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.

The Gesang der Parzen, Op. 89, was composed in Bad Ischl in Austria during the summer of 1882, the same period in which Brahms completed both the Piano Trio in C Major, Op. 87 and the String Quintet in F Major, Op. 88. The Gesang der Parzen received its premiere in Basle, Switzerland, on December 10, 1882 and was published in 1883. For the text, Brahms extracted seven stanzas from Act 4 of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's (1749-1832) Iphigenie auf Tauris, a work of universal human relevance. It would be Brahms' last piece for chorus and orchestra.

Brahms dedicated the work to Duke Georg von Sachsen-Meiningen. Hans von Bülow (1830-94), director of the Meiningen Court Orchestra, offered the famous ensemble to Brahms as a rehearsal orchestra. A concert of November 27, 1881, in Meiningen devoted to Brahms initiated a Meiningen tradition of performing the composer's works. The Duke and his wife, Helene von Heldburg, greatly admired Brahms' music and offered him their hospitality on numerous occasions.

Much of Brahms' choral writing is derived from his study of early Baroque contrapuntal technique, undertaken initially at the library of his native city, 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 from the nineteenth. For instance, in the Geistliches Lied, Op. 30, we find a double canon at the major ninth.

The Gesang der Parzen, however, is an exception. The compactness of the piece leaves little room for extended fugato passages, resulting in generally homorhythmic writing and rather rapid text declamation. The sound of the work is generally dark: the six-part chorus features splits in the lower parts (alto and bass), while the orchestra is augmented by a contrabassoon, three trombones and tuba. This somber sonic palette reinforces the meaning of the text, in which humanity must submit to the unfortunate decrees of the Fates. Brahms' streamlined musical language evokes the ancient Greek world and the gloom of the Mycenaean fable.

Gesang der Parzen is constructed along the lines of a simple rondo (ABACA). The powerful instrumental introduction wanders harmonically until settling on D minor just before the entrance of the chorus. Section A sets the first three verses, the text distributed between the high and low voice parts until, at the beginning of the second verse, all sing together with the support of the full orchestra. The reason for Brahms' emphasis on the dominant of F major at the end of the third verse becomes clear when the fourth verse begins on F major ("Sie aber, sie bleiben in ewigen Festen"), marking the first episode (section B) of the rondo form. A reprise of A section music heralds the restatement of the text of the first verse only, featuring similar exchanges between voice parts and a slightly more transparent accompaniment from the orchestra. Brahms then abruptly shifts to 3/4 meter and D major for the sixth verse and the second episode (section C), opening with "Es wenden die Herrscher." D minor returns only fifteen measures before the end of the piece at "So sangen die Parzen," the voice parts similar to those of the first verse only in rhythm, the repeated-note melodies tossed back and forth through an ever-decreasing dynamic and closing with a prophetic timpani roll.

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