Written in 1885, the eight songs after texts by the now little-known poet Hermann von Gilm have a special place in Richard Strauss' corpus of Lieder. For the first time, he composed an entire set of songs on texts by a single poet, collecting them into one opus that was also to appear in print. Some of the numbers in it, like "Zueignung," "Die Nacht," and "Allerseelen," are among the most popular Strauss songs of all time, but the entire cycle with its well-planned structure is also worthy of closer examination and performance. The aspiring composer quite consciously aligns himself with the tradition ranging from Schubert to Wolf, choosing the highly Romantic subject of unrequited love and illuminating its most diverse facets.
The first edition of op. 10, published in 1887 for high voice, was followed during the composer's lifetime by transposed versions for middle and low registers, something that was then to become the rule for all of Strauss's songs. Henle has returned to these tried and tested transpositions for its own Urtext edition for middle voice, so as to offer this wondrous song-cycle to all voice ranges.