von Paradis – Zwölf Lieder auf ihrer Reise in Musik gesetzt (1786)

Zwölf Lieder auf ihrer Reise in Musik gesetzt is a collection associated with the Viennese musician and composer Maria Theresia von Paradis (1759–1824). Blind from early childhood, Paradis became one of the most celebrated keyboard virtuosi of late eighteenth-century Vienna and a prominent figure within its cosmopolitan musical culture. She studied with leading musicians of the Habsburg capital—including the pedagogue Antonio Salieri—and benefited from the patronage networks surrounding the imperial court.

During the 1780s and 1790s she established an international reputation as both performer and composer, undertaking extensive concert tours across the German-speaking lands, France, and England. Although best known today for keyboard works and chamber music, Paradis also cultivated vocal genres, particularly the Lied, which in the later eighteenth century was evolving from simple strophic song toward a more expressive, text-sensitive idiom.

The collection Zwölf Lieder auf ihrer Reise in Musik gesetzt (“Twelve Songs Set to Music on Her Journey”) is closely connected with Paradis’s extended European concert tour of 1783–1786, undertaken with her librettist and companion Johann Riedinger. The poems reflect impressions and sentiments associated with travel, sociability, and reflection during the journey, and Paradis’s musical settings transform these texts into compact salon pieces suited to domestic performance. Such works would have circulated within the cultivated amateur circles that formed an important audience for song in the late eighteenth century.

Key details about this collection include:

• Context: The songs were written during a significant tour of Europe, during which the blind pianist and composer performed.
• Style: Classical period.
• Instrumentation: Voice, piano (or harpsichord); some pieces also included accompaniment for violin and cello/double bass.
• Notable Pieces: The collection includes Der Auferstehungsmorgen, Die Schäferin, Die Tanne, and Morgenlied eines armen Mannes.
• Dedication: The work was dedicated to Louise, the Duchess of Saxe-Meiningen.