Charles Ives's song "Mists" sets a poem written by his wife, Harmony Twichell Ives, in 1910 after the unexpected death of her mother.
Composition History
Gustav Mahler wrote the poems for his Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen during a traumatic relationship with Johanna Richter, a soprano at the Kassel Opera where he was chorus master.
Compositional Technique
The opening phrase of Mahler's song "Ging heut' morgen über's Feld" later became the main theme of his First Symphony.
Composer Biography
Friedrich Rückert wrote 428 poems, later published posthumously as Kindertotenlieder, after losing two of his six children to scarlet fever in 1833-34.
Composition History
Helen Grime's "Bright Travellers" for soprano and piano was commissioned in 2017 by Wigmore Hall, with support from André Hoffmann.
Composer Biography
Gustav Mahler began composing his Kindertotenlieder in 1901, before he was married or a father, and tragically lost his own eldest daughter two years after the cycle's publication and premiere.
Compositional Technique
Mahler's Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen uses progressive tonality, with each song ending in a higher key than it began, to reflect a 'cranking up of the emotions'.
