Gustav Mahler - Songs of a Wayfarer - c. Ich hab ein gluehendes messer
Songs of a Wayfarer
Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen ('Songs of a Wayfarer') is Gustav Mahler's first song cycle. While he had previously written other lieder, those were not grouped by common theme, rather by composition date. The cycle, for low voice (but often performed by a female singer), was inspired by the conclusion of Mahler's affair with soprano Johanna Richter. The lyrics are by the composer himself, though influenced by Des Knaben Wunderhorn, a collection of German folk poetry and one of Mahler's favorite books, and the first song is actually based on the Wunderhorn poem "Wann [sic] mein Schatz". There are strong connections between this work and Mahler's First Symphony, with the main theme of the second song being the main theme of the 1st Movement and the final verse of the 4th song reappearing in the 3rd Movement as a contemplative interruption of the funeral march.
Gustav Mahler (7 July 1860 – 18 May 1911) was a late-Romantic Austrian composer and one of the leading conductors of his generation. He was born in the village of Kalischt, Bohemia, in what was then Austria-Hungary. Kaliste u Humpolce is now in the Czech Republic. Then his family had moved not far to Iglau (now Jihlava) where Mahler grew up. As a composer, he acted as a bridge between the 19th century Austro-German tradition and the modernism of the early 20th century. While in his lifetime his status as a conductor was established beyond question, his own music gained wide popularity only after periods of relative neglect which included a ban on its performance in much of Europe during the Nazi era. After 1945 the music was discovered and championed by a new generation of listeners; Mahler then became one of the most frequently performed and recorded of all composers, a position he has sustained into the 21st century.
