Das Marienleben
The life of Mary is a song cycle for soprano and piano ( Op. 27 ) by Paul Hindemith based on the eponymous poem cycle The life of Mary (1912 ) by Rainer Maria Rilke.
Hindemith Rilke poems set to music - like many other of his works - twice: first 1923/24, as Opus 27 and then later ( in a heavily revised version ) again 1948 The cycle includes the following individual songs.
- Birth of Mary
- The representation
- Lady Day
- Visitation
- Suspicion Joseph
- Preaching on the shepherds
- Nativity
- Rest on the Flight into Egypt
- From the wedding
- Before Passion
- Pietà
- Stilling of the Virgin Mary with the Risen
- From the death of Mary I
- From the death of Mary II
- From the death of Mary III
One of the earliest LP recordings of the cycle comes from Erna Berger. Gundula Janowitz and later also a number of other sopranos have taken the challenges of this cycle up.