Franz Schubert was born in 1797 in Himmelpfortgrund, Austria and died in 1828 in Vienna, Austria.

Schubert had a lovely singing voice as a boy and was selected to be a chorister in the Imperial Court Chapel Choir. This position also came with a scholarship to a prestigious boarding school for children who were not from aristocratic families. When he was a young chorister, Schubert began studying with the celebrated composer Antonio Salieri. When Schubert had to leave the choir because his voice broke, Salieri continued to teach him.

Schubert reluctantly trained to be a teacher, like his father, and began working as a schoolmaster at age 17.  Schubert was already a committed composer and he was very productive in his free time. By the time he left his teaching job to pursue composition full-time at age 21, Schubert had already composed five symphonies, a full-length opera, several full-length masses, many string quartets and over 140 songs or lieder, the German word for songs.

Schubert was a prolific writer of songs. You may have heard a melody from Schubert’s song Die Forelle (known in English as The Trout) being played by your washing machine when the washing cycle has finished!  Schubert also used this same melody from Die Forelle in the Piano Quintet in A Major, giving this work the nickname the “Trout”.

Rosamunde, D797 is a collection of works arranged from incidental music written by Schubert for the play Rosamunde, Princess of Cyprus by Helmina von Chézy.  The play premiered in Vienna in December 1823.