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.

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