An important step in the life of Samuel Barber occurred in 1924 when he entered the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia during the school's first year. As Barber learned skills in composition, orchestration, and theory, he began composing regularly. Between 1924 and 1936, Barber wrote over 50 songs based on the style of German Romantic Lieder. The young composer chose texts from the poetry of many traditional writers and contemporary poets of the time. Only seven of these songs were ever published, three of which formed Barber's Three Songs, Op. 2 (1936). This intense interest in vocal music stems from the composer's relationship with his aunt, Louise Homer, an accomplished contralto.

The first song included in Three Songs, Op. 2 is "The Daisies." This poem is by the Irish author James Stephens, and was published in America in 1926. Stephens' work was introduced to Barber by his uncle, Sidney Homer, who was a well-known composer of stature. A later work for chorus, Reincarnations (1937), was based entirely on Stephens' poetry. This song was composed in July 1927 while Barber was spending a summer performing at a club. The light and spry setting of this beautiful poem is relatively short in duration. This song, along with an popular unpublished song, "Dance," were often performed by Rose Bampton. Bampton was also a student at Curtis, entering three years after Barber. She would become closely associated with Barber's vocal music in the 1930s. Luckily for Barber, Bampton, upon auditioning at Curtis, was decided to not have an appropriate voice for opera. She was then assigned to study Lieder and choral singing and was therefore able to perform Barber's music appropriately.

The second song published was a setting of an adored poem by A. E. Housman, "With Rue my Heart is Laden." This dramatic piece is typical of the young composer writing after the style of the famous German Lied composers, Schubert, Schumann, and Brahms. This song was composed in January 1928 and was dedicated to a friend of the composer who prematurely died 12 years later. The third song of the publication, "Bessie Bobtail" was not composed until 1934, and is based on another poem by James Stephens. This song is the most interesting of the three. The opening sounds of the piano accompaniment are meant to represent the limping of Bessie Bobtail. Dissonances occur throughout the song and give the listener a sense of Bessie's anguished feelings.

These three songs were some of the most often performed songs by Barber during his early years. Barber, himself a vocalist, performed "The Daisies" and "Bessie Bobtail" in a performance in West Chester, Pennsylvania, the composer's birthplace in 1934. All three of the songs were performed by Bampton in 1935 at the home of dignitaries in London. The three songs were published in 1936 by G. Schirmer, beginning the composer's long-lasting relationship with the publication firm.

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