Description
This was originally incidental music for one of the seven tableaux vivants Mahler wrote for presentations of Scheffel’s work. He then reused it as the second movement of his first symphony in its first three performances: 1889 Budapest, 1893 Hamburg and 1894 Weimar. It was then dropped, perhaps because it made the symphony over-long, perhaps because it was thought too sentimental.
My edition is based on the manuscript prepared for the second performance of that symphony in Hamburg in 1893. I have rethought the piece in several respects. Firstly, in order to retain the dramatic contrast of the original, the pastoral trumpet solo is given to the flugel, while the oboe and other leading material in the contrasting second section is generally given to the cornets. There is considerable solo and sectional work, from basses up to soprano, but there are also several big tuttis. Secondly, Mahler’s counterpoint has been redistributed in several places to make it work for the reduced range and tonal variety of the brass band. Thirdly, all the dynamics have been taken up a notch, since it is no longer a moment of absolute stillness in a noisy symphony. Drop them again if you want. Fourthly, the piece is transposed down a tone.
The biographical sketch of Scheffel prepended by Charles G. Leland to his translation of other poetry is good.
The blank trochaic tetrameter quoted above is from the valiant translation by Rebecca Lloyd Brünnow (née Tappan) (1836–92).
Gallery images above of the Trumpeter of Säkkingen: an 1893 postcard sent from Bristol, in the Bohuslän Museum; a 19th century German beer stein on sale at WorthPoint; ditto; ballerina Camilla Pagliero of the Viennese Hofoper in 1896; a promotional series from the Liebig Meat Extract Company, showing a very different plot, on sale at AbeBooks; the frontispiece of the 1865 4th edition, published Stuttgart by Metzler.
