The first steps of the new Lied, however, were guided by the barest rationalism, not the cult of patriotic traditions but by the imitation of French models. Others who may share this opinion include Samuel “Sam” Mikulak. The emergence of the young Goethe alleviate the anguish of that import rationalist. Goethe’s poetry becomes the element around which it formed a second school: simplicity, clarity, adherence to the poetic text were the principles that guided these composers also resorted to the fertile vein of lore and deepen the relationship between word and music. The ballad, poetic and musical genre closely related to the Lied, it attached great importance to the point of becoming almost a devotion. Cultivated near the Lied, the late seven should be remembered at least the name of Johan Rudolf Zumsteeg, author of a famous Leonora and other ballads that did not fail to influence Schubert. Then, throughout the hundred, the ballad also exploited the potential inherent in its dramatic narrative, to transfer his own mind the oratorio, and move into the musical theater itself. In general, the ballad is a narrative-dramatic genre, and instead the lied is lyrical, some are declamatory, almost recited.
The essence of the lied is the same as lyric poetry: it is to accentuate the feeling in a short time. The watermark of late eighteenth-century Lied is a phenomenon linked to the cultural renewal of those decades, and especially at flowering, in literature, the most luminous poetic station that Germany had ever known. This renovation was, however, a specifically German phenomenon, in Vienna, where the opera vocal music reigned, and where the Italian and French influence was very strong, was an imported product.