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Franz Schubert

Franz Schubert
Born January 31, 1797 in Vienna, Austria
Died November 19, 1828 in Vienna, Austria
  • Period: Romantic (1820-1869)
  • Country: Austria
  • Genres: Vocal, Opera, Chamber, Keyboard, Choral, Concerto, Symphonic, Orchestral

Biography

Franz Peter Schubert was among the first of the Romantics, and the composer who, more than any other, brought the art song (lied) to artistic maturity. During his short but prolific career, he produced masterpieces in nearly every genre, all characterized by rich harmonies, an expansive treatment of classical forms, and a seemingly endless gift for melody. Schubert began his earliest musical training studying with his father and brothers. Having passed an audition, Schubert enrolled at the Convict school that trained young vocalists to eventually sing at the chapel of The Imperial Court. Schubert began to explore composition and wrote a song that came to the attention of the institution's director, Antonio Salieri, who along with the school's professor of harmony, hailed young Schubert as a genius. In 1813, after Schubert's voice broke, he returned to live with his father, who directed him to follow in his footsteps and become a schoolteacher. Schubert begrudgingly complied and worked miserably in that capacity by day, while composing prolifically by night. He had written more than 100 songs as well as numerous symphonic, operatic, and chamber music scores, before he reached the age of 20.

Schubert finally left his teaching position to dedicate himself completely to musical pursuits. During the summer of 1818, the young composer worked as a private music teacher to the aristocratic Esterházy family. When he left that post in the fall, Schubert lived a somewhat bohemian lifestyle, composing and spending time with a group of friends that acted as his personal support system. In 1820, Schubert was commissioned by two opera houses, the Karthnerthor Theatre and Theatre-an-der-Wein, to compose a pair of operas. He wrote Zwillingsbruden, and Zauberharfe, both of which were unenthusiastically received. Schubert failed to secure a contract with a publisher, as none were willing to take a chance on a relatively unknown composer who wrote (harmonically) untraditional music. Schubert, along with the support of his artistic friends, published his own work for a collection of roughly 100 subscribers. These efforts, however, were financially unrewarding, and Schubert struggled to sustain himself. His work garnered little attention and contemporary composers dismissed his music as presumptuous and immature.

In 1823, Schubert was elected to the Musikverein of Graz, as an honorary member. Though this brought no financial reward and was an inconsequential appointment, Schubert relished its slight recognition, and to show his gratitude, composed his famous Unfinished Symphony. Five years later, Schubert's music was featured at a concert at Vienna's Musikverein. His work was received quite enthusiastically, and to much critical acclaim. This marked the only time during the composer's life that he enjoyed such success. This seemed to provide Schubert with a renewed sense of optimism, and despite illness, the composer continued to produce at an incredible rate. He began to organize a scheme to increase his artistic popularity, by continuing to evaluate his work and progress as a musician, perhaps even planning to study harmony privately. Schubert's health did not improve, and he soon found himself at death's door. During the composer's last moments, he instructed his brother Ferdinand to ensure that he would be buried alongside Ludwig van Beethoven's grave. Schubert revered the legendary composer, and was grateful to him, as Beethoven had praised his work after hearing a selection of songs. Schubert also highly regarded the work of both Franz Joseph Haydn and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Franz Schubert died of syphilis.

Despite his short life, Schubert produced a wealth of symphonies, operas, masses, chamber music pieces, and piano sonatas, most of which are considered standard repertoire. He is known primarily for composing hundreds of songs including Gretchen am Spinnrade, and Erlkonig. He pioneered the song cycle with such works as Die Schöne Müllerin, and Die Winterreise, and greatly affected the vocal writing of both Robert Schumann and Gustav Mahler. ~ David Brensilver, All Music Guide

Discography

Mozart: String Quartet in E flat major, KV 428; String Quartet in B flat major, KV 458

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Actor:

Franz Schubert

  • Born: Jan 31, 1797
  • Died: Nov 19, 1828
  • Active: '40s, '70s-'80s, 2000s
  • Major Genres: Drama
  • Career Highlights: Fantasia, Too Beautiful for You, Au Revoir Les Enfants
  • First Major Screen Credit: Song of Songs (1933)

