Brahms' choral writing is derived from his study of early Baroque contrapuntal technique, undertaken initially at the library of his native city of Hamburg and intensified after meeting the Schumanns at Düsseldorf. Thus, Brahms' choral works, especially his a cappella pieces, are more akin to examples from the early eighteenth century than those of the nineteenth. To composers of Schumann's generation, a cappella writing was something new and modern, growing in popularity at a time when Germany was in the midst of its Handel craze. To this "new" idiom Brahms applied what he had learned in his study of very early Baroque and Renaissance counterpoint. Thus, we find numerous imitative passages and strict canons in his a cappella choral works.

Brahms wrote little music for chorus until he took up his first official position at Detmold, where part of his duties included conducting the choral society. Once he began composing choral music he never stopped. Although not published until 1862, Brahms' Marienlieder (Songs of Mary), Op. 22, were written in 1859, the year the composer founded a Women's Chorus in Hamburg. Brahms' predilection for the combination of early, "learned" styles and folk song characteristics is often apparent in the Marienlieder the composer himself described them as works "in the manner of old German church music and folk song." All of the texts are traditional poems about Mary, the mother of Jesus, except for No. 6, which is about Mary Magdalene.

In the first of the Marienlieder "Der englische Gruss" (The Annunciation), Brahms passes the principal melody from voice to voice, beginning with a combination of alto and tenor, then soprano and tenor. The song's strophic construction betrays Brahms' interest in folk song, while the imitative entries at the outset of the final verse clearly derive from the contrapuntal practices of Renaissance and Baroque church music composers.

Manuscript evidence shows that No. 2, "Marias Kirchgang" (Mary's trip to the church), was originally composed for female voices only and performed by Brahms' Hamburg Women's Chorus. Brahms seems to look back the medieval compositional techniques in his placement of the main melody in the alto, with the soprano providing accompaniment above. Brahms shifts from E flat minor to E flat major for the bell-like central section as the bells begin to ring, heralding Mary's approach.

"Der Jäger" (The Hunter), the fourth of the set, stands out from the rest because it is the only song not in a "flat" key. The purely homorhythmic opening contrasts with a central section that alternates the melodic material between two pairs of voices, subordinating the unlucky pair to accompanimental outbursts. The music of the first two verses returns nearly note-for-note to close the piece.

The fifth song, "Ruf zur Maria" (Call to Mary), is most notable for its Adagio tempo, 6/4 meter, and numerous contrapuntal intricacies buried within a homorhythmic overall texture. These characteristics are a salient feature of the later, Ein deutsches Requiem. The strophic "Magdalena" is hymn-like in mood, its G minor key conveying the solemnity of Magdalene's encounter at the empty tomb. In No. 7, "Marias Lob" (Mary's Praise) the shift from 4/4 to 3/4 meter is a trait typical of folk dance music.

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