By the time he began work on these pieces, he was suffering from mental and emotional decline.
The set was composed just five months before Schumann's attempted suicide and confinement to a mental institution.
The set is dedicated to "the high poetess" Bettina von Arnim.
"[1] The Swiss composer Heinz Holliger wrote a work for orchestra, choir and tape in 1987 under the same title, Gesänge der Frühe [nl], which quoted Schumann and the German poet Friedrich Hölderlin.
Belebt, nicht zu rasch (Animated, not too quick, D major) 3.