Biography

During Schubert's brief lifetime, it was all the rage in Austrian society to have an entire evening's salon, a so-called "Schubertaiad," at one's home devoted entirely to the composer's songs and instrumental works. Today, apart from concerts, both appear in approximately 130 films. The instrumental music occurs most often because the songs have such rich dramatic or lyrical characters that attention is naturally drawn to them. However, the one song that is often used precisely because of its strong "motivated" presence is the composer's instantly recognizable setting of the Ave Maria. The song itself was the subject of a short by the noted French director Max Ophüls in 1936. In the musical comedy It's a Date (1940), Deanna Durbin tries out for the part of St. Anne by singing the tune. There is a lovely interpretation in the Disney classic Fantasia (1940) that combines religious and nature imagery. In a wholly different adaptation, the supernatural film Needful Things (1993), based on Stephen King's novel, Ave Maria is contrasted with the presence of a demonic shopkeeper who is causing the populace of a small town to turn against each other. In a satirical usage, television's animated South Park quotes the beginning of the song after the townspeople have just eaten an actor (a cartoon version of Eric Roberts), thinking they have been trapped by a storm, and, after only a few hours, are starving. This song appears in its standard religious context in the Miguel Torres-directed Reina de Reinas (The Queen of Queens, 1948, aka La Vírgen María), and in Serenade (1956) starring the legendary tenor Mario Lanza.

Other Schubert songs enhance Leise Flehen Meine Lieder (1933) (Ständchen and Sag' mir immer wieder), The Song of Songs (1933) (Heidenröslein), and Sammy and Rosie Get Laid (1987) (Der Erlkoenig).

Schubert's famous "unfinished" Symphony No. 8 often accompanies mysteries of various kinds, from the tension-filled classic Dracula (1931), to the brilliant Double Indemnity (1944) (which employs perfectly integrated classical selections), to Escalier C (Staircase C [1985] which also quotes the often cited Trout Quartet, also heard in Brainstorm [1983] and High and Low [1963]). There are some comic uses of the piece, such as in the short Men of Steel (1938) and television's The Roommate (1986). The dramatic biography Unfinished Symphony (1933) (aka Lover Divine) concentrates on portraying Schubert as a man elusive to even his best friends.

Various piano sonatas, impromptus, fantasias, and waltzes occur in Isadora (1968), El Desencanto (The Disenchantment, 1976), The Europeans (1979), A Room With a View (1986), Madame Sousatzka (1988), the sci-fi thriller Gattaca (1997), La Lettre (1999), and Le Goût des autres (The Taste of Others, 1999). The Finnish short M.A. Numminen Meets Schubert (1996) celebrates Schubert's bicentennial. His string quartet Death and the Maiden provided the title for the thought-provoking 1994 political thriller, and the composer's music maintains a constant television presence with the theme song to the series Wings (1990). ~ "Blue" Gene Tyranny, All Movie Guide

 
Music Encyclopedia: Franz (Peter) Schubert

(b Vienna, 31 Jan 1797; d there, 19 Nov 1828). Austrian composer. The son of a schoolmaster, he showed an extraordinary childhood aptitude for music, studying the piano, violin, organ, singing and harmony and, while a chorister in the imperial court chapel, composition with Salieri (1808-13). By 1814 he had produced piano pieces, settings of Schiller and Metastasio, string quartets, his first symphony and a three-act opera. Although family pressure dictated that he teach in his father's school, he continued to compose prolifically; his huge output of 1814-15 includes Gretchen am Spinnrade and Erlkänig (both famous for their text-painting) among numerous songs, besides two more symphonies, three masses and four stage works. From this time he enjoyed the companionship of several friends, especially Josef von Spaun, the poet Johann Mayrhofer and the law student Franz von Schober. Frequently gathering for domestic evenings of Schubert's music (later called ‘Schubertiads’), this group more than represented the new phenomenon of an educated, musically aware middle class: it gave him an appreciative audience and influential contacts (notably the Sonnleithners and the baritone J. M. Vogl), as well as the confidence, in 1818, to break with schoolteaching. More songs poured out, including Der Wanderer and Die Forelle, and instrumental pieces - inventive piano sonatas, some tuneful, Rossinian overtures, the Fifth and Sixth Symphonies - began to show increased harmonic subtlety. He worked briefly as music master to the Esterházy family, finding greater satisfaction writing songs, chamber music (especially the ‘Trout’ Quintet) and dramatic music. Die Zwillingsbrüder (for Vogl) was only a small success, but brought some recognition and led to the greater challenge of Die Zauberharfe.

