A song cycle is a set of songs whose texts—often by a single poet—are linked by a common subject, mood, or story. Though the songs of the cycle are all individual entities, they’re designed to be heard together. And if the marriage of music and poetry in the song represents a 19 th -century Romantic ideal, the song cycle carries that ideal even further, allowing for an expanded range of expression, a deeper exploration of the individual psyche. Beethoven’s An die Ferne Geliebte , “To the distant