Kindertotenlieder

"Kindertotenlieder" ("Songs on the Death of Children") is a song cycle for voice and orchestra by Gustav Mahler. The words of the songs are poems by Friedrich Rückert.

The original "Kindertotenlieder" were a group of 425 poems written by Rückert in 1833–34 in an outpouring of grief after two of his children had died in an interval of sixteen days. Mahler selected five of the Rückert poems to set as Lieder, which he composed between 1901 and 1904.

The songs are written in Mahler's late-romantic idiom, and the mood and feeling they express is very much what their title implies. The final song ends in a major key and a mood of transcendence.

The poignance of the cycle is increased by the fact that four years after he wrote it, Mahler lost his daughter, Maria, aged four, to scarlet fever. He wrote to Guido Adler: "I placed myself in the situation that a child of mine had died. When I really lost my daughter, I could not have written these songs any more."

ynopsis

1. "Nun will die Sonn' so hell aufgeh'n"
"Now the sun will rise as brightly as if nothing terrible had happened during the night. The awful thing happened only to me, but the sun shines equally on everyone. You must fold the night into yourself, and immerse it in eternal light. A little star went out in my heaven! Greetings to the joyful light of the world."

2. "Nun seh' ich wohl, warum so dunkle Flammen"
"Now I see well, why in many glances you flash upon me with such dark flames, O Eyes: as if to draw all your strength together in one look. I didn't realise, because a mist woven of tangled destinies surrounded me, that your beam was already returning homewards to the place from which all rays emanate. In your bright look you wanted to tell me: 'We would gladly stay with you'. Now that is denied to us by Fate. What in this world are but eyes to you, in the coming night shall be your stars."

3. "Wenn dein Mütterlein"
"When your mother steps in through the door and I turn my head to look at her, my glance does not go first to her face, but nearer the doorstep, there, there where your dear little face used to be, as if you were bringing joy's beauty in with you as you used to, my little daughter. When your mother steps in through the door with the glowing candle, it is to me as if you came in with her as you used to, as of old hurrying behind her into the room. O you, your father's being, ah light of joy lost too soon!"

4. "Oft denk' ich, sie sind nur ausgegangen"
"I often think: they have only just gone out, soon they will be coming back home. The day is fine! Don't be dismayed! They have just gone for a long walk! Yes indeed, they have just gone out, and now they are making their way home. Don't be dismayed, the day is fine! They have simply made a journey to yonder heights. They have just gone out ahead of us, and will not be thinking of coming home. We go to meet them on yonder heights! In the sunlight! The day is fine on those uplands!"

5. "In diesem Wetter!"
"In this weather, in this windy storm, I would never have sent the children out. They have been carried off. I wasn't able to warn them. In this weather, in this gale, I would never have let the children out. I feared they sickened: those thoughts are now in vain. In this weather, in this storm, I would never have let the children out, I was anxious they might die the next day: now anxiety is pointless. In this weather, in this windy storm, I would never have sent the children out. They have been carried off. In this weather, in this gale, they rest, they rest, as if in their mother's house: not terrified by any storm, but sheltered by the Hand of God, they rest, they rest, as in their mother's house."

Scoring and performance

The work is scored for a vocal soloist (the notes lie comfortably for a baritone or mezzo-soprano) and an orchestra consisting of piccolo, 2 flutes, 2 oboes, English horn (cor anglais), 2 clarinets, bass clarinet, 2 bassoons, contrabassoon, 4 horns, timpani, glockenspiel, tam-tam, celesta, harp, and the usual string section of first and second violins, violas, cellos, and double basses.

The composer wrote, concerning the performance of the work, "these five songs are intended as one inseparate unit, and in performing them their continuity should not be interfered with". [This instruction is reproduced on page 3 of the piano score (IMC, New York, c.1952).]

The "Kinder-totenlieder" were premiered in Vienna on January 29 1905. Friedrich Weidemann was the soloist, and the composer conducted.

The work takes about 20 minutes to perform.

Selected recordings

* Heinrich Rehkemper with orchestra (Berlin, Polydor 78rpm 66693-66695, before 1936)
* Kirsten Flagstad, Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra cond. Adrian Boult (Decca 414624, = London LP OS 25039/LXT 5395)
* Kathleen Ferrier Concertgebouw Orchestra of Amsterdam, cond. Otto Klemperer (Decca CD 028942599529)
* Kathleen Ferrier, Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra cond. Bruno Walter (Orig. Columbia 78 rpm LX 8939-8941: Col. 33c 1009: HMV/Angel LP & CD)
* Lorri Lail, Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra cond. Rolf Kleinert (Saga LP 5106-7)
* Vera Soupokova, Czech Philharmonic Orchestra cond. Vaclav Neumann (Supraphon LP SUA 10498)
* Norman Foster, Bamberg Symphony Orchestra cond. Jascha Horenstein (1955) (VOXBOX CDX2 5509)
* John Shirley-Quirk, with Benjamin Britten (BBC LP Transcription CN 515 01)
* Anne Sofie von Otter, Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra cond. Pierre Boulez (DGG CD)
* Christa Ludwig, Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra cond. Herbert von Karajan (DGG CD)
* Christa Ludwig, Philharmonia Orchestra cond. André Vandernoot (Col. CX 1671/Angel LP 35776)
* Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra cond. Rudolf Kempe (Electrola Breitklang SME 91 387 (ASDW 9159)/HMV BLP 1081)
* Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra cond. Karl Böhm ((DGG LP 138 879)
* Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, w. Daniel Barenboim (pno) (EMI CDC7676572)
* Hermann Prey, Concertgebouw Orchestra of Amsterdam cond. Bernard Haitink (Philips LP)
* Janet Baker, Israel Philharmonic Orchestra cond. Leonard Bernstein (Columbia MQ 33532)
* Janet Baker, Hallé Orchestra cond. John Barbirolli (EMI/HMV LP ASD 4409: EMI GROC CD 24356 69962)
* Marilyn Horne, cond Henry Lewis (Decca LP SXL 6446)
* Maureen Forrester, Boston Symphony Orchestra cond. Charles Munch (RCA Victor LP)
* Brigitte Fassbaender, Deutsches Symphony Orchestra cond. Riccardo Chailly (Decca CD 425 790-2)
* Thomas Hampson, Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra cond. Leonard Bernstein (DGG CD 28943 16822)
* Thomas Hampson, w. Wolfram Rieger (pno) (EMI CLassics 24355 64432)
* Bryn Terfel, Philharmonia Orchestra of London cond. Giuseppe Sinopoli (DGG CD)

Notes

External links

* [http://www.impresario.ch/karaoke/index.php?query=Kindertotenlieder Kindertotenlieder (MIDI)]
* [http://www.classical.net/music/comp.lst/works/mahler/kindertotenlieder/ A discussion of the songs by Mitch Friedfeld]
* [http://inkpot.com/classical/mahkinder.html A discussion of the songs by Eric Lim]
* [http://www.recmusic.org/lieder/assemble_texts.html?SongCycleId=107 The German lyrics as translated by Emily Ezust] ; from Ezust's [http://www.recmusic.org/lieder/ Lied and Art Song Texts Page]
* [http://gelfo.net/mahler/ A side by side layout of German & English text, using Emily Ezust's translation]
* The [http://www.dlib.indiana.edu/variations/scores/bgz3142/index.html score] of the work has been posted by the [http://www.music.indiana.edu/muslib.html William and Gayle Cook Music Library] at the Indiana University School of Music.
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