Mahler's Kindertotenlieder on Bass

[Carter1016]

Hi all,

I have been looking for some pieces for a recital I plan to do this coming Spring. I started to look at some bass voice solos and other vocal solos that could be transcribed for bass. One piece I stumbled upon was the Kindertotenlieder cycle by Mahler. I'm a huge Mahler fan, so I don't really know how I didn't listen to this piece before, but nevertheless, I am writing to see if anyone has performed, or seen this piece performed on Bass Trombone. Additionally, any potential performance pitfalls, etc

Thanks!

[BurckhardtS]

The easiest way would probably just to play them as written and with the original piano reduction. That piece is well enough known that there is probably a piano version. Transpose at the octave where it makes sense to avoid extreme ranges, but make sure you do it in a way that makes musical sense (ie: entire phrases/sections down an octave as opposed to single notes/etc)

[Carter1016]

The easiest way would probably just to play them as written and with the original piano reduction. That piece is well enough known that there is probably a piano version. Transpose at the octave where it makes sense to avoid extreme ranges, but make sure you do it in a way that makes musical sense (ie: entire phrases/sections down an octave as opposed to single notes/etc)

Yeah, I completely agree. I have the vocal score from IMSLP, which happens to be a piano reduction as well. I've looked over it a few times while listening to it, and I think what makes the most sense is to play a majority of it down an octave. Maybe a few sections that are right on the edge of making sense down an octave, like you mentioned

[LeTromboniste]

I played selections from another Mahler Lieder cycle (Lieder eines Fahrenden Gesellen) in my undergraduate final recital, it was very successful with both the audience and the jury. I had made a reduction for strings and 1-2 wind per section. His Lieder are beautiful music and if it particularly speaks to you then all the more reason to do it. It's a particularly good pedagogical tool to work on articulations and phrasing of vocal music if you don't only play the notes in a trombonistic manner but instead try to get all the text accents and match the articulations of the different consonant and different colors of the vowels. Make sure you compare the vocal part in the piano reduction and in the orchestra score, sometimes there are differences.

[matto]

I played the Kindertotenlieder on tenor in college, and have always liked these songs better than the Wayfarer set. I play the opening of number one and the ending of number five almost daily in my warm-ups, particularly the very last phrase in descending half-steps until I run out of notes.

No real pitfalls, other than there is not a ton of variety tempo-wise, so it might be hard for an audience to sit through the first four slow songs until you get to In Diesem Wetter.

I made a solo part with the lyrics to eliminate the hassle of dealing with page turns, which I've attached. I kept it faithful to the markings in the original. Moderators, if you have an objection to me attaching this, please let me know and I'll remove it.

[BGuttman]

Shouldn't be a problem. The original work was from 1904 and should be Public Domain. Thanks for sharing this.

[Carter1016]

I played the Kindertotenlieder on tenor in college, and have always liked these songs better than the Wayfarer set. I play the opening of number one and the ending of number five almost daily in my warm-ups, particularly the very last phrase in descending half-steps until I run out of notes.

No real pitfalls, other than there is not a ton of variety tempo-wise, so it might be hard for an audience to sit through the first four slow songs until you get to In Diesem Wetter.

I made a solo part with the lyrics to eliminate the hassle of dealing with page turns, which I've attached. I kept it faithful to the markings in the original. Moderators, if you have an objection to me attaching this, please let me know and I'll remove it.

Wow! Thank you for the solo part! I was just about to sit down and put it into finale myself. I agree with you, in that I prefer these to the Wayfarer cycle as well. It's all great music, don't get me wrong. It's all typical, melt-your-heart, Mahler. There's just something about this cycle that gets to me