These songs all have the common theme of death and lost youth. Brahms most likely wrote them for Julius Stockhausen, the baritone with whom he had collaborated many times in the past, thus the designation "for low voice."

1. Mit vierzig Jahren (With Forty Years). The imagery of this song has a man of forty years looking back at youth and forward to death. Brahms setting is as sensitive and powerful as anything he ever wrote for voice. Every measure is imbued with the meaning and implications of the poignant text. The calm of the gentle ending reflect the poet's (and Brahms') view of death as a release.

2. Steig auf, geliebter Schatten (Rise, Beloved Shadow). This moving portrait is of a survivor conjuring the image of a deceased loved one to gain the courage to go on with life. Again, Brahms responds to the text with sensitive word painting, using textural differences to emphasize the contrast between life and death.

3. Mein Herz ist schwer (My Heart is Heavy). Another slow and sad song, this one has the protagonist conjuring an image of a castle and a maiden, and anguishing over the loss of youth. The archaic imagery inspires a bare accompaniment in octaves in an unrelenting rhythm. A central climax illustrates the man's anguish over his lost youth before subsiding to a resigned acceptance.

4. Sapphische Ode (Sapphic Ode). This strophic setting is rather less anguished then the preceding three, as the protagonist speaks of tears and a lost love. The wistful mood is reflected in the throbbing piano part, while the shifts from major to minor illustrate the singer's tender feelings.

5. Kein Haus, keine Heimat (No House, No Home). This text is from Halm's narrative In der Südsee in which the hero kills himself to save his former mistress. Although only twenty measures, Brahms' austere setting is intensely dramatic.



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4.Sapphische Ode: Rosen brach ich Nachts mir am dunklen Hage

Despite the title of this celebrated song by Brahms, the work borrows only the form, not the subject matter, of "Sappho of Lesbos." The quatrain pattern identified with the poetess was closely followed by both the writer, Hans von Schmidt, and the composer. Schmidt was something of a musician and became a member of Vienna circle with which Brahms spent considerable time. Submitted directly to Brahms, Schmidt's poetry (including this text) elicited an admiring reply; less than three years later, the composer set Sapphische Ode with respect for its structure and pleasure in its subject. The singer informs the listener that he picked roses by night from lowering hedgerows; they betrayed a sweeter fragrance than by day and, in motion, showered him with dew. In the second stanza, he tells of the fragrance of his beloved's kisses, picked by night from the rosebush of her lips. When stirred by her deepest feelings, she, like the rosebush, was bedewed, but with tears instead. Movingly heartfelt within the strictures of its restraint, this song has become a favorite of audiences as well as a test of the singer's ability to maintain a poised vocal line, especially through the slow turns that conclude both stanzas. Written for low voice (in D major), its range extends from D downward to the A an octave plus below. The accompaniment begins marked piano and, aside from one discreet swell in volume, remains piano or double piano throughout. Likewise, the singer is instructed to move within the same subtle dynamic range, confidingly making his (or her) points and with flawless legato. Details abound in this seemingly simple song. The accompaniment initially falls, not on the principal beats of its 4/4 meter, but on the offbeat, launched by an eighth-note rest. Under the vocal line, which begins in even quarter notes, the effect is of an undisturbed evenness and great calm. As the singer recalls the movement of the rose branches and the spattering of dew, the meter changes to 3/2 and the accompaniment crisply plays the right hand against the left in alternate staccato pulsations. The device is repeated in the second stanza to underscore the plucking of kisses.

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