Franz Schubert composed 'The Shepherd on the Rock' (Der Hirt auf dem Felsen), D. 965, in 1828, during the final months of his life. It is a song for soprano, clarinet, and piano, conceived as a late response to a request from her friend, soprano Pauline Anna Milder-Hauptmann, who had requested a showpiece that would allow her to express a wide variety of feelings. She sang it for the first time at the House of the Blackheads in Riga on 10 February 1830. The piece was published a year and a half after Schubert's death. A standard performance of this piece takes around 13 minutes.
