Schubert’s ‘Erlkönig’ Mix‑Up

Franz Schubert’s early career came with a special kind of misery: being talented, broke, and ignored.

In 1817 the Leipzig publishers Breitkopf & Härtel received from Vienna a manuscript setting of Goethe’s “Erl‑King,” signed “Franz Schubert.” They balked. As far as they knew, Franz Schubert lived in Dresden, held the respectable post of Royal church composer, and was a 49‑year‑old professional—so what was he doing in Vienna writing about Erl‑Kings?

They forwarded the manuscript to the Dresden Schubert for an explanation. He wrote back, horrified: he had never composed it, and promised to hunt down the scoundrel who had sent this “patchwork” and misused his name.

Whether the publishers rejected the real Schubert’s “Erlkönig” outright isn’t clear. What is clear: Schubert wrote the ballad in 1816, and it wasn’t printed until February 1821, when it appeared in the first part of his Lieder. He sometimes sold songs to publishers for as little as tenpence each—and when publishers refused to issue them, friends literally paid out of pocket to get the music printed.