Although not Schubert's first composition for voice and piano (the two fragments of Baumberg's "Lebenstraum" and the long ballade on Schücking's "Hagars Klage" came first), Klaglied (Lament) (D. 23) from 1812 is his first real Lied, his first intimate and personal art song. Setting Johann Rochlitz's thinly disguised homage to Goethe's Gretchen am Spinnrade from Faust, Schubert's Klaglied is a minor-keyed strophic setting whose long, yearning vocal melody and perfectly poised piano accompaniment breathes the air of Schubert's mature songs. Although clearly not a masterpiece as his setting of the real Gretchen am Spinnrade of two years later is, Klaglied is arguably the first work of Schubert's that sounds like Schubert.

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