Beginning in March 1856, Brahms and the violinist Joseph Joachim engaged in a weekly "back and forth" trade of contrapuntal studies.

"[3] The violinist proceeded to accuse Brahms of being more concerned over counterpoint than beauty:[2] "Your ear is so used to rough harmonies, of such polyphonic texture, that you rarely consider the voices just in their mutual clashing—because for you the proper and complementary is always associated right away.

[11] The organ prelude is based on an inverted anticipation of the first canon, which evolves by the sixth bar into a quotation of the main theme from the finale of Schumann's Fourth Symphony.

The canonic theme is inverted in the middle verse in C minor, beginning with four measures of chorus without organ accompaniment.

[12] Swafford suggested the music's organ opening references a fantasy of Clara Schumann's (Brahms's close companion and love interest[13]).

That fantasy was for Clara to study the organ in secret, only for her husband Robert to unexpectedly find her playing his music on the instrument.

However, Swafford described the rest of the music's tone as "lamenting", and the choral text to be "consoling the sorrowful with submission to fate".

[2] The musicologist Misha Donat believed that Brahms possibly addressed the work to Clara to console her while she dealt with her husband's illness.