Brahms recorded in a pocket diary entry written in Thun, Switzerland, in August 1886, that he had set several poems to music, including Klaus Groth's "Wie Melodien zieht es mir leise durch den Sinn" (Like melodies it steals softly through my mind),[1] Hermann Lingg's "Immer leiser wird mein Schlummer" (My slumber grows more and more gentle),[1] Carl von Lemcke's "Verrat / Ich stand in einer lauen Nacht" (Betrayal / I stood in one balmy night)[1] and another song by Paul Flemming, all of them authors from the 19th century.

[3] Two years later, Brahms offered a group of songs for lower voice to his publisher Simrock, to be his Op.

The final grouping and order was achieved in a personal meeting of the composer and the publisher,[4] ultimately adding to Op.

105 a setting of a traditional Lower Rhenish song, "Feins Liebchen, trau du nicht" (Beloved, do not trust) and a poem by Detlev von Liliencron, "Auf dem Kirchhofe / Der Tag ging regenschwer und sturmbewegt" (At the graveyard / "The day was heavy with rain and storms"):[1][4][5] 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.

[1] The melodies of some of these songs also make appearances in Brahms' instrumental works, especially "Immer leiser wird mein Schlummer", which he had used a few years earlier as a cello solo theme in the third movement of his Piano Concerto No.