Gesang aus Fingal, op. 17b

The Gesang aus Fingal [Song from Fingal] op. 17b for mixed choir and orchestra is an arrangement of the fourth movement from the Four Songs for Women’s Choir, Horns, and Harp op. 17 which Brahms made in 1879 at the suggestion of Ferdinand Hiller. He was convinced that the original instrumentation was not sufficient for large halls such as Cologne's Gürzenich, where Hiller conducted the orchestra. To this end, he shifted the soprano II to the alto and the alto to the tenor part, while the bass follows the instrumental accompaniment. In addition, he transposed the movement down a third.

In this version, the work was premiered on March 18, 1879, to great acclaim. Hiller's successor, Franz Wüllner, performed it again in 1887 and tried to convince Brahms to have it published. Brahms, however, reacted cautiously, so that the orchestral version remained unnoticed in the archives of the Cologne Gürzenich Orchestra until it was rediscovered in 2024 by Jakob Hauschildt while working on the new Brahms Complete Edition, who subsequently also edited it as part of the edition. The present practical edition, based on the complete edition, thus makes the orchestral version available for performance for the first time.