Des Knaben Wunderhorn

Mahler may be best known for his symphonies, but he was just as important as a composer of lieder (German art song). His acute feeling for the German language, his love of its poetry and his sympathy for the human voice (born of long experience as an opera conductor) set him up perfectly for this uniquely demanding medium. As a young man he was drawn to the hugely influential 19th-century folk collection Des Knaben Wunderhorn (Youth’s Magic Horn), a collection of folk song lyrics collected (and probably cosmetically enhanced) by two stars of the early German Romantic movement, Achim von Arnim and Clemens Brentano. Mahler set more than 20 of these between 1887 and 1901, 14 of which he orchestrated. In mood, they range from the sweetly naïve “Rheinlegendchen” (Little Rhine Legend) through the deeply devotional “Urlicht” (Primal Light) to the disturbing psychological portraits “Der Tamboursg’sell” (The Drummer Boy) and “Das irdische Leben” (Earthly Life). Mahler worked some of these songs into his symphonies (Nos. 2, 3 and 4) and referred to them in several others (1, 5 and 10), and their words often provide important pointers to possible meanings. But for Mahler, song was clearly a joy in its own right, and the Wunderhorn songs form an important reminder that, although he famously described himself as “homeless”, at heart Mahler was very much in the German Romantic tradition.