Gustav Mahler composed Songs of the Wayfarer for Orchestra and solo voice, while in his early 20s.
This cycle of four songs is the composer’s first mature work and the start of a genre known as the orchestral song cycle. The cycle tells the story (Mahler also wrote the text) of a young man betrayed by his lover. The hero wanders the countryside, going through a series of emotional states. This work is semi-autobiographical, as Mahler had been rejected by soprano Johanna Richter.