Six Songs from Des Knaben Wunderhorn

Wer hat dies Liedlein erdacht?

Das irdische Leben

Rheinlegendchen

Wo die schönen Trompeten blasen

Es sungen drei Engel einen süssen Gesang

Urlicht

There is no more convincing example of the text and the composer apparently made for each other than Mahler and the German folk songs collected by Arnim and Brentano and published in Des Knaben Wunderhorn (“The Boy’s Magic Horn”) at the beginning of the nineteenth century. Between 1888 and 1896 Mahler made more than twenty settings of songs from the anthology, some with piano accompaniment but most for voice and orchestra. The effect the songs had on him, liberating a whole area of his imagination and providing the inspiration for at least two symphonies, is incalculable.

Written in 1892, Wer had dies Liedlein erdacht? (“Who Made up this Song?”) was one of the first of Mahler’s Wunderhorn songs with orchestra. In its brevity and apparent simplicity it resembles the still earlier setting with piano accompaniment. The simplicity, however, is deceptive. The nonchalant whistling motif which runs through the whole song in the orchestra, and which enters the vocal part at the end of the cheerful first and third stanzas, is subtly changed in the comparatively painful middle section.

Das irdische Leben (“Life on Earth”) is called Die Verspätung (“Too Late”) in Des Knaben Wunderhorn. Mahler changed the title since he saw the song as a symbol of human life: “What I wished to express is that the necessities for one’s physical and spiritual growth are long delayed and finally come too late, as they do for the dead child. I believe I have expressed this in a characteristic and frightening way, thanks to the strange sound of the accompaniment, which roars and whistles like a storm, to the tortured and anguished cries of the child, and to the slow, monotonous reply of the mother.”

Rheinlegendchen (“Little Rhine Legend”) was written in 1893, at about the same time as Das irdische Leben. It differs from the other Wunderhorn settings in that, far from inspiring the melody, the words were chosen to go with a waltz tune Mahler had had in his head for years. He did not feel that the setting was any worse for that. On the contrary: “It is much more direct, that is, both childish, mischievous and heartfelt; you have never heard anything like it! And the instrumentation is both gentle and sunny, like the pure colour of a butterfly. But, despite its folklike simplicity, it is also highly unusual, especially as regards the harmony, so that people will not understand it and will call it farfetched. Nevertheless, the harmonies are the most natural imaginable, simply those which the melody requires.”

Wo die schönen Trompeten blasen (“Where the fine trumpets sound”), written in 1895, is perhaps the most inspired of Mahler’s Wunderhorn settings. The apparent incongruity between the background mosaic of ghostly trumpet calls and the serene utterances of the lover is explained in the last bars, where it becomes clear that the her lover has died on the battlefield and that the visitor is his ghost.

Es sungen drei Engel (“Three Angels sang”) was written in 1895 and soon after incorporated in the Third Symphony. The more familiar version in the fifth movement of the symphony is actually an expansion of the original conception with additional parts for a children’s “Bimm bamm” choir and a three-part chorus of women’s voices. These are not essential to the setting, as is indicated by Mahler’s own piano transcription, and they are being omitted on this occasion.

Urlicht (“First light”) was probably written as early as 1892 and was incorporated in the Second Symphony as a transition between the scherzo, which is based on another Wunderhorn song (Des Antonius von Padua Fischpredigt) and the setting of Klopstock’s Die Auferstehung in the finale. Its innocent faith - Mahler insisted that Urlicht should be sung “with the tone and vocal expression of a child who think he is in heaven” - is no less touching when the song is performed separately than when it is part of the symphony. The two versions, incidentally, are identical.

Gerald Larner