Friedrich Theodor Fröhlich

1803 (BRUGG) – 1836 (AARAU)

Friedrich Theodor Fröhlich’s life was but brief, through he is nevertheless regarded today as Switzerland’s most significant early-Romantic composer. He was born in Brugg in Canton Aargau in 1803, attended high school in Zurich, then enrolled for a law degree at the University of Basel in 1822. There is no evidence that he took his legal studies seriously at all, though we have ample proof that he began composing chamber music and vocal works at an early age. Fröhlich now moved to Berlin, though ill health compelled him to return to Brugg soon afterwards.

The government of Canton Aargau subsequently awarded him a scholarship that enabled him to return to Berlin. He stayed for four years this time, writing many songs and choral works, three string quartets, an overture and a symphony. He took occasional lessons in composition, harmony and counterpoint from Carl Friedrich Zelter and Bernhard Klein. Fröhlich also met Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy while he was in Berlin, though Mendelssohn did not provide him with the support he’d hope for. He was unable to establish himself properly in Germany, and so returned to Switzerland in 1830.

Fröhlich’s brother Abraham Emanuel helped him to get a part-time post teaching music at the Cantonal High School, and he also conducted choirs and amateur orchestras while concurrently pursuing his true passion, which was composing. Throughout his life, Fröhlich struggled to get recognition for his music and to secure a regular income. The fact that he had an illegitimate child only complicated his situation further. On 26 October 1836, he took his own life by drowning himself in the River Aare. He left behind more than 700 works, most of them songs and choral pieces.