In its deceptive simplicity, the lied conceals the artfulness with which its creator fused the three elements of text, melody, and accompaniment into a unified whole. Profusion of lyrical poetry in Europe at the end of the eigteenth century lead to the flourishing of the lied. It requires greater freedom of expression and a need to reflect ones intimate sentiments in compositions that blend words and music. In its most current forms, art song ranges from short and simple to rhapsodic. A song cycle can last an entire evening, or be as brief as five minutes.
Freedom of expression is a key element to the definition of art song.
Not only must the singer present the melody of any given composer, but the responsibility for setting the mood of the poem, commenting on the action, elaborating the vocalist's line through the anticipation or echo of a phrase, providing an interlude between stanzas, or concluding the song with an instrumental postlude rests with the accompaniment. Through the years, the significance of the piano accompaniment presented a problem to composers and critics concerned with the relative importance of words and music in the lied. Earlier writers indicated the interpretation of the text as the duty of the singer. By the late eigteenth century, however, the piano accompaniments began to share in the support of the vocal melody, sometimes through increased harmonic activities, other times through enrichment of the texture or embellishment of the melodic line. Brody, Elaine and Fowkes, Robert.