''Fünf Lieder'' (Five Songs), Op. 105, were composed by

Johannes Brahms Johannes Brahms (; ; 7 May 1833 – 3 April 1897) was a German composer, virtuoso pianist, and conductor of the mid-Romantic period (music), Romantic period. His music is noted for its rhythmic vitality and freer treatment of dissonance, oft ...

between 1886 and 1888. He set five poems by different authors, mostly contemporary poets, for a lower voice and piano.

Simrock Simrock may refer to the German sheet music publisher N. Simrock, or one of the following members of the Simrock family engaged in that business: * Nikolaus Simrock (1751–1832), founder of N. Simrock * Karl Joseph Simrock (1802–1876), son of Ni ...

published the work in 1888.

History

Brahms recorded in a pocket diary entry written in

Thun Thun () is a List of towns in Switzerland, town and a Municipalities of Switzerland, municipality in the administrative district of Thun (administrative district), Thun in the Cantons of Switzerland, canton of Canton of Bern, Bern in Switzerland. ...

, Switzerland, in August 1886, that he had set several poems to music, including

Klaus Groth Klaus Groth (24 April 1819 – 1 June 1899) was a Low German poet. Biography Groth was born in Heide, in Ditmarschen, the western part of the Duchy of Holstein. He was the oldest son of Hartwig Groth, a miller, and his wife Anna Christina. ...

's "" (Like melodies it steals softly through my mind),

Hermann Lingg Hermann (Ritter von) Lingg (22 January 1820 – 18 June 1905) was a German poet who also wrote plays and short stories. His cousin, Maximilian von Lingg, was Bishop of Augsburg. He was born in Lindau. Lingg studied medicine at the universities o ...

's "" (Ever quieter grows my slumber),

Carl von Lemcke Carl von Lemcke, or Karl (von) Lemcke, who sometimes wrote as Karl Manno (26 August 1831 – 7 April 1913) was a German aesthetician and art historian who also wrote songs and novels. He was born in Schwerin. Between 1852 and 1856 he studied art ...

's "" (Betrayal / I stood in one balmy night) and another song by

Paul Flemming Paul Flemming (born October 8, 1968, in Halifax, Nova Scotia) is a Canadian curler. In April 2024 Flemming's senior rink won the 2024 World Senior Curling Championships. Curling career Flemming's junior team was successful in Atlantic Can ...

, all of them authors from the 19th century. He probably composed the songs with the voice of Hermine Spies in mind, who privately sang some of them for him. Two years later, Brahms offered a group of songs for lower voice to his publisher

, to be his Op. 105, together with a group for high voice as Op. 106. The final grouping and order was achieved in a personal meeting of the composer and the publisher, ultimately adding to Op. 105 a setting of a traditional Lower Rhenish song, "" (Beloved, do not trust) and a poem by

Detlev von Liliencron Baron Detlev von Liliencron born Friedrich Adolf Axel von Liliencron (3 June 1844 in Kiel22 July 1909) was a German poet and novelist from Kiel. Biography Liliencron was the son of Louis (Ludwig) Freiherr von Liliencron and Adeline von Harten. ...

, "" (At the graveyard / "The day was heavy with rain and storms"): # "" (Groth) # "" (Lingg) # "" (traditional) # "" (Liliencron) # "" (Lemcke) The group, as others by Brahms, has been metaphorically described as a "song bouquet", likening it to flowers "plucked" from different sources and then combined into a whole. The songs were premiered individually, the first song on 11 February 1887 in Vienna, the second at a recital of Amalie Joachim in Berlin on 1 February 1888, the third on 6 March 1888 in Vienna, the fourth on 30 November 1888 there, and the fifth also there on 5 December 1888, in a concert of Olga Segel. Later performances and recordings also often ignored the published grouping, placing individual songs in different contexts. The melodies of some of these songs also make appearances in Brahms' instrumental works, especially "", which he had used a few years earlier as a cello solo theme in the third movement of his Piano Concerto No. 2 in B major. Motifs from three of the songs appear in his Violin Sonata No. 2, "" as the second subject of the first movement, and both "" and "" in the final movement.

References

External links

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5 Lieder, Op. 105

French National Library French may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France ** French people, a nation and ethnic group ** French cuisine, cooking traditions and practices Arts and media * The French (band), ...

Brahms Among Friends: Listening, Performance, and the Rhetoric of Allusion
{{Authority control Lieder composed by Johannes Brahms 1888 compositions Songs based on poems