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Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen1995

If on e were looking for just o11e feature that united all three ofMahler's orchestral song-cycles, one would no t go far wrong incoming up \Vith the 11arrative idea, i.e. the concept of a cycle that issomething more than a sequence, however carefully ordered thatmight be. In Mahler's hands the sequence became a narrative,beginning at one point, ending at quite another; and in between, awide area of experience has been traversed by the supposed protagonist of all three cycles. It is of course the singer or, in the caseof Das Lied FOil der Erde, singers wh o impersonate the various rolesthat Mahler entrusts to them, though by the time he was composing Das Lied he had left far behind him the narrative simplicity ofthe Gesellm songs: what we encounter in his last song-cycle is something much more complex than the relatively straightforward historyof a single, simple hero and his frustrated passion (the Gescllm songs\vere inspired by Mahler's mvn highly charged feelings - they musthave been' -for a singer at the opera at Kassel, Johanna Richter).

In Das Lied, \Ve have a number of roles that the singers impersonate, while, in addition, the composer himself emerges - in thefinale, 'Der Abschied', in particular - as protagonist-in-chief, summing up, transforming and finally transcen ding all the varied kindsof experience that the five previous songs (or movements, better)had explored; and it is Das Lied, by the \vay, that provides us witha classic example of ending up somewhere quite different fromwhere vve started ou t at the beginning.

More of that later. For the moment, let us stay with the rzarratil'eidea, which, as I think is incontrovertible, \vas fundamental no tonly to the song-cycles bu t also to the symphonies. Indeed, one ofthe most fascinating aspects of Mahler's oeuvre as a whole is the

First published in G,\1WL, pp .2. I . 20-23 .

LIEDER EINES FAHRENDEN GESELLEN 11 3

relationship betvveen the song-cycles and the symphonies, or, as Iprefer to describe it, the overlapping between a song-cycle and thesurrounding (or in the case of the Gesellm cycle, ensuing) symphony.Of special importance in this regard is the influence the later songcycles had on the form of the later symphonies; here, once again,Das Lied is a lows classiws, the song-cycle that is a symphony, or,if you prefer, the symphony that is a song-cycle. Th e use of eitherterm requires no adjustment in one's thinkin g. Above all, as we shallsee, what was, from the outset, a leading characteristic of the narrative idea - i.e. not ending up vvhere one started - was developedby Mahler across his symphonies; from first to last, into the conceptof the 'frame', where the finale no t only lands us up somewhereelse but also resolves, brings to a conclusion, what the first movement had, so to say, left unfinished in terms of narrative; and to thecompletion of the narrative Mahler added a further dimension, theresolution of a conflict, a drama, outlined in the first movement (orfirst song in the case of the song-cycles) while the denouement iskept for the last. Th e tension between these tvvo poles provides thethread of continuity throughout the often varied intervening middlemovements and songs.

It is clear already, that no sooner does one start thinking aboutthe song-cycles than Mahler's symphonies become an integral partof the discussion; and there could hardly be a clearer case of thisfundamental relationship than that betvveen the first cycle, theGescllefl songs, and the First Symphony. Indeed, the first movementof the symphony is built ou t of the cycle's second song, 'Ging heut'morgen i.iber's Feld', \Vhile the symphony's mvn parody funeralmarch, its third movement, quotes substantially from the cycle'sfourth and last song, also a march, itself a funeral march of a kindcertainly the broken-hearted hero of the cycle buries his hopesbeneath the linden tree, if no t himself. It is of some significance thatthis particular passage derives from an earlier work, Das klage11deLied, \vhere in that tale of fratricide, the younger knight sinks torest beneath a willow tree, only to be slain by his elder and jealousbrother. Th e equation sleep = oblivion = death is surely very tellingwhen one hears the quotation in the last of the Geselle11 songs andrecalls its anticipation in the early cantata.

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I 14 SCRUTINYInevitablv the Gesellm cvcle does no t at this earlv stage in' . 'Mahler's creative life display every feature that I have touched on

in my preliminary remarks. Bu t one basic feature is there: our herostarts from and finishes at tonal levels that are emphatically distinct.His point of departure at the beginning of Song I is D minor; hemakes his exit in Song 4 in F minor.

