The discovery of and turning towards nature was a preoccupation of the newly emergent bourgeoisie as early as the first half of the 19th century. It was this enthusiasm for nature that gave rise to Felix Mendelssohn's five choral collections entitled Lieder im Freien zu singen (Songs to Sing out of Doors). In Herbstlied (Autumn Song) he combined diverse shadings of mood. Unlike Lenau's poem the gloomy atmosphere lightens to new hope at the end; the plaintive calls and the melancholy whispering of the woods are replaced by nothing less than jubilant exuberance. This a cappella setting shows romantic choral music in its purest manifestation.