Lieder

The lied (plural lieder) is a term in the German vernacular to describe setting poetry to classical music to create a piece of polyphonic music. The term is used for German songs from the late fourteenth or early fifteenth centuries. It later came especially to refer to Romantic poetic songs during the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, and into the early twentieth century. Examples include settings by Ludwig van Beethoven, Franz Schubert, Robert Schumann or Richard Strauss. Among English speakers, however, "lied" is often used interchangeably with "art song" to encompass works that the tradition has inspired in other languages. The poems that have been made into lieder often center on pastoral themes or themes of romantic love