Lieder No. 2, "Vorwurf", Op. 10

Fanny Mendelssohn: 5 Lieder, Op. 10: No. 2 for flute and piano was written in 1846, originally as a song for voice and piano, "Vorwurf" (Reproach). It was published posthumously as the second piece in her collection 5 Lieder (Five Songs), Op. 10, in 1848, a year after her death.
Fanny Mendelssohn published very little music during her lifetime due to prevailing 19th-century attitudes about women composers in public life. Felix Mendelssohn (her brother) had begun collecting her works for publication shortly before his own death, ensuring they would be released.
The songs were composed at various times, not as a single cycle, but were collected for this opus. The texts are drawn from various German poets, including Nikolaus Lenau, Emanuel Geibel, and Joseph von Eichendorff. The second song, “Vorwurf”, is about the pain of lost love and the transience of passion. The German lyrics are a setting of a poem by the Austrian Romantic poet Nikolaus Lenau, known for his melancholic style and focus on nature, love, and existential despair.
The core message of the poem is a sharp reproach of this complaint. The speaker argues that nature's changes are natural and cyclical, but the person who is complaining is also prone to change (wandelhaft).
The poem challenges the listener to "recall love's ardour" and observe "how sadly now tired passion dwells in your breast". The theme suggests that the person's own cooling affection and "failing to find love" is a more significant cause for melancholy than the seasonal changes they are observing.
The collection showcases Fanny Mendelssohn's talent as a major 19th-century composer of Lieder, a genre she significantly enriched with over 250 songs.