# Understanding Das Lied von der Erde, II



## Mahlerian (Nov 27, 2012)

Understanding Das Lied von der Erde

*II. Der Einsame im Herbst

Form*

0:00~1:40 Introduction (D minor)
1:40~4:03 First Stanza (D minor->G minor->D minor)
4:03~5:15 Closing (G minor)

5:15~6:57 Second Stanza (D minor->D major)
6:57~9:06 Variation on introduction, climax (D minor->E-flat major)
9:06~10:32 Coda (D minor)

Text and translation may be found here:
http://www.recmusic.org/lieder/get_text.html?TextId=20682

Once again, although I have used the label "stanza" to designate these sections, the vocal line and accompaniment are freely varied throughout. The movement is firmly tied to the key of D minor, and after the constantly shifting tonal centers of the first movement, this slow movement, both in tempo and harmonic rhythm, arrives as a complete contrast to the first. The spare texture and soloist's voice differ as well.

*Themes*

The long opening oboe recitative set against a moto perpetuo on muted violins. Its line is developed from the descending notes of the previous movement's horn call. The pictured excerpt is not abbreviated or reduced in instrumentation.









The entrance of the alto (or baritone) soloist echoes the opening.









The soloist's final, unresolved question, which also appears earlier in the movement.









_I will use the pronoun 'she' to refer to the soloist for convenience, as the piece is more frequently recorded and performed with an alto than a baritone._

*Analysis*

Muted violins play a flowing line that gives the impression of absolute stasis. A solo oboe sounds a plaintive cry, a long recitative that seems to move completely freely against this backdrop. A pair of horns provide a bare fifth, but one of them disappears, and a solo clarinet takes its place in dialogue with the oboe. The rest of the violins appear, doubling the firsts or holding notes in the texture. The violas and bass clarinet appear, and then, finally, the cellos, osciallating on a bare fifth interval. The oboe repeats its beginning cry, which is now taken up by the flute as a distant echo.

The soloist enters in dialogue with the clarinet, which has taken over the oboe's recitative. With her entrance, the flowing violins pause, and the clarinets ask a question. The violins come to a stop, and the question is taken up by the cellos, lingering around the key of B-flat, but eliding into G minor, the pendular cello figure returning. The soloist responds to a lilting figure from the oboes and clarinets, and in turn, her line is echoed by the winds. This sudden activity is matched by an equally rapid descent, and the music slips back into D minor against the pendular figure now carried by the bass clarinet. In response to the soloist's muted sigh, the oboe returns with its question from the opening recitative. Another burst of activity accompanies a repeat of the cellos' question in the violas and bassoons, but this too dissolves into a weary G minor, with the winds' lilting figure transfered to violins against cascading arpeggios from the lower strings, which die down and revert to pendular bare fifths.

"Without expression", the soloist intones her questioning line, "My heart is weary", unaccompanied save for the pendular fifths in the cellos. Gradually the atmosphere lightens, and the lilting figure is now sung by the soloist in a clear D major, but against a background with uncertain pulse, this too simply exhausts itself and slips into the minor mode once more, whereupon the music seems to return to the introduction. This time the recitative is taken up by a bassoon before it returns to the oboe, and the soloist joins in. The flute's echo of the recitative leads to an impassioned outburst on the strings, and the music bursts into E-flat major, accompanied by the movement's first appearances from the harp and basses, but even as the lilting figure returns gracefully in the violins, the music fragments, hanging upon the dominant. The soloist asks one last question, accompanied only by the cellos' fifth. The flowing violins and oboe recitative of the introduction return, and the movement gradually dies away.

Blog Index


----------

