Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky composed a set of six romances for voice and piano, Op. 6, in late 1869; the last of these songs is the melancholy "None but the Lonely Heart" (Russian: Нет, только тот, кто знал, Net, tol'ko tot, kto znal), a setting of Lev Mei's poem "The Harpist's Song," which in turn was translated from Goethe's Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship.
Tchaikovsky dedicated this piece to Alina Khvostova. The song was premiered by Russian mezzo-soprano Yelizaveta Lavrovskaya in Moscow in 1870, following it with its St. Petersburg premiere the following year during an all-Tchaikovsky concert hosted by Nikolai Rubinstein; the latter was the first concert devoted entirely to Tchaikovsky's works.
Notable recordings
The Spike Jones number "None But the Lonely Heart (A Soaperetta)" begins with a brief instrumental version of the tune before the spoken dialogue.