Rinaldo in E-flat major, Op. 50

Rinaldo, a cantata for tenor solo, four-part male chorus and orchestra, was begun by Johannes Brahms in 1863 as an entry for a choral competition announced in Aachen. He chose as his text the dramatic poem of the same name by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, which presents an episode from the epic Gerusalemme Liberata by Torquato Tasso in the form of a series of dialogues between the knight Rinaldo, who has been enchanted by the witch Armida, and his fellow knights, who are calling him back to the path of duty.