Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen

at the University of Vienna, Mahler began teaching piano lessons and continued with his efforts of composing, resulting in his first considerable work, Das klagende Lied, in 1880 (citation). That same year, Mahler was given his first job as a musical professional, a conducting position in Bad Hall, a town in Upper Austria. After his start in Bad Hall, and a short engagement at Landestheater in Laibach, Mahler was challenged by bad orchestra relations as the conductor for a theatre in Olmütz. It was this challenge, however, that brought Mahler to the Royal Theatre in Kassel, where he composed his first song cycle, Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen. The text of these songs is said to have been a series of poems Mahler wrote about his love affair with Johanna Richter, a soprano vocalist. The melodies written for the second and fourth songs in Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen became the basis for themes Mahler later used in his First Symphony, composed during his time as the conductor of the Leipzig Opera in Germany. The original piece premiered in Budapest with the Budapest Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Mahler himself, and was received very negatively overall. In fact, an additional movement titled “Blumine,” the original second movement of the piece, received so much harsh criticism in particular that Mahler rejected it and removed it from the work entirely by its fourth premiere. Other significant changes to the piece during this time included the removal of the title…