In 1820-21 aristocratic patronage, further introductions and new friendships augured well. Schubert's admirers issued 20 of his songs by private subscription, and he and Schober collaborated on Alfonso und Estrella (later said to be his favourite opera). Though full of outstanding music, it was rejected. Strained friendships, pressing financial need and serious illness - Schubert almost certainly contracted syphilis in late 1822 - made this a dark period, which however encompassed some remarkable creative work: the epic ‘Wanderer’ Fantasy for piano, the passionate, two-movement Eighth Symphony (‘Unfinished’), the exquisite Schöne Müllerin song cycle, Die Verschworenen and the opera Fierabras (full of haunting music if dramatically ineffective). In 1824 he turned to instrumental forms, producing the A minor and D minor (‘Death and the Maiden’) string quartets and the lyrically expansive Octet for wind and strings; around this time he at least sketched, probably at Gmunden in summer 1825, the ‘Great’ C major Symphony. With his reputation in Vienna steadily growing (his concerts with Vogl were renowned, and by 1825 he was negotiating with four publishers), Schubert now entered a more assured phase. He wrote mature piano sonatas, notably the one in A minor, some magnificent songs and his last, highly characteristic String Quartet, in G. 1827-8 saw not only the production of Winterreise and two piano trios but a marked increase in press coverage of his music; and he was elected to the Vienna Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde. But though he gave a full-scale public concert in March 1828 and worked diligently to satisfy publishers - composing some of his greatest music in his last year, despite failing health - appreciation remained limited. At his death, aged 31, he was mourned not only for his achievement but for ‘still fairer hopes’.

Schubert's fame was long limited to that of a songwriter, since the bulk of his large output was not even published, and some not even performed, until the late 19th century. Yet, beginning with the Fifth Symphony and the ‘Trout’ Quintet, he produced major instrumental masterpieces. These are marked by an intense lyricism (often suggesting a mood of near-pathos), a spontaneous chromatic modulation that is surprising to the ear yet clearly purposeful and often beguilingly expressive, and, not least, an imagination that creates its own formal structures. His way with sonata form, whether in an unorthodox choice of key for secondary material (Symphony in B minor, ‘Trout’ Quintet) or of subsidiary ideas for the development, makes clear his maturity and individuality. The virtuoso ‘Wanderer’ Fantasy is equally impressive in its structure and use of cyclic form, while the String Quartet in G explores striking new sonorities and by extension an emotional range of a violence new to the medium. The greatest of his chamber works however is acknowledged to be the String Quintet in C, with its rich sonorities, its intensity and its lyricism, and in the slow movement depth of feeling engendered by the sustained outer sections (with their insistent yet varied and suggestive accompanying figures) embracing a central impassioned section in F minor. Among the piano sonatas, the last three, particularly the noble and spacious one in B♭, represent another summit of achievement. His greatest orchestral masterpiece is the ‘Great’ C major Symphony, with its remarkable formal synthesis, striking rhythmic vitality, felicitous orchestration and sheer lyric beauty.

Schubert never abandoned his ambition to write a successful opera. Much of the music is of high quality (especially in Alfonso und Estrella, Fierabras and the attractive Easter oratorio Lazarus, closely related to the operas), showing individuality of style in both accompanied recitative and orchestral colour if little sense of dramatic progress. Among the choral works, the partsongs and the masses rely on homophonic texture and bold harmonic shifts for their effect; the masses in A♭ and E♭ are particularly successful.

Schubert effectively established the German lied as a new art form in the 19th century. He was helped by the late 18th-century outburst of lyric poetry and the new possibilities for picturesque accompaniment offered by the piano, but his own genius is by far the most important factor. The songs fall into four main structural groups - simple strophic, modified strophic, through-composed (e.g. Die junge Nonne) and the ‘scena’ type (Der Wanderer); the poets range from Goethe, Schiller and Heine to Schubert's own versifying friends. Reasons for their abiding popularity rest not only in the direct appeal of Schubert's melody and the general attractiveness of his idiom but also in his unfailing ability to capture musically both the spirit of a poem and much of its external detail. He uses harmony to represent emotional change (passing from minor to major, magically shifting to a 3rd related key, tenuously resolving a diminished 7th, inflecting a final strophe to press home its climax) and accompaniment figuration to illustrate poetic images (moving water, shimmering stars, a church bell). With such resources he found innumerable ways to illuminate a text, from the opening depiction of morning in Ganymed to the leaps of anguish in Der Doppelgänger.

