Mahler's songs to texts from Des Knaben Wunderhorn are influenced by folk music. Those most clearly related to folk or popular songs may be divided into two groups: (1) songs that show a direct resemblance to existing songs, and (2) songs with general characteristics of a popular genre such as dance songs and soldier songs. The melodies are classified by style (diatonic, chromatic, mixed); intervallic motion (triadic, conjunct, disjunct, mixed); and rhythm (predominantly dotted, primarily smooth, mixed). Mahler follows the stylistic traditions of the nineteenth-century Lied: the simplicity and "volkstümliche character" of many of the Wunderhorn songs is similar to Schubert; the harmonic language is much like Schumann; and the nature of the accompaniment is related to Brahms. While these songs clearly reflect the influences of his predecessors and of Romantic historicism, they also show Mahler's "absorption" and "adaptation" of material which foreshadows the "total stylistic assimilation of folk music" by twentieth-century composers.

Works: Mahler: "Revelge," "Wo die schönen Trompeten blasen," "Es sungen drei Engel einen süssen Gesang," "Wir geniessen die himmlischen Freuden," "Ich ging mit Lust durch einen grünen Wald," "Rheinlegendchen," "Lied des Verfolgten im Turm" ("Die Gedanken sind frei"), "Der Tamboursg'sell," "Zu Strassburg auf der Schanz," "Verlorene Müh'," "Hans und Grethe," "Nicht wiedersehen!," "Scheiden und Meiden," "Der Schildwache Nachtlied," and "Trost im Unglück" from Des Knaben Wunderhorn.

Index Classifications: 1800s, 1900s

Contributed by: Nikola D. Strader