Despite the current enthusiasm for Mahler, this is his least-known large-scale work. The composer identified it his Op. 1; but, though he commenced his composition studies at 18, Mahler was 41 before it was premiered in 1901, and even then only the first part, "Waldmärchen" (a woodland legend) was played. Originally called "Märchen in drei Abteilungen" (legend in three parts), the second and third sections were revised in 1893, and in 1898 Mahler prepared a retitled final version, substantially rewritten. This is the one usually performed, though some conductors tend to omit the second part.

Das klagende Lied is scored for soprano, alto and tenor soloists, choir, and orchestra. Though it cannot be said to equal Mahler's better-known works, it comes close in many ways to the song cycle Des knaben Wunderhorn, and bears unmistakable hallmarks of the mature composer. It certainly deserves a better fate than a tenuous survival as a Mahler curiosity.

The grim tale of posthumous revenge appears in various guises elsewhere in central European folklore (Dvorak's symphonic poem The Wood Dove has a somewhat similar source). The poem, based on a retelling of the story by Ludwig Bechstein, is by Mahler himself. The original version of "Waldmärchen" told the story of two brothers who go in search of a forest flower, the reward for finding it being the hand of the queen. The elder brother murders the younger who finds a red flower "as beautiful as the queen."

Mahler later replaced this with a more elaborate reworking of the story. A minstrel passing through a wood finds a bone from which he fashions a flute. When he plays it, he hears a melancholy song in which a dead knight accuses his brother of murdering him in order to marry "a little flower of beautiful hue." The minstrel wanders far and wide and eventually arrives at a castle where the elder brother is celebrating his marriage to the queen. The guilty king snatches the flute from the minstrel and puts it to his lips, only to hear his brother's voice accusing him of his violent death. The queen sinks to the ground and the wedding feast ends in chaos.

The work has much of the power and inventiveness of Mahler's better-known scores, including some striking resemblances to parts of the Fourth Symphony; yet comparisons are not easy. It is operatic in style and, while identifiably "Mahlerian" from the outset, Wagner's influence is strong, especially in the choral and orchestral writing. Some of the finest passages are those in the first part, where the atmosphere of fairy tale is magically conveyed.

It has been suggested that the reason the composer returned obsessively to the work was a sense of guilt following the suicide of his younger brother, Ernst, in 1874, but this writer can detect no such autobiographical clues.

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