Rilke wrote the poem after finding a document in his uncle Jaroslav's papers concerning Christopher Rilke, a man who Rainer's family erroneously[1] believed to be an ancestor and who "died as a cornet in the baron of Pirovano's company of the Imperial Austrian Heyster Regiment of Horse.

"[2] The poem recounts the adventures of Christopher Rilke, who travels with a company of soldiers and then, after a night in a castle with a lover, fights and dies in a war in Turkey and is mourned by an old woman.

Cornet was a tremendous success for Rilke, selling 5,000 copies in three weeks and leading to another print run of 20,000.

[1] In March 1919, Kurt Weill performed a symphonic version of the poem in Berlin.

The work was set to music by the American composer Lisa Bielawa premiering March 22, 2006, in Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center in New York and recorded one year later by Innova Recordings.