12-8-2000

 

Tom  Lehrer
(1928-   )

Music, here

Alma


The loveliest girl in Vienna
Was Alma, the smartest as well
Once you picked her up on your antenna
You'd never be free of her spell

Her lovers were many and varied
From the day she began her beguine
There were three famous ones whom she
married
And God knows how many between

Alma, tell us
All modern women are jealous
Which of your magical wands
Got you Gustav and Walter and Franz

The first one she married was Mahler
Whose buddies all knew him as Gustav
And each time he saw her he'd holler
"Ach, that is the fräulein I moost hav"
 
  
Alma Mahler-Gropius-Werfel
Their marriage, however, was murder
He'd scream to the heavens above
"I'm writing 'Das Lied von der Erde'
And she only wants to make love!"
 
Alma, tell us
All modern women are jealous
You should have a statue in bronze
For bagging Gustav and Walter and Franz
 
While married to Gus, she met Gropius
And soon she was swinging with Walter
Gus died, and her tear drops were copious
She cried all the way to the altar
 
But he would work late at the Bauhaus
And only come home now and then
She said, "What am I running, a chow house
It's time to change partners again"

Alma, tell us
All modern women are jealous
Though you didn't even use Ponds
You got Gustav and Walter and Franz

While married to Walt she'd met Werfel
And he too was caught in her net
He married her, but he was carefel
'Cause Alma was no Bernadette

And that is the story of Alma
Who knew how to receive and to give
The body that reached her embalma
Was one that had known how to live

Alma, tell us
How can they help being jealous
Ducks always envy the swans
Who get Gustav and Walter
You never did falter
With Gustav and Walter and Franz


Alma Mahler Gropius Werfel (1879-1964) foi uma das grandes amantes do sec. XX. Todos os seus homens foram génios. Casou em 1902 com Gustav Mahler, o compositor, que veio a falecer em 1911. Em 1915 casou com Walter Gropius, o Arquitecto da Bauhaus, com o qual já tivera uma aventura em 1910. Finalmente em 1929, casou com o escritor Franz Werfel, autor da "Canção de Bernardette", do qual enviuvou em 1945.  Após a morte de Mahler, teve um affair com  o pintor Oskar Kokoschka, de quem permaneceu amiga toda a vida.
À morte de Alma, o compositor Tom Lehrer, escreveu esta canção jocosa, que as biografias dela transcrevem.
 
Another page about Alma Mahler, here