Die Forelle

Franz Schubert composed his lively lied "Die Forelle" (German for "The Trout") in the summer of 1817 for solo voice and piano. Eleven years later the Wiener Zeitung published it. On his fourth and final autograph of the song (i.e., the fourth time he wrote it out by hand), Schubert dedicated it to his friend Josef Hüttenbrenner. Only the last autograph contains the six-measure piano introduction. The text is from a poem by Christian Friedrich Dan... More

Franz Schubert composed his lively lied "Die Forelle" (German for "The Trout") in the summer of 1817 for solo voice and piano. Eleven years later the Wiener Zeitung published it. On his fourth and final autograph of the song (i.e., the fourth time he wrote it out by hand), Schubert dedicated it to his friend Josef Hüttenbrenner. Only the last autograph contains the six-measure piano introduction. The text is from a poem by Christian Friedrich Daniel Schubart, orginially published in the Schwäbischen Musenalmanach of 1783. In the Deutsch catalog of Schubert's works it is number 550, or D550. The original key is D-flat major. Hirsch describes its type in the Schubert lieder as a "lyrical song with admixtures of dramatic traits". The poem was originally a warning to young women against being "caught" by "angling" young men. Schubert did not set the final lines of the poem, however, concentrating on a person's observation of the trout and the reaction to its being caught by a fisherman....

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