Most of the etudes in Popper's Hohe Schule des Violoncellspiels were written during the years 1895-1898 and his students began playing them in his classes long before they were published. According to Stephen De'ak, Popper's biographer, no. 19, the Löhengrin etude, was written while Popper was principal cellist at the Vienna Opera, between 1868 and 1873. For this etude, Popper took "…a fragment from Act Three, Scene Three of the opera…[to help] the orchestra cellists…perform the repeating figure in the first 111 measures in the score with ease.