Following the success of his first volume of choral-watzes of 1869, Brahms set another 14 songs to the same poetry from Polydora , the 1855 collection of German folk-poems and love-songs assembled by George Friedrich Daumer (1800-1875) plus a conclusion set to a poem of Goethe - "Zum Schluss". Composed from 1869 through 1874, the seond volume also features numbers for solo voices placed between the 4-voiced settings. The first complete performance was given in Karlsruhe on May 8, 1875. The conductor Ernst Rudorff persuaded Brahms to orchestrate the accompaniment for No.9 (plus 8 numbers from the earlier Op.52 set) for a concert given at Berlin's Hochschule on March 19, 1870. Offered here is Richard Sargeant's thoroughly reserached, meticulously editied and engraved complete score, including variants. Brahms' own earlier variant of the ninth song is present along with the final version of 1875.

This new edition is also designed to serve as a vocal score for the editor's new orchestration, which includes the Brahms' own orchestration of the ninth song. while the remainder (including the final version of the No.9) have been freshly orchestrated with the same forces employed by the composer.