ABSTRACT
As I have said, it seems reasonable to date the beginnings of the Lied as we know it from about the 1740s although continuo-song had flourished in Germany for a full century before that. These continuo-songs consisted of the vocal melody plus a bass-line, usually figured, which the player was expected to realise on his instrument (harpsichord, organ, lute and so on: the title-pages and prefaces often give a wide choice of possibilities). The songs were usually strophic and often very simple, direct and fresh in style, 1 so that it is tempting to see them as the natural forerunners of the Lied. But a more elaborate virtuoso style, more commonly associated with cantata and opera, also occasionally invaded these songs, sometimes in such a way that works of a single composer may vary between the utterly simple and the very ornate. Here is part of Heinrich Albert’s setting of Simon Dach’s ‘Herbstlied’ (Autumn Song): 2 https://s3-euw1-ap-pe-df-pch-content-public-p.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/9781003014430/ccc9f6fe-737f-4ec8-a8d8-40db1b871386/content/ufig1_1.tif" xmlns:xlink="https://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"/>
