This is the first set of pieces for voice that Brahms designated as Lieder as opposed to Gesänge. This is a difficult but important distinction to make. In English both words translate to "songs," but in the German, there is a difference. The Lied is usually considered a song in the German vernacular, while the Gesang, at least in Brahms' case usually referred to a more serious "art song." The other song title common in Brahms' oeuvre, Romanzen (Romances) is fairly obvious. This set of songs marks a new point in Brahms' aesthetic, a departure from his previous sets of songs. At this time in Germany there was a new thrust toward reconstructing a specifically national folk past as a reaction against the cosmopolitanization of German music that had resulted from the international acclaim and artistic deification of the works of Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven. The direct result was a spate of folk and folk-like music from German composers. Brahms set many such presumably authentic songs as part of his three sets of German Folksongs, WoO 31-33. This particular Opus 14 is another collection of folksongs, but in this case admittedly composed by Brahms in a folk idiom, thus the designation Lieder as opposed to Gesänge.

As with his arrangements of folksongs, these settings, although original, follow the same aesthetic of musical simplicity and directness.

1. Vor dem Fenster (Outside the Window) is a dialogue of a lover singing to his sweetheart from outside, while everyone else is asleep.

2. Vom verwundeten Knaben (The Wounded Boy) is a sad little tune on the endlessness of grief. Simply set, but deeply affecting.

3. Murrays Ermordung (Murray's Murder). In A B A form, this is based on the well-known Scottish Ballad of the same name. It is full of strong rhythms depicting the gallant knight, Murray.

4. Ein Sonett (A Sonnet) is based on a thirteenth-century troubadour poem, and is a particularly sensitive and introspective setting.

5. Trennung (Parting) depicts a lover watching her sweetheart depart. There is some rather naïve tone painting in the piano part depicting the horse's gallop.

6. Gang zur Liebsten (Visiting his Sweetheart) is a strophic setting depicting a lover's struggle to express in writing his desire for a tryst. Brahms makes particularly expressive use of vocal register here to show the lover's longing.

7. Ständchen (Serenade) has a lover singing his sweetheart a soft and gently hypnotic lullaby.

8. Sehnsucht (Desire), the simplest of the set, is the song of a woman who's lover is at sea. The piano part merely supports the vocal line.



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