A listening guide of Des Knaben Wunderhorn -  Urlicht with Lew Smoley from ClassicalPodcasts.com.

The final movement culminates in a resolution. The music, also reused in the First Symphony (in the Scherzo “Funeral March in Callot’s manner”), is subdued and gentle, lyrical and often reminiscent of a chorale in its harmonies. Its title, “Die zwei blauen Augen von meinem Schatz” (“The Two Blue Eyes of my Beloved”), deals with how the image of those eyes has caused the Wayfarer so much grief that he can no longer stand to be in the environment.

He describes lying down under a linden tree, allowing the flowers to fall on him. He wishes to return to his life before his travels. He asks that the whole affair had never occurred: “Everything: love and grief, and world, and dreams!”  

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A listening guide of Lieder Eines Fahrenden Gesellen – Die Zwei Blauen Augen with Lew Smoley

The final movement is nearly as long as the previous five movements combined. Its text is drawn from two different poems, both involving the theme of leave-taking. Mahler himself added the last lines. This final song is also notable for its text-painting, using a mandolin to represent the singer’s lute, imitating bird calls with woodwinds, and repeatedly switching between the major and minor modes to articulate sharp contrasts in the text.

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A listening guide of Das Lied von der Erde – Der Abschied with Lew Smoley.

Boisterous timpani joined by blazing brass set the scene for the riotous fifth movement. The long, arduous first movement, after three shorter movements developmental in mood, is finally equalled by a substantial ‘daylight’ finale. The movement is a rondo combined with a set of eight variations, capped off by a dramatic coda. There are parodies of Richard Wagner (1813-1883) – Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg and Franz Lehar (1870-1948) – The Merry Widow.

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A listening guide of Symphony No. 7 - 5th Movement with Lew Smoley.

“Try to imagine the whole universe beginning to ring and resound. There are no longer human voices, but planets and suns revolving” (Gustav Mahler).

• Part I is based on the (sacred) Latin text of a 9th-century Christian hymn for Pentecost, Veni creator spiritus (“Come, Creator Spirit”).
• Part II is a setting of the words from the (secular) closing scene of Goethe’s Faust. The depiction of an ideal of redemption through eternal womanhood (das Ewige-Weibliche).

The two parts are unified by a common idea, that of redemption through the power of love, a unity conveyed through shared musical themes.

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A listening guide of Symphony No. 8 - Intro with Lew Smoley.

Veni Creator Spiritus (“Come Creator Spirit”) is a hymn believed to have been written by Rabanus Maurus in the 9th century. When the original Latin text is used, it is normally sung in Gregorian Chant. As an invocation of the Holy Spirit, in the practice of the Roman Catholic Church it is sung during the liturgical celebration of the feast of Pentecost (at both Terce and Vespers).

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A listening guide of Symphony No. 8 - 1st Movement with Lew Smoley.

The second part of the symphony follows the narrative of the final stages in Goethe’s poem-the journey of Faust’s soul, rescued from the clutches of Mephistopheles, on to its final ascent into heaven.

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A listening guide of Symphony No. 8 - 2nd Movement with Lew Smoley.

Symphony No. 9 by Gustav Mahler was written between 1908 and 1909, and was the last symphony he completed. Though the work is often described as being in the key of D major, the tonal scheme of the symphony as a whole is progressive. While the opening movement is in D major, the finale is in D-flat major.

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A listening guide of Symphony No. 9 - Intro with Lew Smoley.

The first movement embraces a loose sonata form. The key areas provide a continuation of the tonal juxtaposition displayed in earlier works (notably the Symphonies No. 6 and No. 7). The work opens with a hesitant, syncopated rhythmic motif (which Leonard Bernstein (1918-1990) suggested is a depiction of Mahler’s irregular heartbeat, which is heard throughout the movement).

The brief introduction also presents two other ideas: a three-note motif announced by the harp that provides much of the musical basis for the rest of the movement, and a muted horn fanfare that is also heard later. The main theme quotes the opening motif of Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827)‘s Piano Sonata No. 26 “Les Adieux”, Op. 81a, which coincidentally marked a turning point in Mahler’s early musical career as he performed “Les Adieux” during his graduation recital in college.

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A listening guide of Symphony No. 9 - 1st Movement with Lew Smoley.

