Nineteenth-century poets, artists, and musicians turned to a wide variety of influences and sources to explore questions of identity in their creative work. The juxtaposition of “us” and “them” in works that employ exotic gestures or themes allowed composers and their audiences to express a sense of belonging and community. Some artists sought rootedness and permanence in the exploration of ancient cultures, finding echoes of their own ideals and identities in Medieval stories and the relics of Antiquity, and folk cultures offered another way to connect oneself to an apparently timeless and distinctly northern European tradition. Romantic Medievalism—defined here as the evocation of fictional or historical characters, texts, or images that represented the Middle Ages in newly created works of the nineteenth century—allowed creative artists to combine all of these elements in a style that also offered opportunities for new critical perspectives and the expression of innovative ideas. Unlike the Classical style, based on Greek models and sometimes perceived by its critics as cold, clean, and academic, the Medieval-inspired style of Romanticism called up an imperfect and mysterious world filled with virtuous warriors and artists driven by unchecked passion. These figures provided national heroes and sympathetic protagonists for audiences eager to celebrate their own connection to a storied past of cultural unity and military might. They also offered artists opportunities to demonstrate their lineage as the modern-day descendants of songwriters, architects, and painters from the earliest days of Europe's cultural history.

The quest for spiritual and cultural roots, however, was frequently complicated by competing identities and allegiances, as is the case with Joseph Joachim. A middle-class Hungarian Jewish violinist raised and educated among aristocratic and upper-class German Christian writers and composers, Joachim seems to have been an outsider wherever he went, even after his conversion and baptism to Lutheranism. Joachim's set of three Hebräische Melodien, “after impressions from Byron's songs,” present multiple avenues for exploring Joachim's self-representation because of the unusual nexus of influences at the heart of the work. The source of inspiration comes from a scandalously libertine aristocratic British poet working closely with a Jewish musician. The texts paraphrase the Old Testament and ancient historical sources, rendering them semi-religious and exotic.