On May 13, 1816, Schubert composed strophic songs setting Ludwig Hölty's Frühlingslied (Spring Song) and Winterlied (Winter Song) (D. 401). The first is a glowing and glorious evocation of spring; the second is a bleak and barren evocation of winter. In Winterlied, Schubert wrote in his favorite melancholy key of A minor, but, as befits a strophic song, he does not alternate the tonic minor with the tonic major as he had done in other A minor songs but rather sticks with the tonic minor right through to the end of the third and final verse. The vocal melody, in triple time, hovers like a ghost over the minor third and the fifth while the piano accompaniment outlines the tonic minor triad in frozen triplets. The combination results in one of Schubert's chilliest winter landscapes before Winterreise.

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