The second movement is a series of dances, and opens with a rustic Ländler, which becomes distorted to the point that it no longer resembles a dance. It contains shades Mahler’s Symphony no.4, Movement 2: In gemächlicher Bewegung, in the distortion of a traditional dance into a bitter and sarcastic one.

Traditional chord sequences are altered into near-unrecognizable variations, turning the rustic yet gradually decaying C major introductory Ländler into a vicious whole-tone waltz, saturated with chromaticism and frenetic rhythms. Strewn amidst these sarcastic dances is a slower and calmer Ländler which reintroduces the “sighing” motif from the first movement. The movement ends with a cheeky pianissimo nod from the piccolo and contrabassoon. 

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A listening guide of Symphony No. 9 - 2nd Movement with Lew Smoley.

The third movement, in the form of a rondo, displays the final maturation of Mahler’s contrapuntal skills. It opens with a dissonant theme in the trumpet which is treated in the form of a double fugue. The following five-note motif introduced by strings in unison recalls of Symphony No. 5, Movement 2: Stürmisch bewegt, mit größter Vehemenz.

There are two similar fugues in the movement, of which the final is unique in that it presents the subject in subsequent fifths instead of the fifth and the octave as most fugues do. The violent contrapuntal music is leads twice by a sarcastic parody of Viennese popular music at the time, such as that of Franz Franz Lehar (1870-1948).

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A listening guide of Symphony No. 9 - 3rd Movement with Lew Smoley.

The final movement, marked zurückhaltend (“very slowly and held back”; literally, “reservedly”), opens with only strings. Commentators have noted the similarity of the opening theme in particular to the hymn tune Eventide (Abide With Me is a well-known Christian hymn composed by Henry Francis Lyte in 1847).

But most importantly it incorporates a direct quote from the Rondo-Burleske’s middle section. Here it becomes an elegy. After several impassioned climaxes the movement becomes increasingly fragmented and the coda ends quietly.

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A listening guide of Symphony No. 9 - 4th Movement with Lew Smoley

Symphony No. 10 was written in the summer of 1910, and was his final composition. At the time of Mahler’s death the composition was substantially complete in the form of a continuous draft; but not being fully elaborated at every point, and mostly not orchestrated, it was not performable in that state. Only the first movement is regarded as reasonably complete and performable as Mahler intended. Perhaps as a reflection of the inner turmoil he was dealing with at the time (Mahler knew he had a failing heart and his wife had committed infidelity), the 10th Symphony is arguably his most musically dissonant work.

Mahler started his work on his Tenth Symphony 07-1910 in Toblach, and ended his efforts in September the same year. He never managed to complete the orchestral draft before his premature death at the age of fifty from a streptococcal infection of the blood.

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A listening guide of Symphony No. 10 - Intro with Lew Smoley

The second scherzo of the work is provided by the fifth movement. Like the first, it opens with a horn theme. In this movement Mahler uses an extensive variety of key signatures, which can change as often as every few measures. The middle section features a solo violin and solo flute, which represent the bird the singer describes.

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A listening guide of Das Lied von der Erde – Der Trunkene im Frühling with Lew Smoley.

The very opening of the symphony (which is in the key of F-sharp major) maintains a connection with the final movement of the Ninth. A long, bleak Andante melody for violas alone leads to the exposition of the slow first theme in the strings. This theme is developed and another, lighter theme is exposed. The music dies away and the violas repeat the opening theme.

With slight variation, the opening adagio is repeated and developed in a growing intensity. This also soon dies away, leaving several variations upon the more light second theme. This works up to the climax: an extremely powerful variation upon the first theme. This intense restatement culminates in a terrifying dissonance. The music after this massive outburst becomes very quiet and does not suggest any resolution to the darkness of the climax.

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A listening guide of Symphony No. 10 - 1st Movement with Lew Smoley

The second movement, the first of two brilliant Scherzo movements, consists of two main ideas, the first of which is notated in consistently changing metres, which would have proved a challenge to Mahler’s conducting technique had he lived to perform the symphony. This alternates with a joyful and typically Mahlerian Ländler.

It is almost certainly this movement Paul Stefan (1879-1943) had in mind when he described the symphony as containing “gaiety, even exuberance” (Cooke’s translation).

Movement 2: Scherzo. Schnelle Viertel

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A listening guide of Symphony No. 10 - 2nd Movement with Lew Smoley

The Purgatorio movement (originally entitled Purgatorio oder Inferno (Purgatory or Hell)) but the word “Inferno” was struck out, is a brief vignette presenting a struggle between alternately bleak and carefree melodies with a perpetuum mobile accompaniment, that are soon subverted by a diabolical undercurrent of more cynical music.

