As the nineteenth century progressed, there was an unprecedented flowering of the partsong in Germany, inspired by the development of the rich repertory of German Romantic poetry in the hands of Goethe, Ruckert, Heine and others. Here are forty of the best 19th-century examples of the genre, from the country where partsongs caught the imagination of most major composers and delighted their audiences. The collection starts with Schubert and ends with early Schoenberg, including pieces by Brahms, Mendelsohn, Bruckner, Schumann, Wolf and Cornelius along the way.

Many of the exquisite pieces are about the archetypal Romantic themes: love, often lost or unrequited; nature and the seasons; life and death; religion and folklore; human ideals and aspirations. Some items are previously unpublished, whilst others have never been widely available. All the material appears with thoroughly idiomatic English singing translations as well as prose translations, and notes on the composers and their pieces. The majority of the items are in short-score format, for the convenience of the rehearsal accompanist.