It is not unusual for a young music student to set a poem that has already been set as a song by a famous established composer. Doing so was a favorite pedagogical device, particularly in the days before the age of widely available recordings, when the composer-in-training might well never have heard the well-known version.

In this case there are three versions by leading German composers: Franz Schubert (it is his D. 429), Robert Schumann (Minnelied, Op. 71, No. 5), and Felix Mendelssohn (Minnelied im Mai, Op. 8, No. 1).

Ives composed this setting of a love poem by Ludwig H.C. Hölty (or Hoelty) as such an exercise. It retains the original German and is a conservative and lyrical setting. It shows the notable ability Ives always had to craft a singable, attractive, and memorable melody.

The song does not stray very far, harmonically. For much of the song pedal notes on E flat dominate the texture, with light broken chord figures in the left hand.

It is an attractive, though not exceptionally distinguished song.

In 1908 Ives reset the music to his own words as Nature's Way ("When the distant evening bell"), Kz 12b, which he published as Song No. 61 of his set of 114 Songs. In that version he transposed the song up a whole step to F major.

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