Franz Peter Schubert (January 31, 1797 –
November 19, 1828) was an Austrian composer. He wrote some 600 Lieder,
eight completed symphonies, the famous "Unfinished
Symphony", liturgical music, operas, and a large body of
chamber and solo piano music. He is particularly noted for
his original melodic and harmonic writing.
While Schubert had a close circle of friends and associates who admired his work (including his teacher Antonio Salieri, and the prominent singer Johann Michael
Vogl), wider appreciation of his music during his lifetime was limited at best. He was never able to secure adequate
permanent employment, and for most of his career he relied on the support of friends and family. Interest in Schubert's work
increased dramatically in the decades following his death.
Biography
Early life and education
Schubert was born in Vienna, Austria on January 31,
1797. His father Franz Theodor Florian, the son of a Moravian
peasant, was a parish schoolmaster; his mother Elizabeth Vietz was the daughter of a
Silesian master locksmith, and had also been a housemaid for a Viennese family prior to her
marriage. Of the Schuberts' sixteen children (one illegitimate child was born in 1783)[1], eleven died in infancy; five survived. Their father Franz Theodor was a
well-known teacher, and his school on the Himmelpfortgrund, a part of Vienna's 9th district,
was well attended.[citation needed] He was not a famous musician, but he taught his son what he could of
music.
The house in which Schubert was born, today Nussdorfer Strasse 54, in the 9th district of Vienna.
At the age of five, Schubert began receiving regular instruction from his father and a year later was enrolled at the
Himmelpfortgrund school. His formal musical education also began around the same time. His father continued to teach him the
basics of the violin. At seven, Schubert was placed under the instruction of Michael Holzer. Holzer's lessons seem to have mainly consisted of conversations and expressions of
admiration[2] and the boy gained more from his acquaintance
with a friendly joiner's apprentice who used to take him to a neighboring pianoforte warehouse
where he was given the opportunity to practice on better instruments. The unsatisfactory nature of Schubert's early training was
even more pronounced during his time given that composers could expect little chance of success unless they were also able to
appeal to the public as performers. To this end, Schubert's meager musical education was never entirely sufficient.
In October 1808, he was received as a pupil at the Stadtkonvikt
(Imperial religious boarding school) through a choir scholarship. It was at the Stadtkonvikt that Schubert was introduced to the
overtures and symphonies of Mozart. His exposure to these pieces as well as
various lighter compositions combined with his occasional visits to the opera set the foundation
for his greater musical knowledge.
Meanwhile, his genius was already beginning to show itself in his compositions. Antonio
Salieri, a leading composer of the period, became aware of the talented young man and decided to train him in musical
composition and music theory. Schubert's early essay in chamber music is noticeable, since we learn that at the time a regular
quartet-party was established at his home "on Sundays and holidays," in which his two brothers played the violin, his father the
cello and Franz himself the viola. It was the first germ of that
amateur orchestra for which, in later years, many of his compositions were written. During the remainder of his stay at the
Stadtkonvikt he wrote a good deal more chamber music, several songs, some miscellaneous pieces for the pianoforte and, among his
more ambitious efforts, a Kyrie (D.31) and Salve Regina
(D.27), an octet for wind instruments (D.72/72a) - said to commemorate the death of his
mother, which took place in 1812 - a cantata (D.110), words and music, for his father's name-day in 1813, and the closing work of
his school-life, his first symphony (D.82).
Teacher at his father's school
At the end of 1813 he left the Stadtkonvikt and entered his father's school as teacher of the lowest class. In the meantime,
his father remarried, this time to Anna Kleyenboeck, the daughter of a silk dealer from the suburb Gumpendorf. For over two years the young man endured the drudgery of the work, which he performed with very
indifferent success. There were, however, other interests to compensate. He received private lessons in composition from Salieri,
who did more for Schubert’s training than any of his other teachers.
Supported by friends
As 1815 was the most prolific period of Schubert's life, 1816 saw the first real change in his fortunes. Somewhere about the
turn of the year Spaun surprised him in the composition of Erlkönig (D.328,
published as Op.1) — Goethe's poem propped among a heap of exercise books,
and the boy at white-heat of inspiration "hurling" the notes on the music-paper. A few weeks later Franz von Schober, a student
of good family and some means, who had heard some of Schubert's songs at Spaun's house, came to pay a visit to the composer and
proposed to carry him off from school-life and give him freedom to practice his art in peace. The proposal was particularly
opportune, for Schubert had just made an unsuccessful application for the post of Kapellmeister at Laibach (the German name for Ljubljana), and was feeling more acutely than ever
the slavery of the classroom. His father's consent was readily given, and before the end of the spring he was installed as a
guest in Schober's lodgings. For a time he attempted to increase the household resources by giving music lessons, but they were
soon abandoned, and he devoted himself to composition. "I write all day," he said later to an inquiring visitor, "and when I have
finished one piece I begin another."
