Gurre-Lieder (Songs of Gurre) is a tripartite oratorio followed by a melodramatic epilogue for five vocal soloists, narrator, three choruses, and grand orchestra.

In Des Sommerwindes wilde Jagd, Schoenberg also introduced the first use of sprechgesang (or sprechstimme), a technique he would explore more fully in Pierrot lunaire of 1912.

I had, during these thirteen years, developed my style in such a manner that to the ordinary concertgoer, it would seem to bear no relation to all preceding music.

"[4] At the premiere, Schoenberg did not even face the members of the audience, many of whom were fierce critics of his who were newly won over by the work; instead, he bowed to the musicians, but kept his back turned to the cheering crowd.

Violinist Francis Aranyi called it "the strangest thing that a man in front of that kind of a hysterical, worshipping mob has ever done.

[7] Schoenberg's champion and former pupil, the BBC programme planner Edward Clark, invited the composer to London to conduct the first British performance on 27 January 1928, in a translation by David Millar Craig.

[13] In 2014 the Dutch National Opera in Amsterdam was the first company to perform the Gurre-Lieder as a stage presentation, in a production directed by Pierre Audi.

1 hour), the love of Waldemar for Tove and the theme of misfortune and impending death are recounted in nine songs for soprano and tenor with orchestral accompaniment.

A long orchestral interlude leads to the Wood Dove's Song, arguably the most famous part of the work, which tells of Tove's death and Waldemar's grief.

The undead's restless roaming and savage hunt around the castle at night is thunderously depicted by the male chorus.

There is a humorous interlude in the grotesque song of the fool Klaus who is forced to ride with the macabre host when he would rather rest in his grave.