Rudolf Sieczynski composed his popular song Wien, du Stadt meiner Träume (Vienna, city of my dreams) in 1913, a year which marks the beginning of a new era in Viennese music. In 1913, exemplifying the defiant spirit of Viennese modernism, choenberg caused a furor when he conducted his music, along with the works of Berg, Mahler, Webern, and Zemlinsky. In fact, the audience reacted so violently that a police intervention was necessary. Wistful, nostalgic, and profoundly unassuming, Sieczynski's song, similar, in spirit, to traditional Viennese city songs, harks to an idyllic time when life was supposedly untainted by the chaos of modernity. While this idyllic time is, in reality, purely mythic, songs such as Wien, du Stadt meiner Träume capture, and express, an authentic aspect of the great city on the Danube: a timeless, undefinable charm, which evokes bittersweet feelings of vague nostalgia. While the lyrics take the listener on a sentimental tour of the city, the lilting, uncomplicated waltz-like tune, with its heartfelt refrain, which is a true declaration of love, strives to conjure the calming, reassuring effect of a lullaby.

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