Friedrich Theodor Fröhlich

Friedrich Theodor Fröhlich (20 February 1803 – 16 October 1836) was a Swiss early Romantic composer.

Friedrich Theodor Fröhlich was born in Brugg, Aargau, Switzerland, the 6th child of a Swiss family living in Brugg. His older brother Abraham Emanuel Fröhlich was a priest, writer and politician. After completing the gymnasium in Zürich, he started studying jurisprudence in Basel and later in Berlin.

In 1824 he returned to Aarau because of illness. There he took lessons in musical composition under Michael Traugott Pfeiffer. In 1826–1828 he received a grant from the cantonal government of Aargau to go to Berlin and take musical lessons from Carl Friedrich Zelter and Bernhard Klein. In Berlin he met Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy.

In 1830 he returned to Switzerland. Although Fröhlich had minor success in Berlin, he never received any recognition or support for his art in his home town of Aarau. He struggled financially and eventually marital trouble led to depression. On 16 October 1836 he committed suicide by jumping into the river Aare.

His work consists of over 700 compositions, of which more than 300 were for piano and more than 300 for choir.