Peter Cornelius thought of himself as a ‘Poet-Musician’ and almost all of his mature compositions were vocal. His early attachment to the New German school of Liszt and Wagner was strong but his songs, almost half of which were written in Weimar, retain a very personal quality. A gifted poet, he set a number of his own lyrics. With their colourful piano accompaniments, his songs possess economy, atmosphere and show an interest in cyclical writing. Whether mournful or, in the Rhenish Songs, exuberantly outgoing, they reveal his imaginative command of the medium.