The short movement fails to end in limbo though, as after a brief recapitulation a sudden harp arpeggio and gong stroke pull the rug out from under it; it is consigned to perdition by a final grim utterance from the double basses.

“Purgatorio oder Inferno“. 

On the title page of the short score. The title page was cut in two with scissors or a razor blade. The word “Pergatorio” might have been suggested to Mahler by the identical title of a set of poems by Siegfried Lipiner (1856-1911). Because Alma had always disliked him she would have destroyed Mahler’s reference to him. However, the word “Purgatorio” was very appropriate, considering Mahler’s present ordeal.

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A listening guide of Symphony No. 10 - 3rd Movement with Lew Smoley

The scene is now set for the peculiarities of the second scherzo, which has a somewhat driven and harried character, and this also has significant connections to Mahler’s recent work: the sorrowful first movement of Das Lied von der Erde, Das Trinklied vom Jammer der Erde. There is an annotation on the cover of the draft to the effect that in this movement “The Devil dances with me”, and at the very end Mahler wrote “Ah! God! Farewell my lyre!”.

Cooke’s version finishes with a percussion coda employing both timpanists, bass drum, and a large military drum which is to be muffled, that leads directly into the final slow movement. This scherzo does not resemble the second scherzo in spirit; it is far more grave and sinister. Some consider it to be Mahler’s last “Horror Scherzo”.

The use of the military drum stems from a funeral procession that Mahler once observed: one day in the winter of 1907 when the Mahlers were staying in New York, the cortége of a deceased fire chief passed way below their hotel window, and from high up the only sound that could be heard was the muffled stroke of a large bass drum. The introduction to the fifth movement re-enacts this scene as a rising line on tubas supported by two double bassoons slowly tries to make headway and is repeatedly negated by the loud (but muffled) drum strokes.

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A listening guide of Symphony No. 10 - 4th Movement with Lew Smoley 

The emotional weight of the symphony is resolved by the long final movement, which incorporates and ties together music from the earlier movements, whereby the opening passage of the symphony, now transferred to the horns, is found to be the answer to tame the savage dissonance that had racked the end of the first movement.

The music of the flute solo that was heard after the introductory funeral scene can now return to close the symphony peacefully, and unexpectedly, in the principal key of F-sharp major. The draft for this movement reveals that Mahler had originally written the ending in B-flat major, but in the process of revision worked the same music into F-sharp, the key of the first movement.

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A listening guide of Symphony No. 10 - 5th Movement with Lew Smoley

The music of this movement is mostly soft and legato, meditating on the image of some 'young girls picking lotus flowers at the riverbank'. Later in the movement there is a louder, more articulated section in the brass as the young men ride by on their horses.

There is a long orchestral postlude to the sung passage, as the most beautiful of the young maidens looks longingly after the most handsome of the young men.

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A listening guide of Das Lied von der Erde – Von der Schönheit with Lew Smoley.

The third movement is the most obviously pentatonic and faux-Asian. The form is ternary, the third part being a greatly abbreviated revision of the first. It is also the shortest of the six movements, and can be considered a first scherzo. First this movement was called ‘Der Pavillon aus Porzellan’ (‘The pavilion made of porcelain’).

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A listening guide of Das Lied von der Erde – Von der Jugend with Lew Smoley.

This movement is a much softer, less turbulent movement. Marked ‘somewhat dragging and exhausted’, it begins with a repetitive shuffling in the strings, followed by solo wind instruments. The orchestration in this movement is sparse and chamber music-like, with long and independent contrapuntal lines.

The lyrics, which are based on the first part of a Tang Dynasty era poem by Qian Qi, lament the dying of flowers and the passing of beauty, as well as expressing an exhausted longing for sleep.

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A listening guide of Das Lied von der Erde – Der Einsame im Herbst with Lew Smoley.

The first movement continually returns to the refrain, Dunkel ist das Leben, ist der Tod (literally, 'Dark is life, is death'), which is pitched a semitone higher on each successive appearance. Like many drinking poems by Li Bai, the original poem 'Bei Ge Xing' (a pathetic song) mixes drunken exaltation with a deep sadness.

