Book Description

In 1887 Gustav Mahler (1860 1911) came upon what would be for him a great treasure: "Des Knaben Wunderhorn: alte deutsche Lieder" (The Youth's Miraculous Horn: Old German Songs), an anthology of more than 700 folk songs and poems (named for the first piece in the collection) that had been published in the early 1800s by the German poets Achim von Arnim and Clemens Brentano. For the next 14 years Mahler made use of this anthology for all but one of his song texts. The first 10 of these 15 celebrated songs come together here both in the original German and in English translations: "Der Schildwache Nachtleid" (The sentinel's nightsong), "Verlone Muh'"(Labor lost), "Trost im Ungluck" (Solace in sorrow), "Wer had dies Liedel erdacht?" (Up there on the hill), "Das irdische Leben" (Earthly life), "Lied des Verfolgten im Turm" (Song of the persecuted man in the tower), "Wo die Schonen Trompeten blasen" (Where the beautiful trumpets blow), "Lob des hohen Verstandes" (In praise of lofty intelligence), "Rheinlegendchen" (little legend of the Rhine), and "Des Antonius von Padua Fischpredigt" (Antonius of Padua's fish sermon). This volume, rich in exceptional music reprinted from authoritative sources, is sure to delight Mahler devotees as well as all lovers of art songs."