Book Description

The genre of Kinderlieder—children’s verses set to music with keyboard accompaniment—flourished in the German-speaking lands in the last third of the eighteenth century. The Liedersammlung für Kinder und Kinderfreunde am Clavier (1791), edited by Placidus Partsch, was the first collection of such songs to be published in the imperial capital of Vienna; it was originally intended to comprise four volumes representing the four seasons of the year, though only the volumes titled Frühlingslieder (Spring Songs) and Winterlieder (Winter Songs) survive today. Eleven composers contributed to this collection, including such Viennese musical luminaries as Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Johann Baptist Wanhal, Wenzel Müller, and probably Leopold Hofmann. Mozart’s three contributions to the Frühlingslieder (K. 596–98) were his last three lieder and among his final works. Each of the two surviving volumes contains thirty songs, suggesting that all four volumes would have included 120 songs. This edition is the first to include all sixty surviving lieder.