According to Schubert's friend Albert Stadler, it was modelled on an arrangement of Johann Nepomuk Hummel's then-popular Septet in D Minor for Flute, Oboe, Horn, Viola, Cello, Bass and Piano, Op.

The quintet was written for Sylvester Paumgartner, a wealthy music patron and amateur cellist from Steyr, Upper Austria, who also suggested that Schubert include a set of variations on the Lied.

As is commonplace in works of the Classical genre, the exposition shifts from tonic to dominant; however, Schubert's harmonic language is innovative, incorporating many mediants and submediants.

The recapitulation begins in the subdominant, making any modulatory changes in the transition to the second theme unnecessary, a frequent phenomenon in early sonata form movements written by Schubert.

These movements contain unusually long repetitions of previously stated material, sometimes transposed, with little or no structural reworking, aimed at generating an overall unified dramatic design ("mechanical" in Martin Chusid's words[1]).

The importance of the piece stems mainly from its use of an original and innovative harmonic language, rich in mediants and chromaticism, and from its timbral characteristics.

Such timbral writing may have influenced the works of Romantic composers such as Frédéric Chopin, who admired Schubert's music for piano four-hands.

[9] The quintet forms the basis of Christopher Nupen's 1969 film The Trout, in which Itzhak Perlman, Pinchas Zukerman, Jacqueline du Pré, Daniel Barenboim and Zubin Mehta perform it at Queen Elizabeth Hall in London.

[10] A portion of the Trout Quintet's fifth movement, performed by the Nash Ensemble, is used as the theme music for the BBC television comedy Waiting for God.