Following the completion of his opera Die Frau ohne Schatten, he returned to the genre and set six poems by the Romantic poet Clemens Brentano as Sechs Lieder.

[1] Clemens Brentano, together with his friend and brother-in-law Achim von Arnim, is known for the folk poem collection Des Knaben Wunderhorn.

[2] While the central songs suit Schumann's light coloratura voice, the outer works require more dramatic expression.

The first five songs were first performed at the Berlin Singakademie on 30 May 1919 by Birgit Engell and pianist Georg Schumann, as part of the first festival Tonkünstlerfest of the association Allgemeiner Deutscher Musikverein after the World War,[2][3] while the last one was premiered in Dresden on 29 September.

[10] "Amor" (Cupid) is based on a poem in three stanzas of six lines each, with the incipit "An dem Feuer saß das Kind" (By the fire sat the child.

[11] "Lied der Frauen" is based on a poem which Brentano had continued "(wenn die Männer im Krieg sind)" (When the men are at war).