All this time his circle of friends was steadily widening. Mayrhofer introduced him to Johann Michael Vogl, a famous baritone, who did him good service by performing his songs in the
salons of Vienna; Anselm Hüttenbrenner and his brother Joseph ranged themselves among his most devoted admirers; Joseph von Gahy,
an excellent pianist, played his sonatas and fantasias; the Sonnleithners, a burgher family whose eldest son had been at the
Stadtkonvikt, gave him free access to their home, and organized in his honor musical parties which soon assumed the name of
Schubertiaden. The material needs of life were supplied without much difficulty. No doubt Schubert was entirely penniless, for he
had given up teaching, he could earn nothing by public performance, and, as yet, no publisher would take his music at a gift; but
his friends came to his aid with true Bohemian generosity — one found him lodging, another found him appliances, they took their
meals together and the man who had any money paid the score. Schubert was always the leader of the party, but more often than
not, was penniless. Though he was known by half a dozen affectionate nicknames, the most characteristic was kann er 'was?
("Is he able?") or more colloquially, "Can he pay?" (for the food and drink), his usual question when a new acquaintance was
introduced. Another nickname was "The Little Mushroom" as Schubert was only five feet, one and one-half inches tall (1.56 m), and
tended to corpulence.
The compositions of 1820 are remarkable, and show a marked advance in development and maturity of style. The unfinished
oratorio "Lazarus" (D.689) was begun in February; later followed, amid a number of smaller works, by the 23rd Psalm (D.706), the
Gesang der Geister (D.705/714), the Quartettsatz in C minor
(D.703), and the "Wanderer Fantasy" for piano (D.760). But of almost more biographical interest is the fact that in this year two
of Schubert's operas appeared at the Kärntnerthor Theater, Die Zwillingsbrüder (D.647) on June 14, and Die
Zauberharfe (D.644) on August 19. Hitherto his larger compositions (apart from Masses) had been restricted to the amateur
orchestra at the Gundelhof, a society which grew out of the quartet-parties at his home. Now he began to assume a more prominent
position and address a wider public. Still, however, publishers remained obstinately aloof, and it was not until his friend Vogl
had sung Erlkönig at a concert (Feb. 8, 1821) that Anton
Diabelli hesitatingly agreed to print some of his works on commission. The first seven opus numbers (all songs) appeared
on these terms; then the commission ceased, and he began to receive the meagre pittances which were all that the great publishing
houses ever accorded to him. Much has been written about the neglect from which he suffered during his lifetime. It was not the
fault of his friends, it was only indirectly the fault of the Viennese public; the persons most to blame were the cautious
intermediaries who stinted and hindered him from publication.
The production of his two dramatic pieces turned Schubert's attention more firmly than ever in the direction of the stage; and
towards the end of 1821 he set himself on a course which for nearly three years brought him continuous mortification and
disappointment. Alfonso und Estrella was refused, and so was
Fierrabras (D.796); Die Verschworenen (D.787) was prohibited by the
censor (apparently on the ground of its title); Rosamunde (D.797) was withdrawn after
two nights, owing to the poor quality of its libretto. Of these works the two former are written on a scale which would make
their performances exceedingly difficult (Fierabras, for instance, contains over 1,000 pages of manuscript score), but
Die Verschworenen is a bright attractive comedy, and Rosamunde contains some of the most charming music that
Schubert ever composed. In 1822 he made the acquaintance both of Weber and of
Beethoven, but little came of it in either case, though Beethoven cordially
acknowledged his genius, the quote attributed to Beethoven being: "Truly, the spark of divine genius resides in this Schubert!"
Schober was away from Vienna; new friends appeared of a less desirable character; on the whole these were the darkest years of
his life.
In 1994 musicologist Rita Steblin discovered Schubert's brother Karl's marriage petition on the attic floor of the Lichtental
church. The composer's own wish to marry Therese Grob was hindered by Metternich's harsh marriage consent law of 1815, as
Schubert's heart-rending cry in his diary of September 1816 makes clear.
Last years and masterworks
In 1823 appeared Schubert's first song cycle, Die
schöne Müllerin (D.795), after poems by Wilhelm Müller. This work, together
with the later cycle "Winterreise" (D.911; also written to texts of Müller) is widely
considered one of the pinnacles of Schubert's work and of the German Lied in general. The piece "Du
bist die Ruh" ("My sweet repose") was also composed during this year.
