Kindertotenlieder for Euphonium, String Quartet and Celesta

Mahler began composing Kindertotenlieder in 1901, inspired by Friedrich Rückert’s poems on the loss of children. His own anxieties about mortality, heightened by a health scare and concern for his frail daughter Maria (who died at age four), gave the texts deep personal resonance.  The cycle, rich in nature imagery, is as tightly structured as Mahler’s symphonies and foreshadows the sound world of his Fifth, Sixth, and Seventh Symphonies.

Movements

1. Nun will die Sonn’ so hell aufgeh’n
2. Nun seh’ ich wohl, warum so dunkle Flammen
3. Wenn dein Mütterlein
4. Oft denk’ ich, sie sind nur ausgegangen
5. In diesem Wetter

Instrumentation (Score and all parts included)

• Solo Euphonium
• Violin I
• Violin II
• Viola
• Cello
• Celesta (May be played on Piano)