Mahler: THE MIDNIGHT SONG (form Nietzache)

"The Midnight Song," by Friedrich Nietzsche, music by Gustav Mahler (from the Third Symphony).

To hear this glorious music, with subtitles for the text, go here.

Listen especially to the single note percussive harp accompaniment that begins the piece, along with the hypnotic two-note phrase (echoing the words, "Gib acht!" or "Take heed!") played by the wind instruments, which serve as a leitmotif for the entire piece.

Then listen to the gorgeous string interlude after the words, "deeper than the day can read. (This melody will be used for the final words of Nietzsche's text, "all joy wants eternity, deep, deep eternity" at the end.)

Then note the rhapsodic solo violin cadenzas (brief flourishes) twice after the words "deep is its woe."

Finally, in a moment of complete rapture, the bridge melody heard earlier returns, now to the words, "But all joy wants eternity, wants deep, deep eternity!"

Then the two-note motif returns, once again to the percussive harp accompaniment, as if such rapture cannot last for too long.

To hear this on youtube, so here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dCsWjuxRFOg&feature=related

GERMAN: O Mensch! Gib Acht! Was spricht die tiefe Mitternacht? "Ich schlief, ich schlief—, aus tiefem Traum bin ich erwacht:— Die Welt ist tief, und tiefer als der Tag gedacht. Tief ist ihr Weh—, Lust—tiefer noch als Herzeleid. Weh spricht: Vergeh! Doch all' Lust will Ewigkeit—, —will tiefe, tiefe Ewigkeit!

ENGLISH: O Man! Take heed! What does the deep midnight say? "I sleep, I sleep. I am awakened from a deep dream. The world is deep and deeper than the day can read. Deep is its woe! Joy, deeper than woe can be. Woe says, Be gone! But Joy wants eternity, wants deep, deep eternity!"