The two songs of Op. 8 make up the first of Webern's groups of songs with instrumental accompaniment. They were written at a time when Webern was not terribly productive as a composer; instead, he was conducting and spending time with his teacher and mentor, Arnold Schoenberg. The Op. 8 songs are scored for clarinet, bass clarinet, horn, trumpet, celesta, harp, violin, viola, and cello; they are settings of poems by Rainer Maria Rilke: "Du, der ich nicht sage," and "Du, machst mich allein." Typically for Webern, these atonal songs are very restrained but also very expressive, and Webern is very careful to adhere to the natural rhythms of speech in setting the text. There is a pronounced difference in character between the solo voice and ensemble, with the voice taking virtuoso flight over the ensemble's patternistic, often chordal accompaniment. Webern's rhythmic treatment of the ensemble in the Op. 8 songs, as Walter Kolneder notes, is reminiscent of accompanied recitative.

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