is full of tension and strong movement.


I have a hot knife,
A knife in my chest
Oh dear! It doesn't cut so deep
in every joy and every pleasure.
Oh, what an evil guest is that!
He never keeps calm
he never stops,
Not by day nor by night
when i slept!
Oh dear!

When I see the sky
I see two blue eyes!
Oh dear! When I walk in the yellow field
I see the blonde hair from afar
Blow in the wind!
Oh dear!

When I wake up from the dream
And hear their silver laughter ring out
Oh dear!
I wish I lay on it
Black Bahr ',
I could never open my eyes!

IV - "The two blue eyes of my darling"

The final sentence culminates in a kind of "dissolution". The melancholy music is used again in the 3rd movement (funeral march) of the 1st symphony. It is mysterious, lyrical and closed. In the harmonies it is often reminiscent of a chorale . The traveling journeyman describes how he is covered by the blossoms under a linden tree, falls asleep and comes to rest for the first time, “love and sorrow and world and dream”.

This is reminiscent of Schubert's song Der Lindenbaum in his song cycle Winterreise .

Mahler's poem is:


The two blue eyes of my darling
They sent me out into the wide world.
I have to say goodbye to my favorite place!
O blue eyes, why did you look at me?
Now I have sorrow and grief forever!

I went out in the quiet night
probably over the dark heather.
Nobody said goodbye to me
Goodbye!
My companion was love and suffering!

There is a linden tree in the street
That's when I rested in my sleep for the first time!
Under the linden tree,
It snowed its flowers over me
I didn't know how life works
Everything was fine again!
Everything! Everything, love and sorrow
And world and dream!

literature

  • Peter Revers: Mahler's songs. A musical factory guide. Beck, Munich 2000, ISBN 3-406-44806-2 .
  • Hubert Wißkirchen: word-tone analysis. Music Practice in School, Volume 8. Bosse, Kassel 2002, ISBN 3-7649-2698-8 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Peter Revers: Mahler's songs. A musical factory guide . CH Beck, Munich 2000, p. 48.
  2. ^ Gerhard Present: op.74 from ALEA, accessed on March 19, 2017
  3. ↑ The text of the first stanza is reminiscent of a song text that Mahler knew from Des Knaben Wunderhorn (Volume 3, 1808, p. 124), namely "Listen, what comes in from outside ...", with the part also handed down as an independent individual stanza " When my sweetheart has a wedding, I have a 'sad day, when my sweetheart has a wedding, I have no joy. ”Cf. file“ Individual verses AZ ”(keyword #Wedding) in Otto Holzapfel : Liedverzeichnis. The older German-language popular song tradition . Online version (as of November 2018) on the Folk Music Archive homepage of the Upper Bavaria district (in PDF format; further updates planned).
  4. ↑ a b Peter Revers: Mahler's songs. A musical factory guide . CH Beck, Munich 2000, p. 61