The singer's part is notoriously demanding, since the tenor has to struggle at the top of his range against the power of the full orchestra. This gives the voice its shrill, piercing quality, and is consistent with Mahler's practice of pushing instruments, including vocal cords, to their limits.

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A listening guide of Das Lied von der Erde – Das Trinklied vom Jammer der Erde with Lew Smoley.

A listening guide of Lieder Und Gesänge Aus Dem Jugendzeit – Intro with Lew Smoley from ClassicalPodcasts.com.

The final song, “Selbstgefühl” (My mood), starts with a dynamic of forte. To maintain a high level of playfulness, the tubist must observe the strict dynamic indications. Mahler indicated that the octave in the left hand of the piano part can be omitted throughout the song if the additional low notes create too thick of a texture in this register.

The piano extends the melodic line throughout this final song, playing the same melody in the right hand and completing the soloist’s musical thought, as seen in measures 25 and 56-57. 

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A listening guide of Lieder Und Gesänge Aus Dem Jugendzeit – Selbstgefühl with Lew Smoley.

Balancing the soft low texture with piano remains one of the main challenges for tubists in the penultimate song in this collection, “Nicht wiedersehen!” (Never to meet again). It is scored very low on the piano and would be easy to lose the melody inside of the harmony of the accompaniment. Mahler instructs the pianist to use the pedals freely, however perhaps the dampening pedal should be the most important. The effect of the sustain pedal will be too much for this song, especially when the pitches between the piano and tuba overlap.

The first three notes of this song are the most challenging notes on a Germany Rotary bass tuba in F, especially at a soft dynamic, like piano. The performer may modify articulations to assist in increasing the line’s accuracy and clarity. The first note after a breath should have a stronger articulation, as sometimes noted by a tenuto marking above or below the specified note.

“Never to meet again”.

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A listening guide of Lieder Und Gesänge Aus Dem Jugendzeit – Nicht Wiedersehen! with Lew Smoley.

“Scheiden und Meiden” (Partings) explores the metric juxtaposition of two versus three used in “Ablösung im Sommer.” “Trumpetlike” is the first expression in the music as F major arpeggios rise from the tuba and piano. Despite the repeated ascending passages, the first dynamic is piano so the tubist should strive to be precise to start with soft dynamics.

In this song, the pianist must take care to follow dynamics, which do not always coincide with those of the tubist. The rhythmic motor of the repeated ostinato in the piano provides the driving force for this first part of the song. As the text notes, “There rode three horsemen,” the piano rhythm mimics a riding motive made famous by Richard Wagner. As the song enters a new time signature (switching from triple to duple), it slows just slightly; however, the eighth note should stay relatively constant through this meter change. Wide triplets are notated in measures 23 and 24, providing an opportunity for both the pianist and the tubist to slow down and expand this duple section musically before the horse-like melody comes back in the piano and forces us to stay in strict time.

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A listening guide of Lieder Und Gesänge Aus Dem Jugendzeit – Scheiden Und Meiden with Lew Smoley.

Gustav Mahler score Klavierquartett, piano quartet, Movement 1: in A.

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A listening guide of Klavierquartett with Lew Smoley.

Misprints are rare, but this song contains one incorrect note in the piano part. In measure 3 of the IMC edition, the first left hand note should be A instead of F. Few instances exist where Mahler uses a hemiola effect in the piano. Measures 10 and 11 are a wonderful example of this effect, where the pianist can bring out the left hand duple feel by playing stronger.

“The changing of the summer guard”. 

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A listening guide of Lieder Und Gesänge Aus Dem Jugendzeit – Ablösung Im Sommer with Lew Smoley.

The tenth song in this collection, “Zu Strassburg auf der Schanz” (At Strasbourg on the battlement), starts with a very colorful piano entrance marked “as a folk tune” and “imitating the shawm.” 

As Donald Mitchell points out, this is of a type very characteristic of Mahler in his vocal as well as symphonic output: the slow farewell song or funeral march…We have a relatively simple example of the kind, remarkable chiefly for the piano’s imitation of the “Schalmei,” the chalumeau or herdsman’s pipe, which lures the homesick soldier into swimming the Rhine by night. There is also the imitation, in the left hand, of the military drums that accompany his capture, his conviction as a deserter, and the march to his execution. Mahler explicitly instructs the right hand to play “like a chalumeau,” and notes for the left: “In all those low trills the sound of muted drums is to be imitated by means of the pedal,” a clear indication that he was moving towards a song form with orchestra.