Schubert's discovery of Wilhelm Müller's narrative lyrics gave rise to his further development of the lied by means of the song cycle. Again, his two masterpieces were practically without precedent and have never been surpassed. Both identify nature with human suffering, Die schöne Müllerin evoking a pastoral sound-language of walking, flowing and flowering, and Winterreise a more intensely Romantic, universal, profoundly tragic quality.

works:
Dramatic music
  • Des Teufels Lustschloss (1814, perf. 1879)
  • Die Zauberharfe (1820)
  • Alfonso und Estrella (1822, perf. 1854)
  • Fierabras (1823, perf. 1897)
  • 5 Singspiels, incl. Die Zwillingsbrüder (1820), Die Verschworenen (1823, perf. 1861)
  • incidental music to Rosamunde (1823)
Choral music
  • 6 masses, incl. no.5, A♭ (1822), no.6, E♭ (1828)
  • Stabat mater (1816)
  • Deutsche Messe (1827)
  • other liturgical pieces
  • Lazarus, oratorio (1820) inc.
  • Ständchen (1827)
  • Mirjams Siegesgesang (1828)
  • c 60 secular and occasional pieces for female, mixed or unspecified v c 100 male-voice trios, qts and qnts
Orchestral music
  • Sym. no.1, D (1813)
  • Sym. no.2, B♭ (1815)
  • Sym. no.3, D (1815)
  • Sym. no.4, c, ‘Tragic’ (1816)
  • Sym. no.5, B♭ (1816)
  • Sym. no.6, C (1818)
  • Sym. no.8 [ no.7], b, ‘Unfinished’ (1822)
  • Sym. no.9 [ no.8], C, ‘Great’ (1825)
  • 11 ovs., sym. movts
Chamber music
  • Pf Qnt, A, ‘The Trout’ (1819)
  • Quartettsatz, c (1820)
  • Octet, F (1824)
  • Str Qt, a (1824)
  • Str Qt, d, ‘Death and the Maiden’ (1824)
  • Str Qt, G (1826)
  • 2 pf trios, B♭ and E♭ (1827-8)
  • Str Qnt, C (1828)
  • other works, incl. str qts, sonatas, vn, pf
Piano music
  • Fantasy, C, ‘Wanderer’ (1822)
  • Sonatas incl. A, d 664 (1819/25), a, d 845 (1825), D, d 850, (1825), G, d 894, (1826), c, d 958, (1828), A, d 959, (1828), B♭, d 960, (1828)
  • c 33 others
  • fantasies, c 50 dances, dance sets (waltzes, Ländler, ecossaises)
  • over 30 works for pf duet, incl. Sonata, C, ‘Grand Duo’ (1824), Divertissement à l′hongroise (1824), Fantasie, f (1828)
Songs
  • over 600, incl. Gretchen am Spinnrade (1814), Heidenröslein (1815), Erlkönig (1815), Der Wanderer (1816), Der Tod und das Mädchen (1817), Ganymed (1817), An die Musik (1817), Gruppe aus dem Tartarus (1817), Die Forelle (c 1817), Prometheus (1819), Frühlingsglaube (1820), Sei mir gegrüsst (1821/2), Du bist die Ruh (1823), Die junge Nonne (1825), [4] Gesänge aus Wilhelm Meister (1826), An Sylvia (1826), Schwanengesang (14 songs, incl. Der Doppelgänger
  • 1828), cycles - Die schöne Müllerin, 20 songs (1823), Winterreise, 24 songs (1827)


 
Biography: Franz Peter Schubert

Franz Peter Schubert (1797-1828), an early romantic Austrian composer, is best known for his lieder, German art songs for voice and piano.

The lieder of Franz Schubert assumed great importance during the 19th century as a result of several concomitant cultural and sociological developments in Germany, which included the new profusion of lyric poetry, particularly in the works of Goethe, and the evolution of the piano into a highly complex mechanism. As a composer, Schubert possessed an astonishing lyric gift and at times turned out several songs in a day.

In musical history Schubert stands with others at the beginning of the romantic movement, anticipating the subjective approach to composition of later composers but lacking Beethoven's forcefulness and inventive treatment of instrumental music. Despite his more conservative tendencies, however, Schubert's contributions include the introduction of cyclical form in his Wanderer Fantasy for piano, the use of long-line melodies - instead of motto-type themes - in his piano sonatas and chamber music, and the increased emphasis on the role of the piano accompaniments in his lieder. Many of his large-scale instrumental pieces were unknown until after the middle of the 19th century. (The Unfinished Symphony, for example, did not receive its first public performance until 1865, 43 years after it was written!) Furthermore, unlike many of the other romantic composers, such as Carl Maria von Weber, Hector Berlioz, Franz Liszt, and Richard Wagner, Schubert did not engage in a literary career; nor was he a conductor or virtuoso performer. Consequently he did not achieve considerable public recognition during his lifetime.

