Date: 2018
An exciting and ambitious arrangement of "Von der Schoenheit" ("On Beauty") from Gustav Mahler's "Das Lied von der Erde" (1909) for wind decet and double bass. The original singer's part is shared between a number of instruments, most notably the two oboes and two bassoons, in a way that retains the lyricism of the piece as well as many of Mahler's orchestral colours.
The original lyrics, clearly captured in the instrumental setting, were chosen by Mahler from Hans Bethge's "Die chinesische Flöte". They express nostalgically the beauty of young maidens and their response to the appearance of dashing young men on horseback!
Links: pdf including parts - mp3 - midi - mxl - sib
Words (German and English):
(from Hans Bethge's "Die chinesische Flöte")
Young girls picking flowers, Picking lotus flowers at the riverbank. Amid bushes and leaves they sit, gathering flowers in their laps and calling one another in raillery. Golden sun plays about their form reflecting them in the clear water. The sun reflects back their slender limbs, their sweet eyes, and the breeze teasing up the warp of their sleeves, directs the magic of perfume through the air. O see, what a tumult of handsome boys there on the shore on their spirited horses. Yonder shining like the sun's rays between the branches of green willows trot along the bold companions. The horse of one neighs happily on and shies and rushes there, hooves shaking down blooms, grass, trampling wildly the fallen flowers. Hei! How frenzied his mane flutters, and hotly steam his nostrils! Golden sun plays about their form reflecting them in the clear water. And the most beautiful of the maidens sends long looks adoring at him. Her proud pose is but a pretense; in the flash of her big eyes, in the darkness of her ardent gaze beats longingly her burning heart. |
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