The poems have been set to music by a number of composers. Perhaps most notable among these is Gustav Mahler whose songs with orchestral accompaniments drawn from the collection include the Leider aus "Des Knaben Wunderhorn" (first published 1899) and movements in his Symphony No. 2, Symphony No. 3 and Symphony No. 4. He also used the collection for a number of songs with piano accompaniment.
Other composers to set texts from the collection include Felix Mendelssohn, Robert Schumann, Carl Loewe, Johannes Brahms and Alexander von Zemlinsky.