Childhood and Training

Schubert was born in Vienna on Jan. 31, 1797, the fourth son of Franz Theodor Schubert, a schoolmaster, and Elizabeth Vietz, in domestic service in Vienna. Franz received instruction in the violin from his father, his older brother Ignaz, and Michael Holzer, the organist at the Liechtenthal parish church. In 1808, through a competitive examination, Franz was accepted into the choir of the Imperial Court Chapel as well as the Stadtkonvikt (Royal Seminary), where he received a fine education and his talents were encouraged by the principal. A 20-year-old law student, Joseph Spaun, who founded an orchestra among these students, formed a lifelong friendship with Schubert.

In 1814 the genius of Schubert was first manifest in Gretchen am Spinnrade, inspired by his reading of Goethe's Faust. His first Mass, which included solos for a young woman friend, Therese Grob, and his first symphony appeared about this time and showed the influence of Franz Joseph Haydn. Schubert modeled his earliest songs, particularly the ballads, for example, Hage's Klage (1811), after those by Johann Rudolf Zumsteeg. Besides Gretchen, Schubert wrote five other Goethe songs that year. Before he died, he had set approximately 57 poems by the poet, at times exceeding in his music the high attainment of Goethe in the poetry.

Early Period, 1814-1820

By the end of 1814 Schubert was an assistant in his father's school and had begun to make the acquaintance of numerous poets, lawyers, singers, and actors, who soon would be the principal performers of his works at private concerts in their homes or in those of their more affluent friends. Spaun, now a student at the University of Vienna, introduced Schubert to his colleagues at the school, Johann Mayrhofer and Franz von Schober, the latter a dilettante in law, acting, writing, and publishing, who in turn introduced Schubert to the renowned singer Michael Vogl.

In 1816 Spaun sent a volume of Schubert's songs to Goethe for his consideration. All the songs were to texts by Goethe, and some, Gretchen, Wandrers Nachtlied, Heidenröslein, and Erlkönig, are among Schubert's most celebrated songs. Eventually Goethe returned the album, but he was unimpressed. Other 18th-century lyric poets whose works Schubert set include J. G. von Herder, the collector and translator of folk songs, and F. G. Klopstock. Friedrich von Schiller's poems account for 31 settings. None can compare, however, with the remarkable Goethe lieder. Even the uninitiated must respond to the excitement of the Erlkönig, where by means of changing accompaniment figures, sharp dissonance, and effective modulations Schubert differentiates the four characters of the ballad - narrator, father, son, and Erlking - and creates one of the masterpieces of romantic music.

The significance of Schubert's lieder tends to eclipse his equally fine choral writing in his six Masses. Unfortunately we cannot say the same of his approximately 11 completed works for the stage. Schubert's lyrical gift did not extend to large-scale dramatic works; his talents showed themselves most effectively in the more precise miniatures.

While still a schoolmaster, Schubert composed Symphonies No. 2 through No. 5, the outer two works being in the key of B-flat, a tonality he seems to have favored. At this time he also wrote many of the delightful dances, waltzes, and Ländler for which he was known during his lifetime. By 1817 Schubert was installed in the home of his friend Schober, where the presence of an excellent instrument may have inspired him to write several piano sonatas. In his father's house there had been no piano. Examination of the sonatas will prove Schubert to have been rather daring in his juxtaposition of keys, particularly in development sections.

In addition to instrumental compositions of 1817, lieder still flowed from Schubert's pen (50 that year). Among the best are Schiller's Gruppe aus dem Tartarus; the delightful Die Forelle, which later provided the theme for the variation movement of the so-called Trout Quintet; An die Musik, Schubert's hymn to music which was inspired by Schober's poem; and Der Tod und das Mädchen to words by the minor poet Claudius. This last song appears again as the theme of the variations in the second movement of the String Quartet Death and the Maiden. In July 1817 Schubert was appointed to the ménage of Count Esterhazy, who, with his wife and children, spent winters in an estate slightly north of Schönbrunn and summers at Zseliz in Hungary. There Schubert composed many of his four-hand works.

Middle Period, 1820-1825

Between 1820 and 1823 Schubert achieved his musical maturity. Two of his operettas and several of his songs were performed in public; amateurs and professional quartets sang his part-songs for male voices; and some of his works began to be published. Private concerts at the Sonnleithners and other middle-class residences soon brought Schubert a degree of renown.

