Alma Mahler - 5 Lieder for voice and piano (audio + sheet music)
Alma Maria Mahler Gropius Werfel (born
Alma Maria Schindler; 31 August 1879 –
11 December 1964) was a Viennese-born socialite and composer. She became the wife, successively, of composer
Gustav Mahler, architect
Walter Gropius, and novelist
Franz Werfel, as well as the consort of several other prominent men. Musically active from her teens, she was the composer of at least seventeen songs for voice and piano. In later years her salon became part of the artistic scene, first in
Vienna, then in
Los Angeles.
Alma played the piano from childhood and in her memoirs reports that she first attempted composing at age nine. She studied composition with
Josef Labor beginning in
1895. She met
Alexander von Zemlinsky in early
1900, began composition lessons with him that fall, and continued as his student until her engagement with Gustav Mahler (
December 1901), after which she ceased composing. Up until that time, she had composed or sketched Lieder, and worked on instrumental pieces and a segment of an opera. She may have resumed composing after 1910, at least sporadically, but the chronology of her songs is difficult to establish because she did not date her manuscripts.
Only a total of 17 songs by her survive.
Fourteen were published during her lifetime, in three publications dated 1910,
1915, and 1924; it is unclear whether she continued composing at all after her last publication. The first two volumes appeared under the name Alma
Maria Schindler-Mahler, and the last volume was published as "Fünf Gesänge" by
Alma Maria Mahler; the cover of the 1915 set was illustrated by
Oskar Kokoschka. Three additional songs were discovered in manuscript posthumously; two of them were published in the year
2000, edited by Dr.
Susan M.
Filler, and one remains unpublished. Her personal papers, including music manuscripts, are held at the
University of Pennsylvania, and at the
Austrian National Library in Vienna, and at the
Bavarian State Library in
Munich.
These songs have been regularly performed and recorded since
1980 (at present 30 records are available).
Orchestral versions of the accompaniments have been produced, 6 songs by
David and
Colin Matthews, and all 17 songs by
Julian Reynolds, and by
Jorma Panula, both are unpublished.
(
Wikipedia)
Please take note that the audio AND the sheet music ARE NOT mine.
Change the quality to a minimum of 480p if the video is blurry.
Original audio: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VnT8pFzWvRE
Original sheet music: imslp.org