In the spring of 1824 he wrote the Octet in F (D.803), "A Sketch for a Grand
Symphony"; and in the summer went back to Želiezovce, when he became attracted by
Hungarian idiom, and wrote the Divertissement a l'Hongroise (D.818) and the
String Quartet in A minor (D.804). It has been said that he held a
hopeless passion for his pupil Countess Karoline Eszterházy; if this is the case, the details are unknown to historians.
Despite his preoccupation with the stage and later with his official duties, he found time during these years for a good deal
of miscellaneous composition. The Mass in A flat (D.678) was completed and the "Unfinished Symphony" (Symphony No. 8 in B minor, D.759) begun in 1822. The question of why the symphony was
"unfinished" has been debated endlessly and is still unresolved. To 1824, beside the works mentioned above, belong the variations
for flute and piano on Trockne Blumen, from the cycle Die schöne
Müllerin. There is also a sonata for piano and arpeggione
(D.821). This music is nowadays usually played by either cello or viola and piano, although a number of other arrangements have been made.
The mishaps of the recent years were compensated by the prosperity and happiness of 1825. Publication had been moving more
rapidly; the stress of poverty was for a time lightened; in the summer there was a pleasant holiday in Upper Austria, where
Schubert was welcomed with enthusiasm. It was during this tour that he produced his "Songs from Sir Walter Scott". This
cycle contains his famous and beloved Ellens dritter Gesang (D.839). This
is today more popularly, though mistakenly, referred to as "Schubert's Ave Maria"; while he had set it to Adam Storck's German translation of Scott's hymn from The Lady of
the Lake that happens to open with the greeting Ave Maria and also has it for its refrain, subsequently the entire
Scott/Storck text in Schubert's song came to be substituted with the complete Latin text of the traditional Ave Maria prayer; and it is in this adaptation that this song of Schubert's is commonly sung today. During
this time he also wrote the Piano Sonata in A minor (D.845, Op. 42) and the Symphony No. 9 (D.944), which is believed to have been completed the following year, in
1826.
From 1826 to 1828 Schubert resided continuously in Vienna, except for a brief visit to Graz in 1827. The history of his life during these three years is little more
than a record of his compositions. The only events worth notice are that in 1826 he dedicated a symphony to the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde and received an honorarium in return. In the spring of 1828
he gave, for the first and only time in his career, a public concert of his own works which was very well received. But the
compositions themselves are a sufficient biography. The String Quartet
in D minor (D.810), with the variations on Death and the
Maiden, was written during the winter of 1825-1826, and first played on January
25, 1826. Later in the year came the String Quartet in G major, the "Rondeau brilliant" for
piano and violin (D.895, Op.70), and the Piano Sonata in G (D.894, Op.78) (first published under the title "Fantasia in G"). To
these should be added the three Shakespearian songs, of which "Hark! Hark! the Lark" (D.889) and "Who is Sylvia?"
(D.891) were allegedly written on the same day, the former at a tavern where he broke his afternoon's walk, the latter on his
return to his lodging in the evening.
In 1827 Schubert wrote the song cycle Winterreise (D.911), a colossal peak of the
art of art-song, the Fantasia for piano and violin in C (D.934), and the two piano trios (B flat, D.898; and E flat,
D.929): in 1828 the Song of Miriam, the Mass in E-flat (D.950), the Tantum Ergo (D.962) in the same key, the
String Quintet in C (D.956), the second Benedictus to the Mass in C, the last
three piano sonatas, and the collection of songs published posthumously under the fanciful name of Schwanengesang ("Swan-song", D.957), which whilst not a true song cycle, retains a unity of style
amongst the individual songs, touching unwonted depths of tragedy and the morbidly supernatural. Six of these are to words by
Heinrich Heine, whose Buch der Lieder appeared in the autumn. The Symphony No. 9 (D.944) is dated 1828, and many modern Schubert scholars (including
Brian Newbould) believe that this symphony, written in 1825-6, was revised for performance in
1828 (a fairly unusual practice for Schubert, for whom publication, let alone performance, was rarely contemplated for many of
his larger-scale works during his lifetime). In the last weeks of his life he began to sketch three movements for a new Symphony
in D (D.936A).
The works of his last two years reveal a composer increasingly meditating on the darker side of the human psyche and human
relationships, and with a deeper sense of spiritual awareness and conception of the 'beyond', reaching extraordinary depths in
several chillingly dark songs of this period, especially in the larger cycles, (the song Der Doppelgaenger reaching an
extraordinary climax, conveying madness at the realization of rejection and imminent death, and yet able to touch repose and
communion with the infinite in the almost timeless ebb and flow of the String Quintet). Schubert expressed the wish, were he to
survive his final illness, to further develop his knowledge of harmony and counterpoint.