In September 1821 Schubert and Schober left Vienna for the country with the intention of writing Alfonso und Estrella, his only grand opera. Shortly after his return to the city, he met Edward Bauernfeld, who introduced him to Shakespeare's works. In the fall of 1822, having completed his Mass in A-flat, Schubert began work on the Symphony in B Minor, which became known as the Unfinished. Three movements were sketched; two were completed. The reasons for the work being left incomplete are open to conjecture.

Schubert's health deteriorated, and in May he spent time in the Vienna General Hospital. Soon afterward, while working on the third act of another opera, Fierabras, he began his remarkable song cycle Die schöne Müller into the poetry of Wilhelm Müller. Rosamunde, a play for which Schubert had written incidental music - only the overture and ballet music are heard today - failed in 1823 and brought to a close his extended efforts to achieve a successful opera.

Schubert now turned to chamber music. At the Sonnleithners he had met Ferdinand Bogner, a flutist, and Count Troyer, a clarinetist. The latter commissioned Schubert's Octet for woodwinds and strings, which in style and number of movements closely resembles Beethoven's Septet, Opus 20. The A Minor and D Minor (Death and the Maiden) Quartets stem from 1824, the G Major from 1826. In 1825 Schubert moved again, this time next door to the artist Moritz Schwind. There, with Bauernfeld and Spaun, they formed the mainstay of the Schubertiads, evenings at which Vogl and others sang Schubert's songs. Schwind's illustrations of these evening musicales are among the best contemporary descriptions left to us.

Final Years, 1826-1828

In 1826 and 1827, despite a recurrence of his illness, Schubert wrote four masterpieces, each of which has remained a staple in the repertory: the String Quartet in G, the Piano Sonata in G, the Piano Trio in B-flat (all 1826), and the second Piano Trio in E-flat (1827). In his final years his style changed considerably. On March 26, 1827, Beethoven died, and Schubert, who, with the Hüttenbrenners, had supposedly visited the dying man on March 18, was one of the torchbearers at the funeral. Toward the end of that year Schubert completed his two series of piano pieces that he himself entitled Impromptus, thus enabling us to disregard Robert Schumann's suggestion that D. 935 (Opus 142) was conceived as a sonata.

In 1828, the last year of his life, Schubert composed several first-rate works: the magnificent F-Minor Fantasy for piano duet dedicated to Esterhazy, the C-Major Symphony, the E-flat Mass, and nine songs to Ludwig Rellstab's poems, which Schubert may have intended as a cycle. Seven of these songs, six Heinrich Heine songs, and one setting of a poem by J. G. Seidl appeared as Schwanengesang (Swan-song), a title given them by the publisher. On March 26, 1828, Schubert participated in the only full-scale public concert devoted solely to his own works.

On November 11, suffering from nausea and headache, he took to his bed in the house of his brother Ferdinand. Five days later the doctors diagnosed typhoid fever. One of the two doctors was a specialist in venereal disease; thus the suspicion that Schubert had syphilis is well founded. He was correcting the proofs of the second set of his song cycle Die Winterreise when he became delirious and died 2 days later on Nov. 19, 1828. Schubert's meager estate and all his manuscripts were left by default to his brother Ferdinand, who, fortunately for posterity, worked ceaselessly to enlist the aid of publishers, editors, and conductors in having them published.

In 1830 a subscription fund helped to raise money for a memorial stone over Schubert's grave. The dramatist Franz Grillparzer wrote this much-criticized epitaph: "The Art of Music here entombed a rich possession but even far fairer hopes." Schubert's closest friends were unaware of his achievement. A wealth of scholarly material has been devoted to the composer in recent years. Nobody, however, has done as much to correct the record as the great scholar O. E. Deutsch, whose initial is now inextricably linked to each Schubert work in his catalog.

Further Reading

On Schubert's life, the two works edited by Otto E. Deutsch are definitive, The Schubert Reader: A Life of Franz Schubert in Letters and Documents (trans. 1947), with commentary designed to bring the documents into sharper focus, and Schubert: Memoirs by His Friends (1958). Two books by Maurice J. E. Brown, Essays on Schubert (1954) and Schubert: A Critical Biography (1958), are reliable. Marcel Brion, Daily Life in the Vienna of Mozart and Schubert (trans. 1962), describes the milieu in which Schubert lived and worked.

