As a composer of large-scale symphonies and of intimate-scale songs, it is entirely fitting that Gustav Mahler should have written a large-scale symphonic song cycle. Das Lied von der Erde [The Song of the Earth] is an hour-long setting of poems of Chinese origin, composed for a large orchestra , with tenor and alto voices. Although completed in 1909, Mahler never heard the work performed by an orchestra – it and his Ninth Symphony were premi è red posthumously by Mahler's close personal friend and prot é g é , the conductor Bruno Walter.

The alto part is normally sung by a contralto or a mezzo-soprano, but Mahler's score does state that it may be taken by a baritone voice; this