Mahler – Das Lied von der Erde – Part 2

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.

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.