This article offers close readings of the part-song Die Beredsamkeit and the solo song Lob der Faulheit. The former seems to illustrate ‘eloquence’ on at least four levels by imitating the intonation of elevated speech, by invoking the so-called ‘learned style’ of music through the introduction of various contrapuntal procedures, by quoting some of the most elementary figures of musical rhetoric (such as the Halbzirkel and the tirata) and by constructing the whole of the work as a well-delivered oration consisting of introduction, statement, corroboration, refutation and reaffirmation. Lob der Faulheit, on the other hand, in which the singer finally proves unable to deliver the praise promised in the title, appears to be an extraordinarily sensitive representation of musical failure. The unnatural and forced character of the song is unmistakable in its intervallic and metric structure, and rises in the melody are invariably followed by precipitous falls. Beyond this straightforward musical illustration, the descending fourth that opens and closes the vocal line may also be programmatic in its seeming reference to the well-known contemporary saying, ‘es wird auf ein Lami hinaus laufen’ (it will run out on a Lami), a forecast of a bad end.