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Mahler – Das Lied von der Erde – Part 3

Last updated May 12, 2021 | Published on Feb 11, 2021

Winner of a fellowship at the Bayreuther Festspiele, Mr. Griglio’s conducting has been praised for his “energy” and “fine details”. Mr. Griglio took part in the first world recording of music by composer Irwin Bazelon and conducted several world premieres like "The song of Eddie", by Harold Farberman, a candidate for the Pulitzer Prize. Principal Conductor of International Opera Theater Philadelphia for four years, Mr.Griglio is also active as a composer. His first opera, Camille Claudel, debuted in 2013 to a great success of audience and critics. Mr. Griglio is presently working on an opera on Caravaggio and Music Director of Opera Odyssey.
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Table of contents

Der Trunkene im Frühling

Should you need a score you can find one here.

The fifth movement of Das Lied von der ErdeThe drunken man in Spring – starts shifting the focus back on the speaker. We’ve seen in the previous episodes how Mahler addressed the different emotions of the speaker through different narratives. In this movement he moves the attention back to the inner self, preparing the audience for the last movement.

The original poem, Li Tai-Po‘s “Feelings upon Awakening from Drunkenness on a Spring Day“, is very pessimistic in nature, most likely reflecting the author’s personal experiences. It did show though the hope for the poet in a better world – an aspect that was cut out in the German version.

Throughout the poem’s 6 sections, the speaker goes through his disillusion with life and decides to drink and sleep all day. When he wakes up, he hears some bird chirping amidst the flowers – this is the connection with nature. He actually talks to the bird, asking if spring has come already. At the bird’s answer – “Spring came overnight” – he sighs, and goes back to drinking. In the final section, the speaker sings to the moon and tries to forget everything.

This movement opens with the horns again, just like the first one. The opening line clearly symbolizes the birds, anticipating the middle portion of the text.

 

Mahler - Das Lied von der Erde - mov.5 ex.2

Even though we start in A major, the atmosphere is not quite jolly as it may seem. The constant key change, along with the partial usage of the pentatonic scale give it a flavor of instability.

“If Life is but a dream,
Why then toil and fret?
I drink until I can no longer drink,
The whole lifelong day.”

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Conclusion

This was quite a journey. As it is Das Lied von der Erde: a journey in our inner and outer selves, looking for some answers to our tormented lives. Answers we won’t ever be able to find. We can only surrender, and hope to find some rest before our 100 years are over.

Notes

Cover image by Lucas Craig from Pexels

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Gianmaria Griglio is an intelligent, exceptional musician. There is no question about his conducting abilities: he has exceptionally clear baton technique that allows him to articulate whatever decisions he has made about the music.

Harold Farberman

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