The "Serious Songs" cycle is a work Eisler could not have known to be his last and an important testimonial to his general attitude as a political composer. One day after completing the work he told Hans Bunge about his "modest music": "I love these contradictions. and there is certainly contradiction in my latest work – between the Serious Songs and the present situation. But I believe we must think over the past. Anyone who wants the future must surmount the past. He must purify himself of the past and look clearly and cleanly into the future. I believe we do far too little about that. Perhaps it is the task of an artist – and his task is a very modest one, when we look at the modern world – to see the past truly and-sharply and lead it (something for which art is particularly suited) into a future. An artist who does not do this is hopelessly at the mercy of a shabby optimism." Eisler composed the cycle with a view concentrated on the intensity of the singing.

1. Asyl | (Hölderlin-Fragment)
2. Traurigkeit | (Berthold Viertel)
3. Verzweiflung | (Giocomo Leopardi)
4. An die Hoffnung | (Hölderlin-Fragment)
5. XX. Parteitag | (nach einem Gedicht von Helmut Richter)
6. Komm ins Offene, Freund! | (Hölderlin-Fragment)
7. Epilog | (Stephan Hermlin)