We enjoy heavenly pleasures
and therefore avoid earthly ones.
No worldly tumult
is to be heard in heaven.
All live in gentlest peace.
We lead angelic lives,
yet have a merry time of it besides.
We dance and we spring,
We skip and we sing.
Saint Peter in heaven looks on.
John leads the lambkin out,
and Herod the Butcher lies in wait for it.
We lead a patient,
an innocent, patient,
dear little lamb to its death.
Saint Luke slaughters the ox
without any thought or concern.
Wine doesn't cost a penny
in the heavenly cellars;
The angels bake the bread.
Good greens of every sort
grow in the heavenly vegetable patch,
good asparagus, string beans,
and whatever we want.
Whole dishfuls are set for us!
Good apples, good pears and good grapes,
and gardeners who allow everything!
If you want roebuck or hare,
on the public streets
they come running right up.
Should a fast day come along,
all the fishes at once come
swimming with joy!
There goes Saint Peter running
with his net and his bait
to the heavenly pond.
Saint Martha must be the cook.
There is just no music on earth
that can compare to ours.
Even the eleven thousand virgins
venture to dance,
and Saint Ursula herself has to laugh.
There is just no music on earth
that can compare to ours.
Cecilia and all her relations
make excellent court musicians.
The angelic voices
gladden our senses,
so that all awaken for joy.
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Das himmlische Leben ("Heaven's Life") from Das Knaben Wunderhorn (The Youth's Magic Horn)
Gustav Mahler, Symphony No. 4 in G Major
Arranged for chamber orchestra by Erwin Stein in 1920 for Arnold Schoenberg's Society for Private Music Performances in Vienna. (program notes by Warren Friesen)
Performed by the Lake Superior Chamber Orchestra with Emily Van Evera, August 4, 2010.
4th movement, Sehr behaglich (Very comfortably): child's-view of heaven
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