# Understanding Das Lied von der Erde V



## Mahlerian (Nov 27, 2012)

Understanding Das Lied von der Erde

_*V - Der Trunkene im Frühling*_*

Form*

0:00~0:45 Introduction, First Stanza (A major->F major->A major)
0:45~1:25 Second Stanza (F major->A major)

1:25~2:15 Third Stanza (A major)
2:15~3:15 Fourth Stanza (F major->D-flat major)
3:15~3:43 Fifth Stanza (C major->A major)

3:43~4:24 Sixth Stanza (F major->A major)

http://www.recmusic.org/lieder/get_text.html?TextId=20691

The third in the lighter trio of movements in the middle of Das Lied von der Erde, this movement seems the converse of the first. Its key of A major contrasts with the opening's A minor. While that drinker was profound and eloquent, his music dark and defiant, this movement's drinker cares about nothing, scorning nature and the coming of spring, the very things that inspired the first movement's most reflective section. The music's teetering tonality is even more unstable than that of the opening movement, so the thematic material is kept to a minimum to compensate.

*Themes*

The bright melody taken up by the tenor at the beginning.









The violins answer with a more languid motif that later is taken up by the singer.
















*Analysis*

The movement opens up with a brilliant fanfare in winds and brass in A major, but before the key or even the tempo can be established, the tenor enters with a ritardando in B-flat, like a parody of the grandiosity of the first movement's opening. The winds answer with a sardonic staccato, and the tenor's next line pulls the music into F. The strings respond with a swaggering motif in a slackening rhythm, and the music shifts towards G minor, but with the tenor's line once again culminating in a high A, the initial fanfares return as before, now augmented in instrumentation. The second stanza follows much the same pattern as the first, though the winds' staccato figures are now given to muted horns, and the winds drop out entirely for a few bars.

The next time, the fanfares of the opening are followed by a lively violin solo imitating birdsong, and the tenor keeps the music in A, although the mode oscillates between major and minor. After several slower bars, the winds play the initial fanfare in F major. Following the same tonal pattern as before, the tenor takes the music into D-flat (a major third lower than F, as F is a major third lower than A), where the tenor, taking the part of the bird, sings of the coming of spring, set to the languid motif earlier heard in the violins, which now back him in slow portamenti. As the perspective returns to the drunkard, the music is pushed into C major rather than the expected A or F (a major third in either direction), and only from there returns to the home key of A.

The initial fanfare is now taken up by the whole orchestra (minus trombones and basses), with the addition of harp glissandi and cello harmonics. The tonality moves to F as before, but the tenor now sings the swaying motif instead of the initial melody. His line once again climaxes on a high A and the movement concludes in a bright blaze of A major.

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