Wolf's first published songs were his Sechs Lieder für eine Frauenstimme, collected and printed in 1888. Like those of Sechs Gedichte von Scheffel, Mörike, Goethe und Kerner, these songs were not composed as a set, but were assembled from the numerous lieder Wolf had written up to that point. Thereafter, the composer would begin to conceive of large groups of interrelated songs, either by the same poet or drawn from the same source.

Composed between June 6-19, 1877, "Morgentau" (Morning Dew) is possibly to a text by Albert Reinhold. Although not an ambitious song, the melody is sweet, simple and entrancing, and the overall structure and atmosphere remind one of Schumann's lyrical bent. The song's accompaniment seems to capture the mood of the poem—full of the sights and scents of early morning. Wolf set "Das Vöglein" (Little Bird), by Friedrich Hebbel, on May 2, 1878. Already we find the composers distinctive voice emerging in the clarity of the piano part, which is a humorous representation of the fluttering and chirping of birds.

Imagery of spring permeates "Die Spinnerin" (The Spinster), by Friedrich Rückert (1788-1866), which Wolf composed on April 5-12, 1878. A young woman cannot bring herself to spin thread because she sees through her window the stirrings of spring; more distracting, however, are the stirrings of spring within her heart. Rapidly alternating notes between the hands in the accompaniment evoke the motion of a spinning wheel. Robert Reinick's "Wiegenlied im Sommer" (Cradle-song in Summer), was composed on December 17, 1882. Cast in Wolf's "idyllic" key—F major—the song is an example of the composer's "soft" side, as seen in the gentle melody and easily rolling accompaniment. Its sister-song, "Wiegenlied im Winter" (Cradle-song in Winter), also by Reinick, is dated December 20, 1882. In a darker A flat major, the setting conveys some of the harshness of winter months.

"Mausfallensprüchlein" (Mousetrap Rhyme), set on June 18, 1882, is a poem by Eduard Mörike (1804-75). In an effort to catch a mouse, a small child "walks around the mousetrap and says: "Kleine Gäste, kleines Haus / Liebe Mäusin oder Maus..." (Tiny guests, tiny house / Dear girl or boy mouse...). The right hand of Wolf's piano part imitates the scurrying of little creatures as the child sings the rhyme to attract a mouse. "Mausfallensprüchlein" is one of the composer's most genuinely humorous lieder; the text is set to produce the utmost clarity, the melodic leaps becoming larger as the child commands the mouse to dance.

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