Which Goethe poems did Franz Schubert set to music?

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Franz Schubert set numerous poems by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe to music, a practice that was central to his development of the German lied.

Notable settings include:

  • Gretchen am Spinnrade (Gretchen at the Spinning Wheel), from the play Faust, which Schubert composed in 1814.1
  • Erlkönig, a famous work written in 1815.2
  • Ganymed.1
  • Der Wanderer.1
  • Harper’s Songs, which are derived from Goethe’s novel Wilhelm Meisters Lehrjahre.1

In 1816, Schubert’s friends even attempted to gain the poet's recognition by sending him a volume containing 16 of these settings, though the effort ultimately produced no result.1