LESHNOFF
Jonathan Leshnoff
Warum hast du gelitten?
an introductory prelude to Mahler’s Symphony No. 2
LESHNOFF
Jonathan Leshnoff
Warum hast du gelitten?
an introductory prelude to Mahler’s Symphony No. 2
Warum hast du gelitten?
an introductory prelude to Mahler's Symphony No. 2
Instrumentation:
4 Flutes
4 Oboes
Oboe 3 and Oboe 4 double on English Horn
5 Clarinets
Clarinet 1, Clarinet 2, Clarinet 4 on Bb Clarinets
Clarinet 3 on Bass Clarinet
Clarinet 5 on Eb Clarinet
3 Bassoons
1 Contrabassoon
10 Horns
6 Trumpets
Trumpet 1 doubles on Piccolo Trumpet
3 Trombones
Bass Trombone
Tuba
Timpani
2 Harps (2nd Harp ad lib)
Chorus
Strings
Solo Soprano to Francesco © 2024 by Leshnoff Publishing Composed by Jonathan Leshnoff for Leshnoff Publishing,
commissioned by the Santa Rosa Symphony Resident Orchestra of the Green Music Center Francesco Lecce-Chong, Music Director
About the texts (by Aaron Ziegel): Warum hast du gelitten? was commissioned by Francesco Lecce-Chong and the Santa Rosa Symphony as an introductory companion piece to Mahler's Symphony No. 2. It uses the same instrumentation as Mahler's score and is designed to segue into the first movement without pause. The text to Warum hast du gelitten? consists entirely of Mahler's own words and is compiled from his surviving correspondence. The first source is an anguished letter from Mahler to his wife Alma, written on August 17, 1910, while he was busy preparing for the premiere of his Eighth Symphony and when the stability of his marriage was threatened by Alma's recently exposed infidelity. This letter is in the form of a poem and was written on the staves of music manuscript paper. Excerpts from this letter are sung by the solo soprano. The second and third sources both document Mahler's own programmatic intentions for his Second Symphony: a letter written to the Berlin-based music critic Max Marschalk on March 26, 1896; and a draft of program notes about the work enclosed in a letter to Mahler's sister Justine written on December 13, 1901. The rhetorical questions sung by the chorus are excerpted from Mahler's commentaries on the symphony's first movement.
Sources of the original German-language texts:
1. Letter from Gustav Mahler to Alma Mahler, 17 August 1910; in Henry-Louis de La Grange, et al, eds., Anthony Beaumont, trans., Gustav Mahler: Letters to His Wife (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2004), 396–7.
2. Letter from Mahler to Max Marschalk, 26 March 1896; in Alma Maria Mahler, ed., Gustav Mahler: Briefe, 1879–1911 (Berlin: Paul Zsolnay Verlag, 1925), 188–9.
3. Letter from Mahler to Justine Mahler, 13 December 1901; in Donald Mitchell, Gustav Mahler: The Wunderhorn Years (Woodbridge, UK: Boydell Press, 2005), 179–82.
Sung text and translation:
Die Zeit ist da, die Feder ist zur Hand –
It is time, the pen is in my hand –Doch die Gedanken wollen nicht verweilen.
But the thoughts will not come together. Auf die fünf Linien blick' ich unverwandt
I stare unblinkingly at the five lines – Es flimmern vor den Augen mir die Zeilen –
– The staves flicker in front of my eyes –Mein Herz auch singt und dringt –
My heart sings out presses on –es schweifen alle Sinne in die Runde!1
Warum hast du gelebt?
Warum hast du gelitten?2
Was ist dieses Leben–und dieser Tod?
Gibt es für uns eine Fortdauer?
All my thoughts wander aimlessly!
Why have you lived?
Why have you suffered?
What is this life–and this death?
Is a continued existence awaiting us? Ist dies Alles nur ein wüster Traum?
Hat dieses Leben und dieser Tod einen Sinn?3
... einen Sinn.
Zusammenfassen will ich alle Schauer
Is this all only a desolate dream?
Does this life and death of ours have a purpose?
... a purpose.
Let me assemble all the shivers of my desire meiner Lust zu einer Melodie. Together into one melody, O wonniger Tod in schmerzenvollsten Stunden! O blissful death, come in my most painful hours! O Leben – spriesse auf aus meinen Wunden!1
O life – spring up out of my suffering!
The composer wishes to thank musicologist Aaron Ziegel for researching and suggesting these texts to the composer and for his English translation of them, used with his permission.
Jonathan Leshnoff