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A listening guide of Lieder Und Gesänge Aus Dem Jugendzeit – Zu Strassburg Auf Der Schanz with Lew Smoley.

One of the challenges with the ninth song in this collection, “Starke Einbildungskraft” (Strong imagination), concerns clarity of articulation. Sixteenth-note passages sound unclear with the piano part due to the imbalance of lower tones produced by both the piano and tuba. Changes have been notated in the tuba version to reflect these issues of clarity. Staccato markings and accents on the fronts of passages as well as the sixteenth-notes should ensure a clearer melodic line. The tubist could perform this work up an octave if he or she could achieve the desired clarity.

The shortest of the songs in this collection is a brief sweet conversation between a boy and a girl, but the simplicity of the melody makes it very musically challenging. 

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A listening guide of Lieder Und Gesänge Aus Dem Jugendzeit – Starke Einbildungskraft with Lew Smoley.

The majority of the songs in this collection begin with very soft dynamics. Eleven of the fourteen songs begin with the dynamic of piano, one song begins at pianissimo, and the remaining two songs (this song and the last song in the collection) begin at the dynamic of forte. The tubist should take advantage of this diversity of dynamics and style. The eighth song in this collection, “Aus! Aus!” (Over! Over!), has a strict sense of time. While some of the songs have a lyrical quality that allows for rubato, this melody is one of only a few that requires a steady march-like tempo.

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A listening guide of Lieder Und Gesänge Aus Dem Jugendzeit – Aus! Aus! with Lew Smoley

“I went joyfully through a green wood,” is a beautiful slow melody challenging the tubist to keep a consistent color of sound in the low register of the bass tuba. The first note is the lowest in the entire collection, a low G. Fingered 2-3-4-5 on a German Rotary F tuba, this pitch is a whole step above the fundamental of the instrument and somewhat unresponsive with less secure intonation and tone.

Starting the C major arpeggio on a low G, this opening phrase serves as a wonderful exercise for the tubist as they work on consistency of tone, response, and intonation in this challenging low register.

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A listening guide of Lieder Und Gesänge Aus Dem Jugendzeit – Ich Ging Mit Lust Durch Einen Grünen Wald with Lew Smoley.

This song is the first of the Wunderhorn Lieder for Voice and Piano. It is titled “Um sclimme Kinder artig zu machen” (To make bad children good) and is much longer than any from the previous collection. The quick and witty style will challenge the novice tubist with soft dynamics and repeated articulations.

“To teach naughty children to be good”. Original German folk song: “Es kam ein Herr zum Schlösseli”.

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A listening guide of Lieder Und Gesänge Aus Dem Jugendzeit – Un Schlimme Kinder Artig Zu Machen with Lew Smoley.

A listening guide of Lieder Und Gesänge Aus Dem Jugendzeit – Phantasie Aus Don Juan with Lew Smoley from ClassicalPodcasts.com.

A listening guide of Lieder Und Gesänge Aus Dem Jugendzeit – Serenade Aus Don Juan with Lew Smoley from ClassicalPodcasts.com.

A listening guide of Lieder Und Gesänge Aus Dem Jugendzeit – Erinnerung with Lew Smoley from ClassicalPodcasts.com.

A listening guide of Lieder Und Gesänge Aus Dem Jugendzeit – Frühlingsmorgen with Lew Smoley from ClassicalPodcasts.com.

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 Ruckert (1788-1866).

The original Kindertotenlieder were a group of 428 poems written by Rückert in 1833-1834 in an outpouring of grief following the illness (scarlet fever) and death of two of his children. Karen Painter describes the poems thus: “Rückert’s 428 poems on the death of children became singular, almost manic documents of the psychological endeavor to cope with such loss. In ever new variations Rückert’s poems attempt a poetic resuscitation of the children that is punctuated by anguished outbursts. But above all the poems show a quiet acquiescence to fate and to a peaceful world of solace.” These poems were not intended for publication, and they appeared in print only in 1871, five years after the poet’s death.

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A listening guide of Kindertotenlieder – Intro with Lew Smoley.

A listening guide of Lieder Und Gesänge Aus Dem Jugendzeit – Maitanz Im Grünen with Lew Smoley from ClassicalPodcasts.com.

A listening guide of Lieder Und Gesänge Aus Dem Jugendzeit – Im Lenz with Lew Smoley from ClassicalPodcasts.com.

