This study is chiefly devoted to a single orchestral song, Um Mitternacht, written by the

composer, Gustav Mahler, in his 41st year, to a text by Friedrich Rückert. It is subjected to analysis musically and psychoanalytically in its biographical context. An attempt is made to render technical, musical detail as experienced primarily in the auditory sphere of perception to the kind of psychobiographical interpretation usually reserved for literature and the graphic (visual) arts. There is also some interpretation of a manuscript score. Another song, Der Tamboursg'sell, written at the same time and comparable in several ways, receives similar although less detailed treatment.