My involvement with this subject started in earnest at university, where I would take volumes of songs out of the library and read through them by the hundred. If I was in luck, a friendly pianist would help out for an hour or two, but more often than not I was on my own with my horrible piano playing. As a result I came to know much of the repertoire from within, as a performer, rather than from the point of view of a scholar or historian. The present chapter necessarily has a historical basis, but I would like to emphasise that this is not how I discovered the treasures of European song. Nothing can replace the experience of singing them for yourself (in a sound-proofed room if necessary), and I very much hope that readers of these pages will want to explore some of the highways and byways of this wonderful musical heritage.

What is an art song? First of all, it was intended to be accompanied by a keyboard, originally perhaps a harpsichord or fortepiano, later a pianoforte. Secondly, the poem (or sometimes a prose text) should have been chosen not only for its suitability as a song, but also for the composer's ability to identify with it and to express its meaning in an individual manner. Lastly, the intentions of the composer and the question of taste and discrimination have to be considered.