The piece is scored for two flutes, two oboes, two clarinets, two bassoons, two horns, two trumpets, three trombones, timpani, strings, and a four-part chorus.

[4] The work is in three movements, marked as follows:[4] Ihr wandelt droben im Licht Auf weichem Boden selige Genien!

Glänzende Götterlüfte Rühren Euch leicht, Wie die Finger der Künstlerin Heilige Saiten.

Doch uns ist gegeben Auf keiner Stätte zu ruh'n; Es schwinden, es fallen Die leidenden Menschen Blindlings von einer Stunde zur andern, Wie Wasser von Klippe Zu Klippe geworfen Jahrlang in's Ungewisse hinab.

Fearlessly, like the slumbering Infant, abide the Beatified; Pure retained, Like unopened blossoms, Flowering ever, Joyful their soul And their heavenly vision Gifted with placid Never-ceasing clearness.

The piece was not realized in its final form until a solution was suggested to Brahms in 1871 by Hermann Levi (who conducted the premiere of Schicksalslied later that year).

John Alexander Fuller Maitland stated that in Schicksalslied, Brahms "set the pattern of the short choral-ballad, to which, in Nänie, Op.

At measure 29, the altos enter with the initial statement of the choral melody, which is immediately reiterated by the sopranos while the rest of the chorus adds harmony.

The orchestra returns to prominence at measure 52 with harplike accompaniment as the chorus presents a new melody to the line Wie die Finger der Künstlerin Heilige Saiten.

At measure 64, the orchestra cadences in the dominant key (B♭ major) before repeating the first thematic melody line originally stated by the alto voices.

This time, however, the melody is taken initially by the horn with the entire chorus repeating the theme on Schicksallos, wie der Schlafende Säugling.

The eighth notes intensify and climax at a ff in measure 132 as Brahms sets the lyric blindlings von einer Stunde zur andern to the chorus dividing into a B diminished seventh chord.

The second movement closes by way of a 54-measure orchestral section with a C pedal tone and the chorus intermittently repeating the last line of Hölderlin's poem.