NARRATIVE AND NARRATMTY IN GUSTAV MAHLER'S DAS KLAGENDE LIED Sheny Denise Lee Faculty of Music Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Musicology Faculty of Graduate Studies The University of Western Ontario London, Ontario August 1997 OSherry D. Lee 1997 National Library Bibliothèque nationale du Canada Acquisitions and Acquisitions et Bibliographic Services services bibliographiques 395 Wellington Street 395. rue Wellington ûttawaON K1AW ûttawaON K1AON4 Canada Canada The author has granted a non- L'auteur a accordé une licence non exclusive Licence allowing the exclusive permettant i la National Library of Canada to Bibliothèque nationale du Canada de reproduce, loan, distribute or sell reproduire, prêter, distribuer ou copies of this thesis in microform, vendre des copies de cette thèse sous paper or electronic formats. la fome de microfiche/nlm, de reproduction sur papier ou sur format électronique. The author retains ownership of the L'auteur conserve la propriété du copyright in this thesis. Neither the droit d'auteur qui protège cette thèse. thesis nor substantial extracts fiom it Ni la thèse ni des extraits substantiels may be printed or otheMrise de celle-ci ne doivent être imprimés reproduced without the author's ou autrement reproduits sans son permission. autorisation. Das klagende Lied seems never to have received the attention that Mahler's later works have. Untii now. most discussions of the cantata have been descriptive. rather than truly analytical. in nature. and have tended to focus more rigorously on the musical substance of the work than on its literary component. However. when combined with traditional musico-dramatic analysis. narrative theory offers the advantage of iiluminating the relationship between music and text. Several narrative analyses of Mahler's music have aiready appeared. but they are ali of non-texted works. However. the narrative text of Das klagende Lied in particular is one which poses several points of interest From a narratological point of view. especially as regards temporality. voice. and the element of repetition. How the musical structure works together with these textual features to produce meaning will be the primary subject of investigation in this thesis. iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 1 would like to thank several people who have helped to make the completion of this project possible: My sincerest gratitude is due to Dr. Martin Kreiswirth. Dr. Stephen McClatchie. and Dr. John Doerksen. the members of my advisory panel. for their thoughtful assistance and advice in the preparation of this thesis. not to mention their friendly advice and personal support in stressful moments. It has been my priviiege to work with them. Stephen in particular has provided help and encouragement for many years. both personally and professionally: I greatly appreciate his continuing guidance and Mendship. I am grateful for the time and effort spent by Bill Richards in setting the musical examples that appear throughout this document. My CO-workersin the Music Librq have supplied much- appreciatrd friendship and academic assistance throughout my course of study. I am thankful for many colleagues and kiends who have provided advice. support. and good Company. and have generaiiy helped to make my life more interesting and pleasant while working toward my degree. Finaliy. my famiw has offered continuaiiy loving support and encouragement through many years of study. and in pxticular during the writing of this project: to them my heartfelt thanks. TABLE OF CONTENTS Page Certificate of Examination i i Abstract iii Ac knowledgements iv Table of Contents v 1 Introduction: Mahler's Dus klagende Lied 1 2 Telling Stones: Narrative. Music. and Mahler 24 3 "Wie im Traum:" Narrative. Music. and Temporal Experience 50 4 "Des rn@ ich ewig klagen:" Repetition. Repression. and Return 74 in Narrative 5 Hearing Voices: "Was soll denn euch mein Singen?" IO6 6 Conclusion: In Defense of Waldmarchen 127 Appendix: Text of Das klagende Lied and translation Bibliography Vita 1 Introduction: Mahler's Dus klcrgende Lied "My fw-tale play [MürchensplelJ is Rnished at last." wrote Gustav Mahier to Emil Freund on 1 November 1880.1 Mahler had ken at work on his "Schmerzenskfnd" since early in 1878. and this secular cantata for soloists. chorus. and orchestra is his first complete work to have survived. Yet even though he was only twenty years old when he completed the work. it already manifests Mahler's unmistakable musical personality. The composer hhself remarked with surprise on this original aspect of his work when he revised and prepared it for its première performance in 190 1. "In my innocence." he said. "1 was bolder - in the use of an offstage orchestra. and in everything else specifically 'Mahlerian' - than 1 have ever been since."