In 1936, German composer Karl Amadeus Hartmann (1905–1963) began setting a German translation of an excerpt from Whitman's poem for an intended cantata scored for an alto soloist and orchestra that was given various titles including "Lamento", "Kantate" (trans. 'Cantata'), "Symphonisches Fragment" ('Symphonic Fragment'), and "Unser Leben" ('Our Life'). The cantata contained passages from Whitman's elegy, and from three other poems. Hartmann stated in correspondence that he freely adapted the poem, which he thought embraced his "generally difficult, hopeless life, although no idea will be choked with death" Hartmann later incorporated his setting of the poem as the second movement titled "Frühling" ('Spring') of a work that he designated as his First Symphony "Versuch eines Requiem" ('Attempt at a Requiem'). Hartmann withdrew his compositions from musical performance in Germany during the Nazi era and the work was not performed until May 1948, when it was premiered in Frankfurt am Main. His first symphony is seen as a protest of the Nazi regime. Hartmann's setting is compared to the intentions of Igor Stravinskys ballet "The Rite of Spring" where it was not "a representation of the natural phenomenon of the season, but an expression of ritualistic violence cast in sharp relief against the fleeting tenderness and beauty of the season."