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See also:FRANZ See also:PETER See also:SCHUBERT (1797-1828)
, See also:German composer, was See also:born on the 31st of See also:January 1797, in the Himmelpfortgrund, a small suburb of See also:Vienna
.
His See also:father, See also:Franz, son of a Moravian See also:peasant, was a See also:parish schoolmaster; his See also:mother, See also:
His father taught him the rudiments of the See also:violin, his See also:brother Ignaz the rudiments of the See also:pianoforte
.
At seven, having outstripped these See also:simple teachers, he was placed under the See also:charge of See also:Michael Holzer, the Kapellmeister of the Lichtenthal See also: During the See also:remainder of his stay at the Convict he wrote a See also:good See also:deal more chamber-music, several songs, some See also:miscellaneous pieces for the pianoforte and, among his more ambitious efforts, a See also:Kyrie and Salve See also:Regina, an octet for See also:wind See also:instruments—said to commemorate the See also:death of his mother, which took See also:place in 1812—a See also:cantata, words and music, for his father's name-See also:day in 1813, and the closing See also:work of his school-life, his first See also:symphony . At the end of 1813 he See also:left the Convict, and, to avoid military service, entered his father's school as teacher of the lowest class . For over two years he endured the drudgery of the work, which, we are told, he performed with very indifferent success . There were, however, other interests to compensate . He took private lessons from Salieri, who annoyed him with accusations of See also:plagiarism from Haydn and Mozart, but who did more for his training than any of his other teachers; he formed a close friendship with a family named Grob, whose daughter Therese was a good See also:singer and a good comrade; he occupied every moment of leisure with rapid and voluminous composition . His first opera--See also:Des Teufels Lustschloss—and his first See also:Mass--in F See also:major—were both written in 1814, and to the same See also:year belong three string quartets, many smaller instrumental pieces, the first See also:movement of the symphony in Bb and seventeen songs, which include such masterpieces as Der Taucher and Gretchen am Spinnrade . But even this activity is far outpaced by that of the annus mirabilis 1815 . In this year, despite his school-work, his lessons with Salieri and the many distractions of Viennese life, he produced an amount of music the See also:record of which is almost incredible . The symphony in Bb was finished, and a third, in D major, added soon afterwards . Of church music there appeared two Masses, in G and Bb, the former written within six days, a new Dona nobis for the Mass in F, a Stabat Mater and a Salve Regina . Opera was represented by no less than five See also:works, of which three were completed—Der Vierjahrige Posten, Fernando and Claudine von Villabella—and two, Adrast and See also:Die beiden Freunde von See also:Salamanca, apparently left unfinished . Besides these the See also:list includes a string quartet in G See also:minor, four sonatas and several smaller compositions for piano, and, by way of See also:climax, 146 songs, some of which are of considerable length, and of which eight are dated Oct .
15, and seven Oct
.
19
.
" Here," we may say with See also:Dryden, " is See also:God's plenty." Music has always been the most generous of the arts, but it has never, before or since, poured out its treasure with so lavish a See also:hand
.
In the See also:winter of 1814–1815 Schubert made acquaintance with the poet Mayrhofer: an acquaintance which, according to his • usual See also:habit, soon ripened into a warm and intimate friendship
.
They were singularly unlike in temperament: Schubert See also:frank, open and sunny, with brief fits of depression, and sudden out-bursts of boisterous high See also:spirits; Mayrhofer grim and saturnine, a silent man who regarded life chiefly as a test of endurance; but there is good authority for holding that " the best See also:harmony is the See also:resolution of discord," and of this See also:aphorism the See also:ill-assorted pair offer an See also:illustration
.
The friendship, as will be seen later, was of service to Schubert in more than one way
.
As 1815 was the most prolific See also:period of Schubert's life, so 1816 saw the first real See also:change in his fortunes
.
Somewhere about the turn of the year Spaun surprised him.in the composition of See also:Erlkonig—See also:Goethe's poem propped among a heap of exercise-books, and the boy at See also: " I write all day," he said later to an inquiring visitor, " and when I have finished one piece I begin another . " The works of 1816 include three ceremonial cantatas, one written for Salieri's See also:Jubilee on See also:June 16; one, eight days later, for a certain Herr Watteroth who paid the composer an honorarium of 4 (" the first time," said the See also:journal, " that I have composed for money "), and one, on a foolish philanthropic libretto, for Herr See also:Joseph Spendou " Founder and See also:Principal of the Schoolmasters' Widows' Fund." Of more importance are two new symphonies, No . 4 in C minor, called the Tragic, with a striking See also:andante, No . 5 in Bb, as See also:bright and fresh as a symphony of Mozart: some See also:numbers of church music, See also:fuller and more mature than any of their predecessors, and over a See also:hundred songs, among which are comprised some of his finest settings of Goethe and See also:Schiller . There is also an opera, Die Burgschaft, spoiled by an illiterate See also:book, but of See also:interest as showing how continually his mind was turned towards the See also:theatre . All this time his circle of friends was steadily widening . Mayrhofer introduced him to Vogl, the famous baritone, who did him good service by performing his songs in the salons of Vienna; See also:Anselm Hiittenbrenner and his brother Joseph ranged themselves among his most devoted admirers; Gahy, an excellent pianist, played , his sonatas and fantasias; the Sonnleithners, a See also:rich burgher family whose eldest son had been at the Convict, gave him See also:free See also:access to their home; and organized in his See also:honour 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 See also:earn nothing by public performance, and, as yet, no publisher would take his music at a See also: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 See also:leader of the party, and was known by See also:half-a-dozen affectionate nicknames, of which the most characteristic is " kann er 'was ? " his usual question when a new acquaintance was proposed . 1818, though, like its predecessor, comparatively unfertile in composition, was in two respects a memorable year .