=! Of al1 the works Mahler produced as a youth in Vienna. this is the only one which he did not later repudiate. Unfortunately. the years of Mahler's Ufe about which we know the least are those during which Dus klagende Lied was cornposed. He was living in Vienna. enrolled in the University. teaching piano lessons to help make financial ends meet. and moving frequently from one lodging 1 "Mein M-chenspiel ist endlich vollendet.. ." Gustav Mahler Briefe. New Revised Edition. ed. Herta Blaukopf (Vienna: Paul Zsolnay Verlag. 1982). 18 [mytrans.]: hereafter referred to as GMBP. 2Natalie Bauer-Lechner. Mahien'am ( partiy unpu blis hed manuscript). Jan. 190 1: cited in Henq-Louis de La Grange. Gustav Mahler. vol. 2. Vienna: The Years of Challenge (1 897-19041 (Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press. 1995).326. 1 to another. Aside fYom a few letters and scholastic records. there is very Little in the way of documentation of the time when the young composer conceived his first major work. and the details of this portion of his histoiy remain sketchy at best.3 Mahler left his parents' home in Iglau to enter the Vienna Conservatory in 1875. where he studied piano under Julius Epstein. and took courses in harmony. music history. and composition. He later abandoned or destroyed al1 the juvenile works he composed during this time: these included a full syrnphony and an opera. in addition to chamber works. songs. and piano pieces.4 In 1877 he also enrolled in the Vienna University. where he took courses in history and philosophy. as well as in composition and music history. Mahler graduated from the Conservatory with high honours in the spring of 1878. and continued his University studies. He taught piano lessons to supplement the rneagre allowance he received bom his parents. but he was perpetuaily in dire financial straits. which often forced him to seek new lodgings. Precisely how many times he moved during these years is unknown. but it is assumed that his habits were similar to those of his friend Hugo Wolf. with whom he often shared rooms. Wolf is known to have occupied no 3For a systematic account of the known details of Mahler's life during his student years in Vienna. see Herta Blaukopf. "The young Mahler. 1875- 1880: essay in situational analysis after Karl R. Popper." in Mahler Studies. ed. Stephen Hefling (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1997): 1-24. 4See Donald Mitchell. Gustav Mahlec The Early Years. revised ed. (London: Faber and Faber. 1980).ch. W."The Early Works." fewer than twenty-one different lodgings between 1876 and 1879.5 In the summer of 1879. Mahler took a job teaching music lessons to the children of a wealthy acquaintance. Moritz Baumgarten. on a farm near Budapest. During this summer Mahler expenenced severe depression and emotional turmoil. as is evidenced by a letter he wrote to his fiend Josef Steiner: [Elverything around me is so bleak. and behind me the twigs of a dry and brittle existence snap... The greatest intensity of the most joyful vitaiity and the most consuming yeaming for death dominate my heart in turn. very often altemate hour by hour - one thing 1 know: 1 can't go on iike this much longer!. ..what way out is there but self-annihilation?.. .with ali the strength of despair 1 cling to sorrow. my only consolation .6 The literary tone of this rather melodramatic outpouring of distress. typical of the style of Mahler's early letters. is characteristic of the youths of Mahler's generation. who were immersed in the spirit of German romanticism. On returning to Vienna that September. Mahler resumed his piano teaching and his courses ai the University. but by the following surnmer he was again experiencing serious financial difficulties. and was forced to accept a conducting job at the summer theatre of a Spa in Upper Austria. SFrank Walker. Hugo Wo& A Biography (London. 195 1). 42: cited in Mitchell. The Early Years. 32. 6GMB2. 8: trans. in Selected Letters of Gustao Mahler. ed. Knud Martner (New York: Farrar. Straus, and Giroux, 1979):54. This letter is part of the Gustav Mahler-Alfred Rosé Collection in the Music Library. Universiv of Western Ontario. London. This position was mediocre at best. little better than the previous summer he had spent on the farm outside Budapest. It was in fact so modest a position. and appeared so unsuitable. that Mahler's parents advised against his accepting it. However. his friend and teacher from the Conservatory. Julius Epstein. urged him to take it. reassuring him that he would find better things in the future. The little summer theatre put on popular operettas and other light entertainment. As part of his "conducting" duties. Mahler had to dust the piano. lay the music out on the stands before rehearsals and collect it afterwards. and walk the baby carriage of the manager's wife around the grounds. The manager himself was very demanding. and in spite of al1 he endured.