The first eleven pieces of the cycle, which formed some well-connected story, were put to music by Brahms either in his
Thun summer of 1887 or in winter 1887/88 straight-away during a stay in
Budapest. Further four songs followed in 1891 and were published together with the song quartets
Sehnsucht and
Nächtens (text by
Franz Theodor Kugler), which had no connection with the
Zigeunerlieder, but nonetheless were put together to form Brahms's Op. 112. In Brahms's total work the
Zigeunerlieder can be seen – on the one hand – as a vocal counterpart of the
Hungarian Dances and – on the other hand – as exotic counterpart to the more-referenced
Liebesliederwalzer Opp. 52 and 65. The first public performance of the songs Op. 103 was on 31 October 1888 in
Berlin, with great success, although the presentation of the opus in a concert hall presented some bad feelings to the composer, since Brahms had conceived his opus genuinely for soloist quartets, and had thought of performances at home. Nonetheless, the songs are also suited for (small) choirs, particularly in connection with the voluminous sound of modern pianos. As a consequence, performances by choirs in concert are now the rule. CD-representations are, instead, frequently performed by soloists. == List of songs ==