Abstract: This article reviews the following four works by song composers of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, two of whom created or finished their works during the COVID pandemic; Finnish composer Kaija Saariaho (1952–2023), Saarikoski Songs for Voice and Piano ; Albrecht Mendelssohn Bartholdy’s Songs for Lena (Recent Researches in the Music of the Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries) ; and Evan Fein’s “The Solitary Reaper,” and Songs of the Open Road , for mezzo-soprano, clarinet in B♭ and piano.