The poem and the music for these songs were written (with piano) between Christmas, 1884, and January 1, 1885. Neither Liszt's songs, nor Berlioz's Nuits d’été, nor Mahler's other orchestral songs were conceived as true cycles, and the Gesellen Lieder are probably the first orchestral lieder cycle in musical history. The original autograph of the two last poems (formerly in Alma Mahler's collection) are dated December 15 and 19, 1884. Consequently the earlier date suggested by Paul Stefan and Guido Adler, and by Mahler himself in the 1897 first edition with piano, is obviously wrong. The cycle cannot even be considered to have been sketched earlier, for Mahler wrote in a letter to Löhr on January 1, 1885: “I have written a cycle of lieder that are all dedicated to her.” There is no reason to believe that the two first poems were written before the others, or that the cycle was sketched earlier. In the same letter Mahler speaks of "a cycle six for the moment," yet there are only four songs. Did he destroy two, did he publish them elsewhere, or did he simply write the poems without setting them to music? The last assumption is the most plausible, for in 1896 Mahler gave Natalie the text of two further poems dated from December 1884: Die Sonne spinnt and Die Nacht blickt mild, admitting that “he had not set them to music.” Before deciding that the cycle was to have an orchestral accompaniment and that each song was to exceed the normal length, it is understandable that Mahler should have considered writing more than four. He may well have realized later that he would not improve the cycle by adding to it.

An even more difficult problem is that of the original accompaniment to the cycle. Natalie claims to have seen Mahler "orchestrate" the cycle in Hamburg early in 1896, before the March 16 Berlin premiere. The earliest known orchestral manuscript, given by Mahler to Hermann Behn, is dated December 1895 and is now in the Mengelberg Foundation in Amsterdam. However, he wrote to a Hamburg critic on April 19, 1893, obviously enclosing the score of a “Cycle of Gesänge consisting of 4 ballads with orchestral accompaniment,” called Geschichte eines fahrenden Gesellen (Story of a Traveling Wayfarer): “I would be particularly happy if I could have a chance to play this work to you myself, because my own personal interpretation would not be superfluous fora work of such unusual character.”

When the Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen were published, Mahler did not reveal the poet's name, possibly because the first poem was not entirely his own. However, the letter to Löhr quoted above proves not only that he was the author but that he had written them as passionate love messages to Johanna Richter. As early as 1921, the musicologist Siegfried Günther noticed a striking similarity between Wenn mein Schatz Hochzeit macht and two poems from Des Knaben Wunderhorn (see below). Fritz Egon Pamer later suggested that Mahler had consciously or unconsciously quoted from poems he had known in his youth or had read in a newspaper or an anthology (other than the Wunderhorn, which he discovered in Karl von Weber's library in Leipzig four years later). In any case these poems prove beyond a doubt that Mahler was already thoroughly acquainted with German folk poetry, of which he had made a thorough stylistic study.

Like the earlier Poisl lieder, these songs are built around a theme dear to the romantic imagination: a man deceived and ill-treated by fate wanders aimlessly in search of peace. Mahler himself often felt an exile among his fellow men. The contrast between nature's beauty and man's sorrow is another well-loved romantic theme. The cycle uses a few musical leitmotivs, small recurring figures like the gruppetto (see below), the descending and ascending fourth, and the ascending sixth. The prevalence of march rhythms is also typical of "Wanderlieder;" the model of which is found in the first song of Schubert's Winterreise.

Notes by Henry-Louis de La Grange as they appear in his book Mahler (Vol. I), 1973, pg.741–742.