It is an early step in a series of works from the 1970s exploring theatrical elements in music, progressing from Trans and Inori through Musik im Bauch, Atmen gibt das Leben, and Sirius, leading ultimately to the opera cycle Licht (; ).
Herbstmusik was written for the Oeldorf Group, a musicians' collective founded by Stockhausen's then assistant Péter Eötvös when he first moved from Hungary to Germany in early 1971.