The song Leukon is the last song in the edition of Alban Berg Jugendlieder published in the mid- to late '80s by Universal Edition; the two-volume edition does not contain all of the Jugendlieder (46 of the 70 or 80 songs composed by Berg as a young man are contained), but does present a very thorough cross-section of Berg's songwriting projects between 1901, when he was a neophyte hobbyist, and 1908, by which time he had been well-schooled in traditional music and joined contemporary, progressive Viennese art, literature, and music circles. Leukon deserves its position in the edition: it apparently was in fact the very last of the Jugendlieder to be composed. Berg's next songs are not parts of the Jugendlieder, but, rather, parts of the Seven Early Songs or the Four Songs, Op. 2, of 1909-1910.

Leukon, also known as An Leukon, is the last of the Jugendlieder; its text is, however, one of the earliest, having been written during the mid-eighteenth century by Johann Wilhelm Ludwig Gleim (Haydn and Mozart each set one of Gleim's texts to music a century-plus earlier). "Live quickly—time is flying by" is the final line of the poem, which encapsulates the gist of it; carpe diem, in the modern (though, in fact, ancient) lingo. Berg's song is not especially quick; nor does it fly by as fast as Gleim tells us time does. Leicht bewegt (Easy moving) is the tempo marking, but do not be fooled: easy moving does not mean easygoing. The song is one long series of tension-inducing harmonic sequences. They move up, they move down; and they build up to an impassioned fortissimo climax at the end of the song that tumbles down, as though despairing of time's inexorable fleetingness, to a bang in the lowest register of the piano.

© Blair Johnston, All Music Guide