Death
The house in which Schubert died, Kettenbrückengasse 6, Vienna.
In the midst of this creative activity, his health deteriorated. He had battled syphilis
since 1822. The final illness may have been typhoid fever, though other causes have been
proposed; some of his final symptoms match those of mercury poisoning (mercury was a
common treatment for syphilis in the early 19th century). At any rate, insufficient evidence remains to make a definitive
diagnosis. His solace in his final illness was reading, and he had become a passionate fan of the writings of James Fenimore Cooper. He died aged 31 on Wednesday November
19, 1828 at the apartment of his brother Ferdinand in Vienna. At 3 p.m. "someone observed
that he had ceased to breathe." By his own request, he was buried next to Beethoven, whom he had adored all his life, in the village cemetery of Währing. In 1888, both Schubert's and Beethoven's graves were moved to the
Zentralfriedhof, where they can now be found next to those of Johann Strauss II and Johannes Brahms.
In 1872, a memorial to Franz Schubert was erected in Vienna's Stadtpark.
Music
Schubert composed music for a wide range of ensembles and in various genres including opera, liturgical music, chamber and solo piano music.
While he was clearly influenced by the Classical sonata forms of Mozart and Beethoven (his early works, among them notably the
5th Symphony, are particularly Mozartean), his formal structures and his developments tend to give the impression more of melodic
development than of harmonic drama. This sometimes lends them a discursive style: his 9th Symphony was described by
Robert Schumann as running to "heavenly lengths".[1] His harmonic innovations
include movements in which the first section ends in the key of the subdominant rather than
the dominant (as in the last movement of the Trout
Quintet).
It was in the genre of the Lied, however, that Schubert made his most indelible mark. Plantinga
remarks, "In his more than six hundred Lieder he explored and expanded the potentialities of the genre as no composer before
him." [3] Prior to Schubert's influence, Lieder tended
toward a strophic, syllabic treatment of text, evoking the folksong qualities burgeoned by the stirrings of Romantic nationalism[4].
Among Schubert's treatments of the poetry of Goethe, his settings of
Gretchen am Spinnrade and Der
Erlkönig are particularly striking for their dramatic content, forward-looking uses of harmony, and their use of
eloquent pictorial keyboard figurations, such as the depiction of the spinning wheel and treadle in the piano in Gretchen
and the furious and ceaseless gallop the right hand in Erlkönig. Also of particular note are his two song cycles on the poems of Wilhelm Müller--Die schöne Müllerin and Winterreise--and the cycle
Schwanengesang, all of which helped to firmly establish the genre and its potential for
musical, poetic, and dramatic narrative.
Schubert's compositional style progressed rapidly throughout his short life. The loss of potential masterpieces caused by his
early death at 31 was perhaps best expressed in the epitaph on his tombstone written by the poet Franz Grillparzer, "Here music has buried a treasure, but even fairer hopes."
Posthumous history of Schubert's music
Some of his smaller pieces were printed shortly after his death, but the more valuable seem to have been regarded by the
publishers as so much waste paper[citation needed]. In 1838 Robert Schumann, on a visit to Vienna, found the dusty manuscript of the C major symphony (the "Great", D.944) and took it back to Leipzig, where it was performed by Felix Mendelssohn and celebrated
in the Neue Zeitschrift. There continues to be some controversy over the
numbering of this symphony, with German-speaking scholars numbering it as symphony No. 7, the revised Deutsch catalogue (the
standard catalogue of Schubert's works, compiled by Otto Erich Deutsch) listing it as
No. 8, and English-speaking scholars listing it as No. 9.
Fifty of his songs were transcribed for piano by Franz Liszt.
The most important step towards the recovery of the neglected works was the journey to Vienna which Sir George Grove (of "Grove's Dictionary of Music
and Musicians" fame) and Sir Arthur Sullivan made in the autumn of
1867. The travellers rescued from oblivion seven symphonies, the Rosamunde incidental music,
some of the Masses and operas, some of the chamber works, and a vast quantity of miscellaneous pieces and songs. This led to more
widespread public interest in Schubert's work.
Another controversy, which originated with Grove and Sullivan and continued for many years, surrounded the "lost" symphony.
Immediately before Schubert's death, his friend Eduard von Bauernfeld recorded the
existence of an additional symphony, dated 1828 (although this does not necessarily indicate the
year of composition) named the "Letzte" or "Last" symphony. It has been more or less accepted by musicologists that the "Last"
symphony refers to a sketch in D major (D.936A), discovered by Ernst Hilmar in the 1970s, and
which was realised by Brian Newbould as the Tenth Symphony.
Franz Liszt declared Schubert to be "the most poetic musician who has ever lived".
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