"The Song of Earth" by Gustav Mahler
Recoursing to nature
from horror of death
“The Song of the Earth" is one of Gustav Mahler's (1869-1911) most controversial compositions concerning its musical identity. There is an ongoing debate, even today, among musicians about the nature of this exceptional musical composition: is it a symphony, even a great symphony or is it a lyrical symphony, while others see it as a "song cycle", or just a group of songs and nothing more?
This contradiction in understanding this piece comes from the nature of the work that Mahler accomplished while he was at the height of his anxiety and confusion in front of the human destiny, not as an individual problem, but as a universal one. He wanted to express, as in his symphonic works, in a special way that fits the specificity of the problem of the defenceless human being before his terrifying fate, which is death.
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"The Song of Earth" is undoubtedly an orchestral "Song Cycle” whose author has suggested that it be performed by two vocalists of the contralto (lowest female voice) and tenor (highest male vocal) vocalists respectively.
This piece applies to all of the "Song Cycle" specifications. As a multi-piece musical genre, it is quite different from the form of a sonata or symphony, because each movement within it can be understood as a separate piece that can be performed alone, and in fact, it was often performed as such during the nineteenth century[1].
Origin of Song Cycle
The “song cycle” genre has its origins in the late eighteenth century, but the best-known works in this genre were composed after 1800 by Beethoven, Schubert, Schumann, Brahms, and others.
As for Mahler, he composed this piece during 1907-1908. It consists of six songs, the texts of which are taken from ancient Chinese poems, and were presented for the first time in Munich in 1911, two years after his death.ل
The preferred theme in the "song cycle" is often emotional in nature, such as love, especially unrequited, and countryside images are frequently used. Vocal lines are often distinguished by their apparent simplicity, compared to the vocal transitions and lavish expressions that characterize operatic composition. All of these elements apply to “Song of the Earth”.
Song Cycle usually consists of a collection of poems in which a particular narrative thread can be traced. Schubert's "The Mill Belle" is an example of this, where the poet meets the beautiful owner of the mill but is unsuccessful in his attempts to win her over, losing her to his rival, the weather forecaster and hunter. The subject of the poet's disappointment revolves in this session through 20 poems written by Wilhelm Muller. Other courses consist of poems with a common theme but without a narrative thread. Schumann's "A Woman's Love and Life", inspired by the poems he selected from a larger body of published poems, is a case in point.
A Woman's Love and Life
Other cycles consist of poems with a common theme but without a narrative thread. Schumann's "A Woman's Love and Life", inspired by the poems he selected from a larger body of published poems.
Without a doubt, “The Song ofEarth” has a special structure that does not match any familiar musical structure. It is related to singing, and this is true, but it is also similar to a symphonic composition, hence the controversy about its identity. However, Mahler was seeking in all his works to reach a new musical form using the idea of the song (leader). In his earlier symphonies, such as the Third and Fourth, which are also related to the song, only a part of the work takes the form of the song, while in “Song of the Earth” all six movements take this lyrical form.
Schumann and the song cycle
Frauen-Liebe und Leben "love of woman and her life" and Dichterliebe "The poet's love" are the most famous examples of the "Song Cycle",
Both were composed as song cycles by composer Robert Schumann (1810-1856) in year 1840, which was considered his "Year of Song" as he devoted his life to writing music and literature in Leipzig.
Most of his compositions were for piano and devoted to his teacher's daughter, Clara Wieck, who later became his wife.
Frauen-Liebe und Leben is the story of a woman from her first meeting with a man through marriage to his death.
As for Dichterliebe," a love story of a poet reflecting his his love for Clara. It is the second most famous Schumann's song cycle.
Picture: Schumman
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The texts of these six songs come from outside the Western tradition, from China, which naturally makes the music a kind of antithesis between East and West, or perhaps a harmony between them. It is the union of two worlds, with two very different parts; The ritualistic one employs Chinese texts, while the second is spiritual and subjective, in which the human being is presented as a defenceless individual in the face of his destiny. Such an interest in the Orient was prevalent in European culture with the decline of the nineteenth century and the dawn of the twentieth century. Many western writers were influenced by it, especially by significant cultural figures fascinated by the Orient and its cultures, such as the German poets Friedrich Ruckert and Friedrich Schiller and the French musicians Maurice Ravel and Claude Debussy.
In all his music, Mahler seeks something universal, eschewing the stereotypes in which the West looks to the East. In his works, he highlights this sense of the stages of life and the struggle of the human being with his isolation and fate that ends in the face of death, exploring these ideas not as an individual fate but from a comprehensive cosmic philosophical perspective. His tragic question was: How can there be all this cruelty, brutality and suffering in this universe despite the existence of this charming nature?
Schubert and Die schöne Mühle
Franz Schubert composed music for twenty poems from the poems by Wilhelm Muller and published them as Song Cycle under the title Die Schone Mullerin.
The cycle begins as a cheerful young man wanders around a windmill in the countryside. He falls in love with the beautiful daughter of the mill owner and tries to win her heart, but she rejects him. Soon, a young hunter wins her heart. The young man suffering from despair and obsession with her imagines he is drowned in the river, and flowers grow on his grave to express his undying love for her.
picture: Schubert
“The Song of Earth” is a six-text from ancient Chinese poetry that Mahler puts into a lyrical through continuous development of the central motif, albeit unconventionally. A universal solution is to embrace nature as an escape from the inevitable human destiny.
Mahler was experiencing severe personal and emotional distress when writing this composition. These songs deal with life, death, love and separation. And the idea of death dominated him as he watched the death of his six brothers and his daughter before his eyes and the madness of one of his brothers and two of his closest friends. Summer then falls, and winter returns, which is how the natural cycle of life is repeated. While for the human being, it is the fate of complete nothingness with no return.
And the central idea of this piece summarises that young men think they will not die; although they all realize that death is inevitable, they delude that this fate will be for others and not for them. In all his works, in front of the horror of human destiny, Mahler always yearns for eternal peace in returning to the bosom of Mother Nature... to the heart of the earth.
Chinese atmosphere
This piece is based on the development of the central motif with the clarity and purity of the musical instrument distribution; it employs here the traditional orchestral form with more wind instruments. The piece's material simulates a semi-Chinese atmosphere using the pentatonic scale, filled with deep heartache. It is Mahler's favourite style in all of his musical compositions.
Movements of the cycle:
The first movement: "The Drinking Song of Earth `sorrow",: sounds of violent resistance to sadness and despair by employing the orchestra in a bright melody about the beauty of the land and the joy of life. But the spectre of death is also present:
The second movement: "The Lonely one in Autumn",: is a slow-paced movement depicting the scene of fog on the blue of the lake and the tremor of frost
The third movement: "Youth": A refreshing, resonant motion of the scene of girls and boys whispering in the garden of an island home while sipping tea, everyone's sight reflected upside down on the water:
The fourth movement: "Beauty": is a gentle slow-motion depicting young girls collecting flowers, a noisy middle section describing horsemen passing by Young maidens picking flowers,
The fifth movement: "Drunkard in Spring", is a strong movement that moves smoothly from one key to another, active and staggering (the happy drunk struggles to reach his bed).
The sixth movement: "Farewell", is Relatively slow (adagio), which is the most extended movement of the piece and its peak. The atmosphere is sad and tragic. The unmistakable sound of Tam Tam Tam drum. Stab pain from the oboe machine. A melancholy rhythm accompanies the horns and the clarinet for a procession that goes away fading away:
Gustav Mahler's music includes all the conflicting human emotions; He expresses in it all that he was experiencing.
German opera singer Christa Ludwig
