Composed Year 1880, these three songs are the first complete compositions of Mahler’s to have survived. Mahler planned them as part of a cycle of five, the last two of which he never composed, most likely because he became preoccupied with his cantata Das klagende Lied. Mahler himself wrote all three texts addressing the first two to his hometown Jihlava sweetheart Josephine Poisl (1860- after 1880).