Gustav Mahler (1860-1911) was a well-regarded Austrian composer, known for his large-scale symphonic works and songs. His music’s eclectic expression blurred the line between late romantic and modernism. He incorporated a variety of popular styles, a plurality of voicing, and pervasive, often tragic, storytelling. Kindertotenlieder (Songs on the Death of Children) is a song cycle for voice and orchestra, written between 1901-1904, with words from poems by Friedrich Rückert. Rückert’s original collection encompassed 428 poems, reflecting on the death of his own children from scarlet fever (1833-34), but Mahler sought to select only five;

- Nun will die Sonn' so hell aufgeh'n / Now the sun wants to rise brightly

- Nun seh' ich wohl, warum so dunkle Flammen / Memories of the children’s star- bright eyes

- Wenn dein Mütterlein / When your dear mother

- Oft denk' ich, sie sind nur ausgegangen! / I often think they’ve just gone out

- In diesem Wetter, in diesen Braus / In this grim weather

Each song reflects the omniscient emptiness from losing a child, shifting from sparse, meandering melodies to anguished moments of dissonant chromaticism, culminating in the final song where the spirit of a child’s lullaby, represented by glockenspiel, cello, piccolo and harp, opens a new door for the family to find peace.