The form was afterwards imitated by other composers, notably by Shostakovich and Zemlinsky. However, Das Lied von der Erde is the first complete integration of song cycle form with that of the symphony. Mahler had already included movements for voice and orchestra in his Second, Third, Fourth and Eighth Symphonies. Wood reportedly thought that the work was "excessively modern but very beautiful". One of the earliest performances in London (possibly the first) occurred in January 1913 at the Queen's Hall under conductor Henry Wood, where it was sung by Gervase Elwes and Doris Woodall. Mahler had died six months earlier, on 18 May. The first public performance was given on 20 November 1911 in the Tonhalle in Munich, sung by Sara Cahier and William Miller (both Americans) with Bruno Walter conducting.
That was indeed the last symphony he fully completed, because only portions of the Tenth had been fully orchestrated at the time of his death. His next symphony, written for purely instrumental forces, was numbered his Ninth. Fearing his subsequent demise, he decided to subtitle the work A Symphony for Tenor, Alto (or Baritone) Voice and Orchestra, rather than numbering it as a symphony. Mahler was aware of the so-called " curse of the ninth", a superstition arising from the fact that no major composer since Beethoven had successfully completed more than nine symphonies: he had already written eight symphonies before composing Das Lied von der Erde. Mahler was captivated by the vision of earthly beauty and transience expressed in these verses and chose seven of the poems to set to music as Das Lied von der Erde.
#U boot lied free#
The same year saw the publication of Hans Bethge's Die chinesische Flöte, a free rewriting of others' translations of classical Chinese poems. "With one stroke", he wrote to his friend Bruno Walter, "I have lost everything I have gained in terms of who I thought I was, and have to learn my first steps again like a newborn." Political maneuvering and antisemitism forced him to resign as Director of the Vienna Court Opera, his eldest daughter Maria died from scarlet fever and diphtheria, and Mahler himself was diagnosed with a congenital heart defect. Three disasters befell Mahler during the summer of 1907. 5.1 Orchestra, female and male soloists."Der Trunkene im Frühling" ("The Drunkard in Spring") "Der Einsame im Herbst" ("The Solitary One in Autumn") "Das Trinklied vom Jammer der Erde" ("The Drinking Song of Earth's Sorrow")