Three complete German Lieder collections you've probably never played
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Most pianists can name a handful of Schubert or Schumann Lieder. Fewer have opened a page of Louise Reichardt, Robert Franz, or Peter Cornelius — not because the music isn't good, but because it's hard to find in playable form. All three are now complete on PracticeClef: every playable engraving of theirs in our source corpus is live, not merely a greatest-hits sampling. Between them that's 121 pieces. Nearly all are piano parts of voice-and-piano songs — the accompaniment only, not the vocal line — and every card below says so.
Louise Reichardt (1779–1826) — 40 pieces, complete
Reichardt was one of the first women in Europe to build a professional career in music: a composer and founding choir director in Hamburg, and the daughter of Goethe's composer Johann Friedrich Reichardt. Her settings of Novalis are the collection's centerpiece — including “Wenn ich ihn nur habe,” the most famous of his Geistliche Lieder, which is how many of her contemporaries first heard that poem. Difficulty below is PracticeClef's published 1–9 scale.
Wenn ich ihn nur habe (piano part) — Louise Reichardt
This piece is in Db major, sits at level 5 of 9, and takes about 35 seconds to play.
Reichardt's setting of Novalis's best-known sacred poem — short, strophic, and a natural first stop in this collection.
Open this score when you want to play it.
Wachtelwacht, Op. 3 No. 4 (piano part) — Louise Reichardt
This piece is in F major, sits at level 5 of 9, and takes about 30 seconds to play.
One of Reichardt's folk-tone songs, alongside “Käuzlein” and “Betteley der Vogel” — a lighter, more rustic vein than the Novalis settings.
Open this score when you want to play it.
Robert Franz (1815–1892) — 48 pieces, complete
Franz was a correspondent of Schumann's, praised by Liszt, and personally championed by Wagner — a respected, citable name in the Lieder tradition, if a less famous one today than Schubert or Schumann. All 48 Franz songs reachable in our source corpus are now live; his supply there is exhausted, so this is every piece of his we can currently ship.
Auf dem Meere, Op. 6 No. 3 (piano part) — Robert Franz
This piece is in Bb major, sits at level 5 of 9, and takes about one minute to play.
A flowing barcarolle-like accompaniment, one of the earlier songs in Franz's catalog to go live.
Open this score when you want to play it.
Die Lotosblume, Op. 1 No. 3 (piano part) — Robert Franz
This piece is in Bb major, sits at level 4 of 9, and takes about 50 seconds to play.
Franz's own setting of Heine's oft-set lotus-flower text — gentle and one of the easiest pieces in his collection, a good entry point before the harder Op. 1 songs.
Open this score when you want to play it.
Peter Cornelius (1824–1874) — 33 pieces, complete
Cornelius was a German composer-poet of the Liszt circle who wrote his own song texts; the Weihnachtslieder, Op. 8, remain his best-known work, and the complete cycle is now live. So is “Ein Ton,” his famous one-note song: the voice reiterates a single pitch for the entire piece while the piano part carries all the harmony — which makes it a striking one to actually play, not just read about.
Ein Ton, Op. 3 No. 3 (piano part) — Peter Cornelius
This piece is in E minor, sits at level 4 of 9, and takes about one minute to play.
The voice sings nothing but a repeated B from start to finish; every harmonic move happens in the piano part alone.
Open this score when you want to play it.
Die Könige, Op. 8 No. 3b (piano part) — Peter Cornelius
This piece is in G major, sits at level 5 of 9, and takes about one minute to play.
The centerpiece of the complete Weihnachtslieder cycle — “The Three Kings” is the one English-speaking choirs already know; the piano part is now playable on its own.
Open this score when you want to play it.
Explore the rest
Six pieces is a starting point, not the whole story — the full library lets you browse all 121 Reichardt, Franz, and Cornelius pieces (and everything else) by composer or difficulty. Every score is free to open and play, and no account is needed.
A note on the numbers. Every count and grade in this post is checkable against the live catalog: keys, difficulty grades (PracticeClef's published 1–9 scale), and piece counts come from each piece's own metadata record. “Complete” means every playable engraving in our source corpus is live — not every piece these composers ever wrote. Most pieces above are piano parts of voice-and-piano songs: the accompaniment only, not the vocal line. Duration figures are estimates derived from the score, not measured performances.