Alfred E. Einstein, Schubert: A Musical Portrait (1951), and Gerald Abraham, ed., The Music of Schubert (1947), offer valuable insights into the man and his music. Martin Chusid, ed., Schubert's Unfinished Symphony (1968), a critical edition of the score, treats a particular piece to a stylistic analysis, offering a historical essay, analytical notes, and a section on contemporary views and comments. Richard Capell, Schubert's Songs (2d ed. rev. 1957), is worth consulting. Ernest Porter, Schubert's Song Technique (1960), is easy to read. Particularly important is Otto E. Deutsch, Schubert Thematic Catalogue (1950), a list of all the works in chronological order.

 
Britannica Concise Encyclopedia: Franz Peter Schubert

(born Jan. 31, 1797, Himmelpfortgrund, near Vienna — died Nov. 19, 1828, Vienna) Austrian composer. He learned violin from his schoolteacher father and piano from his brother. He joined the precursor of the Vienna Boys Choir (1808), making such quick progress that Antonio Salieri undertook to guide his training (1810 – 16). At his family's insistence, he was trained as a schoolteacher. In 1815 he wrote 2 symphonies, more than 100 songs, and 4 stage works. In 1818, seeking independence, he quit teaching at his father's school to tutor Johann Esterházy's daughters. In 1819 – 20 he wrote the celebrated Trout Quintet and a mass. In 1821, 20 of his most popular songs were published with great success, and he wrote the three-act opera Alfonso und Estrella. Despite his first awareness of the disease (possibly syphilis) that would kill him, his amazing production continued in 1822, with the Unfinished Symphony and the Wanderer Fantasy. He was often ill during his last five years but continued his production of music, including the song cycles The Miller's Beautiful Daughter and Winter Journey, the last three piano sonatas, and the Great Symphony. His last years were made miserable by illness, not poverty; in fact, his greatness was widely recognized. He died at 31, having produced more masterpieces by that age than almost any other composer in history. His 600 songs made the lied a serious genre and sparked its great development in subsequent decades.

For more information on Franz Peter Schubert, visit Britannica.com.

 
Dictionary of Dance: Franz Schubert

Schubert, Franz (b Liechtenthal, 31 Jan. 1797, d Vienna, 19 Nov. 1828). Austrian composer. He wrote no ballet scores but his concert music has often been used for dance. Rosamunde has been used by, among others, Leontiev (Vienna State Opera, 1928), Adama (Hanover, 1968), and Catá (Geneva, 1968); The Unfinished Symphony by Isadora Duncan (Paris, 1927); The Wanderer Fantasy by Balanchine (in Errante, Les Ballets 1933) and by Ashton (in The Wanderer, Sadler's Wells Ballet, 1941); Death and the Maiden by A. Howard (1st movement only; Ballet Rambert, 1937), by R. North (Ballet Rambert, 1984), and Marin (May B, Angers, 1991); 7th Symphony by Massine (in Labyrinth, Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo, 1941); 2nd Symphony by H. Lander (in Printemps à Vienne, Paris, 1954); the Trio in B major by van Manen (in Grand Trio, Vienna, 1978); and the songs Wiegenlied, Ständchen, and Erlkönig by Mark Morris in Bedtime (1992). Kudelka used an arrangement of his music in Mixed Program (Toronto, 1991).

 

Schubert, Franz (Vienna, 1797-1828, Vienna), the composer, was the son of a schoolmaster and became a choirboy of the Court Chapel. After assisting his father for a few years, Schubert was enabled by the assistance and encouragement of friends to devote himself from 1815 onwards to music. A modest and amiable man, he was fortunate in possessing a number of cultivated friends, including the painter M. von Schwind, the writers F. Grillparzer, E. von Bauernfeld, and J. Mayrhofer, the singer J. M. Vogl (1768-1840), the musical amateur J. von Spaun (1788-1865), and the poet F. von Schober. Schubert's compositions include symphonies, of which those in C major (No. 9, ‘The Great’) and B minor (No. 8, ‘The Unfinished’) are the most notable. No. 9 was discovered by R. Schumann in manuscript form a decade after Schubert's death and given its first performance by F. Mendelssohn in 1839. Schubert also wrote sonatas for solo piano and for four hands, chamber music, and several masses, including one (Deutsche Messe) in the vernacular, but his vocal music is especially notable for his Lieder (see Lied) for solo voice with piano accompaniment. In Schubert's intimate circle and in the musical evenings of high society these were first performed and popularized by his friend Vogl, whom Schubert accompanied.

