Louise Reichhardt

Louise Reichardt (1779–1826), the daughter of Johann Friedrich Reichardt and Juliana Reichardt, née Benda, both professional musicians, knew many of the leading poets and thinkers of her day. Goethe called the Reichardt family estate in Giebichenstein, near Halle, where he also visited, “die Herberge der Romantik” (the hostel of Romanticism). She composed songs in the folk-like style espoused by her father, choosing poems by poets she knew personally, including Achim von Arnim, Clemens Brentano, and the artist Philipp Otto Runge, Ludwig Tieck and Novalis. Although the poet Joseph von Eichendorff referred to Louise as the daughter who “composed Goethe songs”, only two Goethe settings are known today, one of which appears here.