When the 21-year-old Stockhausen wrote the
Drei Lieder in two weeks during the summer of 1950, he had no ambition to become a composer. He was approaching the end of his studies in music education at the
Cologne Conservatory and, after numerous classroom exercises, wanted merely to try his hand at composing something of substantial proportions. The work was originally titled
Lieder der Abtrünnigen (Songs of a Renegade), and set three poems written by the composer himself: "Mitten im Leben" (In the Midst of Life), "Frei" (Free), and "Der Saitenmann" (The Fiddler). (It is possible that there were originally five songs, but two were later destroyed.) The score is dedicated to
Doris Andreae, who later became the composer's wife. Stockhausen submitted the score to the jury for the
Darmstädter Ferienkurse, but they rejected it, judging it as "too old-fashioned" and the texts as "too gruesome". In reaction, Stockhausen decided to replace the text of the first song with a German translation of a poem by
Charles Baudelaire. When he successfully auditioned for admission to
Frank Martin's composition class at the conservatory, it was the
Drei Lieder that he presented, and he also submitted the score as one of two examination papers in his optional subject, composition (the other was the
Sonatine for violin and piano). The score remained unperformed for twenty years, until
Maurice Fleuret asked him for something to premiere at the SMIP concerts in Paris. Curious to hear what this work of
juvenilia sounded like, Stockhausen offered the
Drei Lieder, which were performed for the first time, sung by
Brigitte Fassbaender, on 21 October 1971 under the composer's baton. Stockhausen conducted further performances in Rome in 1973 and with the
Berlin Philharmonic in 1975, and made a recording for the SWR in the same year with
Sylvia Anderson, mezzo-soprano, and the
SWR Symphony Orchestra. ==Instrumentation==