A listening guide of Lieder Und Gesänge Aus Dem Jugendzeit – Winterlied with Lew Smoley from ClassicalPodcasts.com.

Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen (‘Songs of a Wayfarer’) is a song cycle by Gustav Mahler on his own texts. The cycle of four Lieder for low voice (often performed by women as well as men) was written around 1884-1885 in the wake of Mahler’s unhappy love for soprano Johanna Richter (1858-1943), whom he met while conductor of the opera house in Kassel, Germany, and orchestrated and revised in the 1890s.

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A listening guide of Lieder Eines Fahrenden Gesellen – Intro with Lew Smoley.

The final movement culminates in a resolution. The music, also reused in the First Symphony (in the Scherzo “Funeral March in Callot’s manner”), is subdued and gentle, lyrical and often reminiscent of a chorale in its harmonies. Its title, “Die zwei blauen Augen von meinem Schatz” (“The Two Blue Eyes of my Beloved”), deals with how the image of those eyes has caused the Wayfarer so much grief that he can no longer stand to be in the environment.

He describes lying down under a linden tree, allowing the flowers to fall on him. He wishes to return to his life before his travels. He asks that the whole affair had never occurred: “Everything: love and grief, and world, and dreams!”  

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A listening guide of Lieder Eines Fahrenden Gesellen – Die Zwei Blauen Augen with Lew Smoley.

The third movement is a full display of despair. Entitled “Ich hab’ein glühend Messer” (“I Have a Gleaming Knife”), the Wayfarer likens his agony of lost love to having an actual metal blade piercing his heart. He obsesses to the point where everything in the environment reminds him of some aspect of his love, and he wishes he actually had the knife.

The music is intense and driving, fitting to the agonized nature of the Wayfarer’s obsession.

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A listening guide of Lieder Eines Fahrenden Gesellen – Ich Hab’ Ein Glühend Messer with Lew Smoley.

The second movement, “Ging heut Morgen übers Feld” (“I Went This Morning over the Field”), contains the happiest music of the work. Indeed, it is a song of joy and wonder at the beauty of nature in simple actions like birdsong and dew on the grass. “Is it not a lovely world?” is a refrain. However, the Wayfarer is reminded at the end that despite this beauty, his happiness will not blossom anymore now that his love is gone.

This movement is orchestrated delicately, making use of high strings and flutes, as well as a fair amount of triangle. The melody of this movement, as well as much of the orchestration, is developed into the ‘A’ theme of the first movement of the First Symphony.

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A listening guide of Lieder Eines Fahrenden Gesellen – Ging Heut’ Morgens Über’s Feld with Lew Smoley.

The first movement is entitled “Wenn mein Schatz Hochzeit macht” (“When My Sweetheart is Married”), and the text discusses the Wayfarer’s grief at losing his love to another. He remarks on the beauty of the surrounding world, but how that cannot keep him from having sad dreams. The orchestral texture is bittersweet, using double reed instruments, clarinets and strings.

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A listening guide of Lieder Eines Fahrenden Gesellen – Wenn Mein Schatz Hochzeit Macht with  Lew Smoley.

Das klagende Lied is a work in which Mahler comes closest to the opera. This is because the composition is pervaded by drama and its elaboration in a text that regularly gets the character of a theatrically very effective dialogue.

Gustav Mahler (1860-1911) was fourteen years old when his younger brother Ernst Mahler (1862-1875) died. The loss touched him deeply and gave him a gnawing guilt. A few years later he started Das klagende Lied, his first major work. Mahler himself wrote the text. He relied on a folk tale about two brothers, in which the elder kills the younger. Mahler called the work ‘My worry child’. It was his requiem for his brother Ernst.

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A listening guide of Das Klagende Lied –  Intro with Lew Smoley

On the day that the minstrel arrives at the castle there is just a party going on for the occasion of the upcoming wedding of the queen and the eldest brother. The murderer is pale and feels guilty about the way he earned his royal engagement.

The minstrel plays the flute and the song of the murdered brother, the complaining song, sounds. The eldest brother takes the flute and plays it himself. Again the voice of his brother sounds and accuses him of the murder. The piece ends in chaos: the queen faints, the partygoers flee and the castle collapses.

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A listening guide of Das Klagende Lied – Die Hochzeitstück with Lew Smoley.

A listening guide of Kindertotenlieder – Nun will die Sonn’ so hell aufgeh’n with Lew Smoley.