Franz Schubert composed the song cycle Winterreise in two separate parts, the first in February 1827 and the second in October of the same year. Both sets of twelve songs were subsequently published by Haslinger in January and December 1828. This was the second time that Schubert had set poems by the somewhat older Wilhelm Müller (1794-1827) from Dessau: he had created a more or less narrative series of songs some four years earlier with his settings of Müller’s Die schöne Müllerin; the only real example of such a form at that time was Beethoven’s An die ferne Geliebte (op.98). Although Müller would soon realise that his poems could lead a second musical existence, one removed from their life on the page, he would never know that his wishes had already been fulfilled in Vienna: Schubert’s two song cycles would rapidly win immortal fame.