In 1907, a friend presented Mahler with a volume of poetry by Hans Bethge entitled Die chinesische Flöte ("The Chinese Flute"), and the composer was entranced. He was going through the most difficult period of his life: he had just lost his oldest daughter at the age of 5, had recently been diagnosed with heart disease and was being forced out of his position as director of the Vienna Staatsoper. Under these dramatic circumstances, Mahler turned to Bethge’s free German renderings of Classic Chinese poems – or should we call them a collection of beautiful German poems loosely based on Classic Chinese originals? Either way, the poems seemed to Mahler to sum up the entire terrestrial experience of Man and Woman, and the composer attempted nothing less than to capture that totality in music.
Totality, however, cannot be achieved except through detail. The form of Das Lied unfolds in a succession of movements, each of which concentrates on one particular aspect of life on earth. The first and last of these constitute, in the words of leading Mahler scholar Donald Mitchell, a "majestic frame surrounding a group of movements of diverse character and tempi" – the same pattern, incidentally, that Mahler had used in his Second Symphony. In the case of Das Lied, the "majestic frame" consists of "Das Trinklied vom Jammer der Erde," ("The Drinking Song of Earth’s Sorrow") and "Abschied," ("Farewell") – two deeply tragic movements. The intervening shorter episodes (evoking the changing seasons and the transience of youth and beauty) represent a full life cycle, depicting all the things to which we will have to say farewell.
Such is the overall structure of Das Lied; it is, in essence, a symphonic structure even though it has little to do with the allegro-adagio-scherzo-finale form of traditional symphonies. Mahler intended the work as a symphony for two singers and orchestra, not a song cycle. It is quite another question that he did not give the work a number – it would have been No. 9, a number of which he had a superstitious fear, according to a much-repeated story. Since Beethoven’s gigantic Ninth, this number could not be taken lightly; what is worse, no composer after Beethoven had been able to complete more than nine symphonies. According to the well-known story, Mahler tried to fool Fate by writing Das Lied. He was subsequently able to complete his "official" Ninth, but Fate could not be fooled: the Tenth remained unfinished when Mahler died on May 18, 1911. Das Lied was premiered posthumously, on November 10, 1911, in Munich under the direction of Mahler’s former assistant, Bruno Walter.
1. "Das Trinklied vom Jammer der Erde" ("The Drinking Song of Earth’s Sorrow") is probably the only toast ever given that, in so many words, says "to death" instead of "to life." Before we can enjoy our wine, we have to be reminded of the misery of our existence, the brevity of life and the horrors of the world (symbolized by the howling ape). It is a most unsettling world, that appears in the music only to be brushed aside when it is finally time to drink. The movement exudes high energy and defiance; the only quiet moments are the three utterances of the line "Dunkel ist das Leben, ist der Tod" ("Dark is life, and so is death") – each repeat a half-step higher than the previous one.
2. "Der Einsame im Herbst" ("The Lonely One in Autumn"). The long oboe solo that opens this movement sets a plaintive tone for the alto soloist, who sings of chilly winds and a weary heart. The lethargic feelings know almost no respite throughout the movement, except at the end at the brief mention of the "Sonne der Liebe" ("sun of love").
3. "Von der Jugend" ("Of Youth") is the happiest movement (indeed, the only entirely happy one) in the work. The peaceful idyll in the little porcelain pavilion prompted Mahler to use the pentatonic scale (playable on the black keys of the piano), associated with China. This is the only movement where he resorted to this kind of "local color"; it is, therefore, ironic to find that the "porcelain pavilion" – the recurrent, dominant image of the poem – never existed in the Chinese original. It arose from a misinterpretation of a Chinese character by Judith Gautier, one of the French translators whose work was used by Bethge.
4. "Von der Schönheit" ("Of Beauty") tells of a fleeting encounter between a group of young girls and some handsome horsemen who are riding by. The heart of one of the girls begins to beat faster at the sight of one of the young lads, but finally she is left with nothing but memories. The movement contains two instrumental interludes in march tempo, marking the arrival and the departure of the horsemen. At the end, the excitement subsides and the main theme is broken up into small fragments as the happy vision fades.
5. "Der Trunkene im Frühling" ("The Drunkard in Spring"). A last glimmer of hope is offered by a small bird singing in a tree, heard by a man who is determined to drink himself into oblivion. The man, who has long since given up on life, hears the bird promise a new spring; but it is too late. He asks: "What does spring matter to me?" – and the innocent voice of the bird, represented by a violin solo, is silenced by the coarse drinking song.
6. "Der Abschied" ("Farewell"), the last movement, lasts about half an hour (about as long as the other five movements put together). Here we enter a world that is completely different from what we have heard in the first five movements. On a structural level, the clear symmetrical forms of the earlier movements are abandoned in favor of a more free, rhapsodic unfolding of the music. Sometimes Mahler even dispenses with the barline and allows the vocal and instrumental lines to evolve free from any metrical constraints whatsoever.
In his extensive analysis of Das Lied, Donald Mitchell broke down the last movement into four major units, each consisting of several "recitatives," "arias," and instrumental interludes, with occasional recapitulations of material previously heard. The text combines two separate Bethge poems: "Awaiting a Friend" and "The Friend’s Departure," offering a vague hint at a plot. The two characters – one who is waiting and one who alights from his horse only to announce that he is leaving forever – both share the same sadness and the same nostalgia; they seem eventually to merge into one person.
The first major section of the movement takes us from the lugubrious beginning (with its ominous tam-tam strokes) to a gradually unfolding vision of the whole world going peacefully to sleep. (Mahler expands on an image already introduced in the second movement, "Der Einsame im Herbst.") The second section starts calmly but grows more passionate as the Friend (another human being, the last remaining kindred spirit) is evoked. This section ends on an emotional high point, after which an expressive cello solo, by way of transition, leads to the return of the movement’s opening (strokes of the tam-tam). An extensive orchestral interlude – the third major section – follows as Mahler reiterates, without words, some of the melodic material of the first section. It is a funeral march of massive proportions where marchlike features (drumstroke, strong rhythmic profile) are combined with melodies of high lyrical intensity.
The last section begins as the singer re-enters with another quasi-recitative ("Er stieg vom Pferd" – "He dismounted…"), which gradually evolves into a poignant arioso. The most significant event of this section is without a doubt the switch from the tragic C-minor tonality, which has prevailed since the beginning of the movement, to a bright and soothing C major. At the moment of the final farewell to life, the text (and the music) speaks about flowers, springtime and eternal blossoming. The famous "ewig, ewig" ("eternal, eternal") that ends Das Lied conjures up a vision of timeless, unspeakable beauty which is the last thing the traveller beholds before leaving this earth forever.