Five Songs
A. MAHLER
At-A-Glance
Composed: 1900–01, orchestrated 1996
Length: c. 12 minutes
Orchestration: 2 flutes (2nd=piccolo), 2 oboes (2nd=English horn), 2 clarinets, bass clarinet, 2 bassoons, 4 horns, 2 trumpets, 3 trombones, timpani, percussion (tam-tam, triangle), harp, strings, and solo voice
First Los Angeles Philharmonic performance: First LA Phil performance.
About this Piece
Alma Schindler was destined for greatness. Born in Vienna in 1879 to painter Emil Schindler and operetta singer Anna Sofie, Alma had talent, brains, and beauty, which captivated many of the leaders among Vienna’s cultural class. Her first kiss was rumored to have been with Secessionist artist Gustav Klimt, when still a teenager. She would eventually count composer Gustav Mahler, Bauhaus founder Walter Gropius, and writer Franz Werfel among her husbands, and composer Alexander Zemlinsky and artist Oskar Kokoschka as lovers.
With the company she kept, it’s no wonder that Alma Mahler became known as one of history’s great muses, but it came at the expense of her recognition as an artist in her own right. Before she met any of these men, Alma Schindler was a talented pianist and aspiring composer. She began writing music at the age of 9 and poured herself into piano studies following the death of her father, when she was 12. A few years later, she began composition lessons with the well-known musician Josef Labor and eventually Zemlinsky, who also taught Arnold Schoenberg. With Zemlinsky, Schindler began an ill-fated love affair; while she admired his talents and intellect, she mocked his physical appearance and stature in Viennese society. The relationship ended abruptly as her whirlwind romance with Gustav Mahler started. They met in November 1901, married in March 1902, and welcomed their first child later that fall.
The Five Songs were written from 1900 to 1901, during the tumultuous period of Alma’s relationship with Zemlinsky and her courtship with Mahler. The order in which they were composed is unclear, but Alma’s skills as a pianist and her literary tastes are on display in the accompaniment and texts.
The first song, “Die stille Stadt” (The quiet town), sets a poem by Richard Dehmel, whose “Verklärte Nacht” (Transfigured night) inspired Arnold Schoenberg’s first masterpiece in 1899. Harmonically the most complex of the set, “Die stille Stadt” begins on Richard Wagner’s enigmatic “Tristan” chord, setting the scene for a traveler’s journey through misty mountains at dusk.
“In meines Vaters Garten” (In my father’s garden) is the longest of the set and was likely written the same month that Alma met Gustav. It begins as a smiling waltz to Otto Erich Hartleben’s lyrics of blooming love underneath an apple tree, but a red morning and the sounds of drums ominously signal war. In “Laue Sommernacht” (Mild summer night), the piano ascends chromatically as two lovers find each other in a dark night only to find the ecstatic light of love. Mahler continues to explore the nuances of all-consuming passions in the gently rocking “Bei dir ist es traut” (With you I feel at ease), with lyrics by Rainer Maria Rilke. The final song, “Ich wandle unter Blumen” (I wander among flowers), barely one minute long, tiptoes upward in the first of two short verses by Heinrich Heine before rapturously erupting, “drunk with love.”
Though the songs were written before Alma and Gustav wed, it took nearly a decade and a marital crisis to bring about their publishing. During their brief courtship, Gustav wrote Alma a 20-page letter in which he set forth the terms of their forthcoming union—specifically that their marriage could support only one artist, and telling Alma, “You have only one profession from now on: to make me happy!”
Alma’s unhappiness came into full relief for Gustav in 1910, when he came into possession of one of her letters from Gropius. It laid bare their affair and sent Gustav into a tailspin. Gustav sought help from Sigmund Freud and made arrangements for Alma’s songs to be published. Recitals featuring Alma’s songs were received warmly in Vienna and New York. Arnold Schoenberg, who heard the songs in Vienna, wrote to Alma, “A pity you didn’t continue that work. It would certainly have led somewhere.” —Amanda Angel