In between. he 'travels', tonally, i.e. Song I concludes in G minor,which functions as an upbeat to the opening D of Song 2, vv'hichin turn closes on F sharp. Song 3 returns us to D minor and endsin E flat minor, thus initiating a semitonal ascent which, at thebeginning of Song 4, establishes E minor. while it is in F minor thatthe song- the tuneral march - comes to rest, as I have pointed ou tabove. Thus ou r hero is in a state of perpetual mobility.

Th e four songs cover a >vide range of preponderantly slowtempi: there is really only one genuinely fast song, the agitatedthird song- 'Ich hab' ein gliihend Messer' (one remembers that it iswith a sword that the younger brother is dispatched in Das klage11deLied)- which Mahler marks 'stiir111isch, ltild', and only one extendedstretch of a moderate tempo, i.e. the first three stanzas of the secondsong, Ging heut' morgens iibers Feld'.Th e tempi indeed reflect thegenerally unhappy narrative that the Gesel/m cycle unfolds, one ofcontinually disappointed, frustrated love.

This results in fact in one of the cycle's singular features. No tone of the songs provides relief. There are glimpses of happinessvouchsafed by Nature, birdsong, especially in the brief E flatmiddle part of the first song, for example, or the vision of a beautiful, pastoral world in which the hero exults in the second song.But the first song returns to the compact motif of sorrow withwhich it opens - a motif that itself compulsively returns to thepitch with which it begins (an image of the lover trapped withinhis grief)- while the second, in a slow concluding section (F sharp)of the greatest poignancy, suggests that the preceding, ecstaticvision of Nature is all illusion:

Nun fangt auch mein Gluck wohl anNein! Nein! Das ich mein'.mir nimmer. nimmer bliihen kann!

'

liEDER E!NES FAHRENDEN GESELLE"'

!Viii my joy II OIL'_flower too'l\'o, 110; 1uell I kl lvice, first in E minor, then in anunstable C major/minor ('Ich bin ausgegangen in stiller Nacht' ('!went ou t at the dead of night')), then a modulation to F (harpprominent) and a visionary closing episode, 'Auf der Strasse standein Lindenbaum' ('By the \vayside stands a linden tree'), in whichthe hero, we must suppose, finds final rest and ultimate peacebeneath the linden tree. Th e march here - though its rhythm isnever abandoned - is transformed into something altogethergentler and calmer, a change of character reflected in the instrumentation, which departs from the regimental windband model

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rr 6 SCRUTIKYthat is close to the surface in the setting of the first t\vo stanzas. Andyet, with that characteristic insistence that 'truth' rather than consolatory 'art' should have the last word, in the final three bars thewind-band image returns and rounds of f the F major transformation with a restatement of the basic march rhythm in an unequivocal F minor, thus discharging to the full Mahler's own directionthat the song should be interpreted 'ol111e Smtimentalitiit'.

Thus ends Mahler's first orchestral song-cycle, with a lyricfuneral march. One does not, of course, want to exaggerate thepoint; and certainly there is something undeniably Wertheresqueabout Mahler's hero, wh o wears his (broken) heart on his sleevewithout remission. None the less, it remains true that, the SixthSymphony apart, the Gcsellm cycle is the most consistently pessimistic of Mahler's works, \\,ithout on e song that frees itself ofsorro\v. It is salutary to remind ourselves how often in symphoniesand songs to come he was to celebrate joy and happiness. Furthermore, in his First Symphony he was able, so to speak, to give thestory of his hero a new slant. To be sure, the symphony has a funeralmarch which incorporates a recollection of that ultimate peace ou rhero finds beneath his linden tree in the Geselletz songs. But in theensuing finale of the symphony the hero is marvellously resurrecte dand re-emerges, alive and kicking, and though still suffering thepangs of frustrated love, rides to triumph in a blaze of D major asthe symphony ends. (Our hero was to be buried again in the firstmovement of the Second and resurrected yet again, bu t this timeon a monumental scale, in the symphony's finale.)

