Five Songs, Op. 26 (Pfitzner)
Five Songs, Op. 26 (Fünf Lieder) is a cycle of five songs for voice and piano by German composer Hans Pfitzner. He wrote it in 1916 in Strasbourg, and it was published that year in Leipzig by Max Brockhaus. The songs set poems by Friedrich Hebbel, Joseph von Eichendorff, Gottfried August Bürger, and Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, and the work is dedicated to Mientje Lamprecht van Lammen.
The five songs are:
- Gebet, set to a poem by Friedrich Hebbel. In A-flat major (Pfitzner also prepared a lower-voice version in F major).
- Nachts, set to a poem by Eichendorff. In B-flat major.
- Neue Liebe, set to a poem by Eichendorff. In A major (some sources call it A-flat; there is also a lower-voice adaptation in F major).
- Trauerstille, based on a Bürger poem, described as a sonnet in C major.
- Mailied, set to a Goethe poem. In A-flat major, with an alternate lower version in E major.
The cycle premiered on November 10, 1916, in Strasbourg, and was published in the same year by Max Brockhaus in Leipzig. It is scored for middle or high voice and piano.
Pfitzner recorded the second song in this cycle at the piano with baritone Gerhard Hüsch at Electrola Studios in Cologne on February 10, 1939. Complete recordings of the set are rare, since each song requires a different vocal range.
This page was last edited on 2 February 2026, at 17:47 (CET).