To many observers at mid century, the Lied was in decline. Despite the activity of Liszt, there was a period between early (Schubert and Schumann) and late (Brahms and Wolf) progenitors when no one figure was seen as leading the way. August Reißmann, in 1861, highlighted one of the dilemmas then facing the Lied – whether it had a future beyond the works of Schubert, Mendelssohn, and Schumann:

Twelve years later, Reißmann – as edited by Hermann Mendel – is more sanguine about the Lied's prospects, which he sees as “having grown to a broad stream, which also does not lack depth” (although he considers the “destructive frenzy of the innovators” as jeopardizing the fixed form of the Lied). This said, the ever-growing number of Lieder had be come a recurring concern, especially as they were seen as contributing toward the “spreading dilettantism and fashionableness in this compositional genre.” As Wolfgang Joseph von Wasielewski wrote in 1858, “we are by no means poor in lyrical productions in recent times – at least according to quantity. It has almost become a fashion that young composers put forward a volume of Lieder as Opus 1.” Wasielewskiwould prove accurate on both counts. The number of Lieder would swell past the point of counting just as many a composer would attempt to launch a career with an Opus 1 Lied or set of Lieder. Schubert presumably inaugurated the custom in 1821 with his Op. 1 Erlkönig; others who did likewise include Carl Loewe, Fanny Hensel, Robert Franz, Peter Cornelius, and Arnold Schoenberg.