From 1814 Schubert wrote more than 600 Lieder, among which more than 90 poets are represented; they include 59 songs by Goethe, among them ‘Gretchen am Spinnrade’ (his first song) and ‘Erlkönig’; 12 by M. Claudius, 21 by Hölty, 13 by Klopstock, 26 by Matthisson, 42 by Schiller, and a number by lesser poets such as L. Kosegarten, L. Rellstab, J. F. Rochlitz, G. P. Schmidt, and E. K. F. Schulze, as well as his friend Mayrhofer. His ‘Trout’ Piano Quintet has as the 4th of its 5 movements a set of variations on his song ‘Die Forelle’, to a poem by C. F. D. Schubart.

Schubert's two song-cycles Die schöne Müllerin (1824, 20 songs) and Die Winterreise (1827, 24 songs) are to poems already arranged in cyclical form by W. Müller. A third collection of 14 poems, Schwanengesang, a posthumous publication (1828), is not an organized cycle. It marks Schubert's discovery of Heine's poems, six of which are included in the volume. ‘Der Hirt auf dem Felsen’ (1828), a well-known song with clarinet obbligato, is compounded of verses taken from W. von Chézy and W. Müller. Though not the first writer of Lieder, Schubert is usually regarded as the creator of the form, a claim based on the extent and quality of his productions, his original use of accompaniment, and the powerful effect of his modulations. His œuvre also includes a number of part-songs.

 
Spotlight: Franz Schubert

From our Archives: Today's Highlights, January 31, 2005

Composer Franz Schubert was born on this date in 1797. His best known works are "The Unfinished Symphony" and "The Trout Quintet." Considered one of the great composers of the 19th century, Schubert died destitute at the age of 31.
 
Columbia Encyclopedia: Schubert, Franz Peter
(fränts pā'tər shū'bərt) , 1797–1828, Austrian composer, one of the most gifted musicians of the 19th cent. His symphonic works represent the best legacy of the classical tradition, while his songs exemplify the height of romantic lyricism. Displaying remarkable talent in childhood, he was first taught to play the violin and piano by his father and his brother, and then studied the organ and singing at a local church. His beautiful voice gained him admittance in 1808 to the imperial chapel choir and the Royal Seminary, where he later studied composition with Salieri. Schubert wrote his first symphony in 1813, and in that year he left the Seminary. From 1814 to 1816 he taught at his father's elementary school, devoting his spare hours to composing lieder that give evidence of his inexhaustible melodic genius.

He wrote more than 600 songs, many to the lyrics of such German poets as Goethe, Schiller, and Heine. In addition to individual lyrics, such as the famous Erlkönig, set to a ballad by Goethe, Schubert wrote such song cycles as Die schöne Müllerin (1823) and Die Winterreise (1827), both to poems of Wilhelm Müller. Schubert's symphonies are the final extension of the classical sonata forms, and three of them—the Fifth, in B Flat (1816), the Eighth, in B Minor (the Unfinished, 1822), and the Ninth, in C Major (1828)—rank with the finest orchestral music. The Quartet in D Minor (Death and the Maiden, 1824) and the Quintet in A Major (The Trout, 1819) are the best known of his mature chamber works. He also composed music for the stage, overtures, choral music, masses, and piano music, including 21 sonatas and shorter waltzes, scherzos, and impromptus. Except for a circle of admirers who were among the leading artists of the period, he gained little recognition before his death. He held only one musical appointment, that of music teacher to the children of a Hungarian nobleman, and he lived in poverty.

Bibliography

See O. E. Deutsch, The Schubert Reader: A Life...in Letters and Documents (tr. 1947); biographies by M. J. E. Brown (1958, repr. 1977), A. Einstein (1951, repr. 1981), and C. H. Gibbs (2000); studies by M. J. E. Brown (1966, repr. 1978) and B. Newbould (1992, 1997); C. H. Gibbs, ed., The Cambridge Companion to Schubert (1997).

 
Fine Arts Dictionary: Schubert, Franz

A nineteenth-century Austrian composer. Like Ludwig van Beethoven, he composed during the transition from the classic to the romantic period in music (see romanticism). He is known especially for his song cycles (lieder), usually written for solo voice and piano accompaniment. His best-known instrumental works are the “Unfinished” Symphony and the “Trout” Quintet.

 
Wikipedia: Franz Schubert
Franz Schubert
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Franz Schubert

Franz Peter Schubert (January 31, 1797November 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.
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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.
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The house in which Schubert died, Kettenbrückengasse 6, Vienna.
Schubert's grave in the Zentralfriedhof, Vienna.
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Schubert's grave in the Zentralfriedhof, 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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