I'll Be Seeing You

Cathedral bells were tolling and our hearts sang on;

Was it the spell of Paris or the April dawn?
Who knows if we shall meet again ....
But when the morning chimes ring sweet again...

I'll be seeing you

My husband, many years ago,  told me he didn't believe in an afterlife called Heaven.  It shook me to the core and I replied to him, "I don't care if you believe or not.  That's where I'm going and you're going with me even if I have to drag you there."  Recently, the subject of Heaven came up again, of course, I was the one to bring it up.  This time he said, "I'm not sure if Heaven is real, but if that's where you're going, I'm going with you." 

Gustav Mahler, Symphony No. 3 in D minor Sixth Movement

 "See" what becomes of the melody at 1:43

Orquesta Sinfónica de Puerto Rico
Maximiano Valdés, conductor
Coral Filarmónica de San Juan
Coro de Niños de San Juan
Carmen Acevedo Lucío, chorus master
Festival Casals- March 2008

 In its simplest form, the program consists of a title for each of the six movements:

1. " Pan Awakes, Summer Marches In"
2. "What the Flowers in the Meadow Tell Me"
3. "What the Animals in the Forest Tell Me"
4. "What Man Tells Me"
5. "What the Angels Tell Me"
6. "What Love Tells Me"

Mahler originally envisioned a seventh movement, "Heavenly Life" (alternatively, "What the Child Tells Me"), but eventually dropped this, using it instead as the last movement of the Symphony No. 4.

which incorporates a song called "Das himmlische Leben", which presents a child's vision of Heaven.

Das Himmlische Leven

The Heavenly Life

We enjoy the heavenly pleasures
and avoid the earthly things.
No worldly tumult
does one hear in Heaven!
Everything lives in the gentlest peace!
We lead an angelic life!
Nevertheless we are very merry:
we dance and leap,
hop and sing!
Meanwhile, Saint Peter in the sky looks on.

Saint John has let his little lamb go
to the butcher Herod.
We lead a patient, innocent,
dear little lamb to death!
Saint Luke slaughters oxen
without giving it thought or attention.
Wine costs not a penny in Heaven's cellar;
and angels bake the bread.

Good vegetables of all sorts
grow in Heaven's garden!
Good asparagus, beans
and whatever we wish!
Full bowls are ready for us!
Good apples, good pears and good grapes!
The gardener permits us everything!
Would you like roebuck, would you like hare?
In the very streets
they run by!

Should a fast-day arrive,
all the fish swim up to us with joy!
Over there, Saint Peter is running already
with his net and bait
to the heavenly pond.
Saint Martha must be the cook!

No music on earth
can be compared to ours.
Eleven thousand maidens
dare to dance!
Even Saint Ursula herself is laughing!
Cecilia and all her relatives
are splendid court musicians!
The angelic voices
rouse the senses
so that everything awakens with joy.