page_title: Befreit
section_title: Dehmel on Befreit
hierarchical_section_title: Befreit / Lyrics / Dehmel on Befreit
caption_attribution_description: Deutsch: Richard Dehmel (1867–1920), deutscher Dichter und Schriftsteller
context_page_description: "Befreit" is an art song for voice and piano composed by Richard Strauss in 1898, setting a poem by the German poet Richard Dehmel. The song is part of the collection Fünf Lieder für hohe Singstimme mit Pianofortebegleitung. Strauss orchestrated the song in 1933.
context_section_description: Dehmel wrote about the poem:
  I, for my part, had the picture of a man speaking to his dying wife.  But, as works of art only aim at arousing human sensations and feelings in rhythmic harmony, I do not mind in the least that the allegory is also conceived of the other way around ... it can also allude to any kind of loving couple.  Such mutual elevations of the soul – at least noble souls – apply not only to death, but to any parting for life; for every leave taking is related to death, and what we give up forever, we give back to the world ...
caption: Richard Dehmel, the author of the lyrics, in 1905
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