Von der Jugend
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The original poem was titled “A party at Mr. Tao’s Pavilion” written by Li Tai-Po. Li and other poets lived for some time in the mountains, enjoying each other’s company, drinking, singing, and, of course, writing poems. All while living in and praising nature. Among the poets, there was Tao Mien. Most likely, this poem portrays a party at his house. The title change made by Mahler reinforces the theme of time passed and time lost subterranean to the whole symphony.
The movement opens with two introductory beats by the horn and a triangle followed by a pentatonic scale theme played by the flute and the oboe. Look at the tempo indication: Behaglich heiter – comfortably cheerful.
Flutes and clarinets shortly join in in a festive atmosphere
The tenor entrance is marked by a line mostly built on the pentatonic scale. And notice the marking on the strings: saltando, literally meaning jumping. Everything here is light and exotically coloured, leaving behind the gloominess of the previous movements.
“In the middle of the little pool
Stands a pavilion of green
And white porcelain.
Like a tiger’s back
Arches the bridge of jade
Over to the pavilion.”
The second part of the phrase takes an arching shape, seemingly less jumpy in the singer’s line, while the orchestra retains some of that jumping quality in an accompaniment that is, in fact, cut out of the first line of the tenor. At the end of the phrase, the oboes sing the tenor’s opening line.
There’s one more thing: we haven’t heard any strings so far. At number 4 we have the first entrance with a single pizzicato of the cellos. See how Mahler keeps everything very light. At number 5 he still keeps only the cellos, divisi in arco and pizzicato. He could have used the basses for the pizzicato but that would have added a bit more weight to the sound – something he saves for a few bars later.
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Von der Schönheit
The fourth movement, Of Beauty, somewhat continues the path laid so far in more than one way. The idea of time gone and youth is inherent to the next story: a girl falling in love with a young man. From a bigger perspective, the story represents love and infatuations in life overall, continuing on the discovery journey of the speaker in matters of life.
The original poem, again written by Li Tai-Po, is titled “Lotus-plucking Song“, with girls plucking lotus at a river. Nature is used to represent the characters: the lotus for the girls, along with youth and beauty, and the horses for the men and vigor.
Notice the tempo indication, once again an indication of feeling rather than pace: Comodo. Dolcissimo., meaning with ease and extremely sweet
Young maidens are plucking flowers
Plucking lotus-flowers by the
river’s edge.
The opening figures, thrills, dotted rhythms, and a quadruplet of legato and staccato articulations, are the ones reappearing the most throughout the movement.
The gentleness of the movements goes hand in hand with the movements of the river. We can see the contours of it in the contours of the line, with its undulations. The Etwas fliessend – somewhat flowing – stresses this idea.
Amid the bushes and leaves they sit
Gathering flowers in their laps,
and calling teasingly
To one another.
At number 5 the key opens to an E major but the overall mood remains the same, blurring the lines between the first and second stanza: the music connects the depiction of the girls at the river and their beauty in one section.
Golden sunlight weaves around their forms,
Mirrors them in the shining water.
Sunlight mirrors their slender limbs
And their sweet eyes,
And the breeze lifts with wheedling caresses
The fabric of their sleeves,
Bears the magic
Of their pleasing fragrance
through the air.
The separation from the next stanza is pretty clear here. Mahler adds a rather extensive orchestral interlude. It starts with the same material of the opening, something we are now very familiar with. But Mahler quickly changes pace just a couple of bars later starting with the Allmaehlich belebend – gradually invigorating.
The material is still recognizable – for example in the quadruplets of 16th
– but the runs of the strings and the bassoons and the glissandos of the harp add a sweeping energy to this section. Notice also how they are used to create a certain tension: the bassoons are in triplets, against the duplets of the flutes, against the alternating groups of 7, 9 or 10 in the cellos and violas.
The dotted rhythm is also present, in a sort of battle-like call.
The temperature increases to a reinforced fortissimo at rehearsal number 8. The dynamic drops within 1 bar to a pianissimo dynamic. Is the turbulence about to dissipate? Not nearly. One bar after 8 there’s an abrupt fortissimo again, followed, again, by a diminuendo. And then a fortissimo and Più’ mosso – faster – with sforzato on every bar. It’s an emotional rollercoaster, introducing the entrance of the male figures.
The singer’s entrance maintains the character, actually reinforcing it by speeding up the tempo. The energy and vigor is stressed even more by the timpani part. By the way, look at how that same part is reversed in the bassoons and cellos at number 11.
Oh look, what a tumult of handsome boys
there on the shore on their spirited horses.
Shining from afar like the sun’s rays
between the branches of green willows
trot along the bold companions.”
Mahler follows up with another orchestral parenthesis full of energy.
Look at how he plays with the music material giving it now a sarcastic accent now a very feisty one. The exuberance of youth, the energy of the horses, the vigor life in its prime bursts out in this section, even more than in the previous interlude.
The speaker continues the narration: the line is shaped in a way that imitates both the neighing of the horse and its overall movements.
The horse of one neighs happily on
and shies and rushes away,
hooves shaking down blooms, grass,
trampling wildly the fallen flowers.
Hei! How frenzied his mane flutters,
and hotly steam his nostrils!
The sun rays with its reflections brings the dynamic down to piano. The material is still the same, but the mood is much calmer reflecting the pacifying effect of nature
Golden sun plays about their form
reflecting them in the clear water.
For a full technical analysis, look up the video in the repertoire section
And we land on the most tender and somewhat luscious part. The most beautiful of the girls looks intently at the rider. Look how languid those violins are while the violas, with their mordent, keep the figure of the horse present, even though in the background
And the most beautiful of the maidens sends
long looks adoring at him
The following sentence, “Her proud pose is but a pretense” sees a magical change of keys, moving from G major to Bb major to land on a D major
The story ends with the description of the girl’s longing: the music is as calm as it can be, serene, and delicate.
in the flash of her big eyes,
in the darkness of her ardent gaze
beats longingly her burning heart
An orchestral coda closes the movement with tenderness. The gazing fades away, like the rider leaving, in the violas, while the last chord is so airy: 2 flutes, harmonics of the harp, and harmonics of the cellos in their highest register. All of this in pianissimo with 4 p.
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