Born in Schwiegershausen [de], Schilling was the son of a cantor and village schoolteacher and performed as a pianist at the age of ten.
[3][4][5][6][7][8] For example, his main work Versuch einer Philosophie des Schönen in der Musik (1838) draws on Carl Seidel's Charinomos.
[11] In 1839, Schilling founded the "Deutscher National-Verein für Musik und ihre Wissenschaft" (German National Association for Music and its Science) and won the Kassel Kapellmeister Louis Spohr for the presidency.
[12] He became permanent secretary of this association and responsible editor of the Jahrbücher des Deutschen Nationalvereins für Musik und ihre Wissenschaft, which appeared from 1839 to 1843.
[18][19] For debts amounting to 150,000 florins and forgery of bills of exchange, he was sentenced on 23 December 1862 "to a penal servitude of ten years.