Introduction
Part I: Context
Organicism
Lyric cycles
Self-reflexivity, fragments, and Hoffmann's Kater Murr
Textual coherence in the song-cycle canon
Key sequence
Key characteristics and other alternative approaches to tonal sequence
Part II: Conception to publication
Before composing: texts and notebooks
From conception to arrangement: 'Heine cycles'
Ordering for publication
Titles and title pages
Flower imagery
Part III: Arrangement
Plot archetypes: sorrow to comfort
Narrative
Op. 32 as narrative
Op. 57 as narrative
Narrative elements in other bouquets
Self-reflexivity
Alternatives to narrative: juxtaposition and resonance
Tempo, closure, and cyclic patterning
'Wie Melodien'
Part IV: Performance
Performance contexts
Criteria in assembling a recital programme
Gender and dramatic characterisation
Identification between singer and narrator
Tessitura, range, and performance by several singers
Transposition
Performance and coherence in the Ophelia-Lieder
Part V: Reception
Reviews
Responses of Brahms's acquaintances
Identification of composer with narrator
Dedicatory cycles and the composer's voice
The graphic cycles of Max Klinger
Part VI: Cyclic Intent.