As I have remarked, the Gesellw cycle reveals some of the basicpatterns and modes of thinking common to all Mahler's symphonies and song-cycles, while also revealing its ow n singularities.But one important structural device it does no t fully reveal: theconcept of the framing outer movements. Th e Gesclle11 songs ofcourse have their O\Vn unique shape, one determined hO\vever bythe unfolding of the poetic images and events rather than by formaldemands and obligations. Th e frame is there, very much so, in theFirst Symphony; and thenceforth was to be virtually a permanentfeature of song-cycle and symphony alike.When Benjamin Britten,still a student, heard the Gesellen songs in 193 r in London, he wrote

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liS SCRUTI'IYin his diary; 'Lovely little pieces, exquisitely scored - a lesson to allthe Strausses and Elgars in the \vorld' (and a lesson Britten himselfwas quick to learn, one might add); and indeed the instrumentation of the cycle is of a clarity and refinement that anticipate thechamber-musical textures of Ki11dertotmlieder and Das Lied. Thelargest orchestra Mahler deploys in the Gesellm cycle is heard onlyin the tumultuous third song; the first song uses virtually a chamber orchestra, while the last excludes the brass entirely, bu t for themost sparing use of three of the four horns in sixteen bars only,four of those for horn solo!

There is no doubt that from the outset Mahler envisaged theGesellm cycle as an orchestral song-cycle - so much is clear fromthe title-page of the earliest manuscript of the work known to us,for voice and piano. It seems probable, however, that Mahler didno t get dovm to orchestrating the work until there was a possibilityof a premiere for the cycle in its orchestral guise of some importance. Perhaps the cycle may have had a performance in its voiceand-piano version before I 896, bu t if there were one, we have norecord of it; which leaves I 896 as the year in which the cycle madeits first appearance in orchestral guise, when Mahler himself conducted the >vork in Berlin on I 6 March I 896: the other work onthe programme vvas his mv n First Symphony, a fascinating juxtaposition of wo works so intimately related. It \vas for this occasion,I believe, that Mahler at last brought to fruition the orchestrationof the Geselle11 cycle which had always been his creative intention,helped, no doubt, by the experience he had nmv had of \vorkingon the orchestration of the symphony which itself had undergonemany vicissitudes.

Symphony No. I:'The most spontaneous and

daringly composed ofmy works'1996In April I 896, when Mahler conducted performances of his FirstSymphony and the Geselle11 song-cycle in the same programme inBerlin, he remarked to his confidante Natalie Bauer-Lechner: Peoplehave not yet accepted my language. They have no notion of >vhat Iam saying or \vhat I mean, and so it all seems senseless and unintelligible to them. Even the musicians \vho play my \vorks hardlyknmv what I am driving at.'What possible relationship could there be between the symphonyand the song-cycle? Th e bewilderment of Mahler's listeners, of hisplayers. can be understood. No t surprisingly they missed the wholepoint of the exercise, \vhich, I believe, \Vas Mahler's intention toelucidate - i lluminate - his symphony by m e a ~ ~ s the so11g-cycle. Inshort, the song-cycle was to function as the explanatory note thatwas missing from the programme.

When Mahler launched his first big work for orchestra alone inBudapest in I 889, it was no t described as a symphony at all, but asa 'Symphonic Poem'. in two parts and five (not four) movements.Apart rom the 'A Ia pompcs_{lmebres' inscription for the slow movement, which in any case only confused the audiences at the premiereby contradicting its ex pectations of a dignified tuneral march, therevvas no programme. Discouraged no doubt by the hostile reaction ofhis listeners, Mahler then contrived a 'scenario' by way of elucidation.

For a later performance in I 893 at Hamburg, for example, hedescribed the first movement as 'Frfihli11g 1111d kei11 E11de' ('Spring

Liner note for the II)()(, recording of Mahler's First Symphony by Riccardo Chailly andthe Royal Concertgehouw Orchestra, Decc.1 44-K-K 13-2 .