A piano piece in E flat major, with the simple title ‘Lied’ (song) was Felix Mendelssohn’s surprise present to his sister Fanny on her birthday on 14 November 1828. Shortly afterwards she referred to the work as ‘Song without Words’ and probably coined the phrase under which her brother’s lyrical piano pieces, numbering nearly 50, are known today. The present edition contains in addition to the 48 well-known ‘Songs without Words’ a number of individual compositions which because of their title o...