1, are two Lieder for baritone and piano composed by Arnold Schoenberg in fin-de-siècle Vienna, each setting to music a poem by Karl Michael von Levetzow.

The songs approached the customary limits of the Lied genre in their length, depth of expression, density of texture, and transcription-like piano writing, foreshadowing Schoenberg's later innovations, notably in his monumental work, Gurre-Lieder.

Like many of Schoenberg's early works, they reflect the dual influence of Johannes Brahms and Richard Wagner, two composers often considered opposites in Romantic music.

In 1903 or 1904, Max Marschalk [de] published them in Berlin under the full title Zwei Gesänge für eine Baritonstimme und Klavier (Two Songs for a baritone voice and piano).

In Zwei Gesänge, Schoenberg[a] set poems from Karl Michael von Levetzow's Höhenlieder: Gedichte und Aphorismen, "Dank" ("Thanks") in the first song and "Abschied" ("Farewell") in the other.

David Josef Bach recalled the audience "yelling and laughing, ... jeer[ing] at the composer like a fool", in a 1905 Arbeiter-Zeitung article about Schoenberg.

[2] In the music's "rich chords, parallel thirds and sixths, and heavy bass octaves", Hans Heinz Stuckenschmidt heard Brahms.

[g] Schoenberg's horizons widened after Brahms died (1897); after writing only absolute music, he wrote a tone poem fragment Frühlingstod for large orchestra (1898) after Nikolaus Lenau.

In these works, he argued, both composers wrote songs resembling longer oratorio or opera fragments more than short Lieder or mélodies respectively.

[21] Sachs noted that Schoenberg then earned a living by making reductions of more successful composers' music, including opera and operetta, as well as by conducting workers' choirs.

[9] For Stuckenschmidt, the Zwei Gesänge, in their scale, dynamic range, and many detailed expressive markings, anticipated his 1911 extended orchestral song cycle Gurre-Lieder.