Although few of Eduard Erdmann’s Lieder from the years up to 1918 were published, they occupy an important place in the public perception of the young composer. The influence on the impulsive young composer of his role models Schumann and Brahms, Hugo Wolf and Richard Strauss, cannot be denied – and yet his songs also point to something new. It is to be regretted that a number of Erdmann’s early Lieder, quoted in an undated handwritten list (“12 Lieder by various authors”), have been lost or destroyed.

The music critic Hans Heinz Stuckenschmidt, who addressed himself in his essay “Neue Lieder” (Melos, 1/1920) to the art-song repertoire of his time, observed that since Gustav Mahler’s Kindertotenlieder it had seemed almost impossible to write anything singable. There are accordingly few composers whose Lieder Stuckenschmidt recognises as sufficiently distinctive to earn praise in his article: these are the fifteen Schoenberg songs from Stefan George’s “Buch der hängenden Gärten” (op.15), the four Lieder op.2 by Alban Berg, and works by Karl Horwitz, Karol Szymanowski, Manfred Gurlitt – and Eduard Erdmann.