It is noteworthy that Strauss's name is not associated, as in the case of most of the German song composers, with any par ticular poet ; he has composed no cycle; with all his varieties of style and resource, he exhibits but little power of characteriza tion. His songs come to him too easily. There is nowhere the burning intensity of Schubert or Wolf.
In the songs of Gustav Mahler (186o-1911) we feel at once the presence of a tempestuous nature, tormented, restless, unsatis fled. He poured his heart into his songs and closest to his heart from boyhood were his native land (Moravia) and the old Ger man folk-song. These were the inspiration of his music. What they meant to him is revealed in the series of vivid pictures, instinct with life, movement and colour, contained in the four "Lieder eines Fahrenden Gesellen" (originally for voice and or chestra) and in the three volumes of songs taken from Des Knaben Wunderhorn (a famous collection of old German songs and ballads). They are essentially dramatic songs, even realistic, full of melody of the folk-song type and provided with an accom paniment more orchestrally than pianistically conceived; the con struction is apt to be loose and diffuse, with rough corners and purple passages; but they are original, alive, refreshing, worth knowing, in spite of blemishes, which are emphasized because they represent a danger to song; they bring it too close to the theatre.
Lyrical moments their place in opera, but the atmosphere of the Lied is disturbed by even a suggestion of the footlights. Rolland has pointed out that German music is losing "i..s intimate spirit" (a spirit which in a special sense belongs to the Lied) and he attributes this, with other disquieting signs, to the "detestable influence of the theatre to which nearly all these artists are at tached as kapellmeisters or directors of opera." He is alluding
specially to Strauss and Mahler. It should be added that the later songs composed by Mahler, after he had freed himself from operatic work, are quite different in style; they consist of five songs (not without interest) and the touching and deeply felt group of Todtenkinderlieder, the words of all being by Riickert.
There is a long list of composers, who like the above named are in touch with the old regime; many have written a number of attractive and well written songs, of which, in this country the best known are those of Felix Vv'eingartner (b. 1863) and Erich Wolff (e.g., "Du bist so jung," "Alle Dinge haben Sprache," and "Faden"). Those of Joseph Marx (b. 1882) are at least equally striking, and perhaps more original. Philip Jarnach (b. 1892) has contributed some remarkable songs. Sensuous beauty has little attraction for him for its own sake, but he attains it sometimes, as it were, malgre lui; there is no superfluous ornament : when he strikes it is with macabre power. The concentration which he has given to his songs he expects from his hearers: he seems to have wrestled with the words he has set and drawn out their very heart. Among the most striking are "An eine Rose," "Jasmin," "Das mitleidige Madel," "Lebenswege," "Freibeuter," "Japanesisches Regenlied," "Mailied" and many songs from the Italienisches Liederbuch (Paul Heyse). He may be said in his later work to belong to the school of Brahms—though the influence of Hugo Wolf is also felt.