It saw the first public performance of any work of Schubert's—an overture in the See also:Italian See also:style written as an avowed See also:burlesque of See also:Rossini, and played in all seriousness at a Jail See also:concert on See also: But of almost more See also:biographical interest is the fact that in this year two of Schubert's operas appeared at the Karnthnerthor theatre, Die Zwillingsbruder on June 14, and Die Zauberkarfe on See also:August 19 . Hitherto his larger compositions (apart from Masses) had been restricted to the amateur orchestra at the Gundelhof, a society which See also: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 held obstinately aloof, and it was not until his friend Vogl had sung Erlkonig at a concert in the Karnthnerthor (Feb . 8, 1821) that Diabelli hesitatingly agreed to See also:print some of his works on See also:commission . The first seven See also: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 See also:publishing houses ever accorded to him . Much has been written about the neglect from which he suffered during his lifetime . It was not the See also: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 See also:production of his two dramatic pieces turned Schubert's See also:attention more firmly than ever in the direction of the See also:stage; and towards the end of 1821 he set himself on a course which for nearly three years brought him continuous See also:mortification and disappointment . Alfonso and Estrella was refused, so was Fierrabras; Die Verschworenen was prohibited by the See also:censor (apparently on the ground of its See also:title); Rosamunde was withdrawn after two nights, owing to the badness of its libretto . Of these works the two former are written on a See also:scale which would make their performances exceedingly difficult (Fierrabras, for instance, contains over 'coo pages of See also:manuscript score), but Die Verschworenen is a bright attractive See also:comedy, and Rosamunde contains some of the most charming music that Schubert ever composed . In 1822 he made the acquaintance both of See also:Weber and of Beethoven, but little came of it in either See also:case, though Beethoven cordially acknowledged his genius .
Von 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 the spring of 1824 he wrote the magnificent octet, "A See also:Sketch for a See also:Grand Symphony "; and in the summer went back to Zelesz, when he became attracted by Hungarian See also:idiom, and wrote the Divertissement el l'Hongroise and the string quartet in A minor
.
Most of his biographers insert here a See also:story of his hopeless See also:passion for his See also:pupil Countess See also:Caroline Esterhazy; but whatever may be said as to the See also:general likelihood of the See also:romance, the details by which it is illustrated are apocryphal, and the song l'Addio, placed at its climax, is undoubtedly See also:spurious
.
A more debatable problem is raised by the grand duo in C major (op
.
140) which is dated from Zelesz in the summer of this year
.
It bears no relation to the style of Schubert's pianoforte music, it is wholly orchestral in character, and it may well be a transcript or sketch of the " grand symphony " for which the octet was a preparation
.
If so, it settles the question, raised by See also:Sir See also:George See also: 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 See also:enthusiasm . It was during this tour that he produced his " Songs from Sir See also:Walter See also:Scott," and his piano sonata in A minor (op . 42), the former of which he sold to Artaria for £20, the largest sum which he had yet received for any composition . Sir George Grove, on the authorityof Randhartinger, attributes to this summer a lost " See also:Gastein " symphony which is possibly the same work as that already mentioned under the record of the preceding year . From 1826 to 1828 Schubert resided continuously in Vienna, except for a brief visit to See also:Graz in 1827 . The See also:history of his life during these three years is little more than a record of his compositions . The only events worth See also:notice are that in 1826 he dedicated a symphony to the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde, which voted him in return an honorarium of £1o, that in the same year he applied for a conductorship at the opera, and lost it by refusing to alter one of his songs at See also:rehearsal, and that in the spring of 1828 he gave, for the first and only time in his career, a public concert of his own works . But the compositions themselves are a sufficient See also:biography . The string quartet in D minor, with the variations on "Death and the See also:Maiden," was written during the winter of 1825-1826, and first played on See also:Jan . 25 . Later in the year came the string quartet ,in G major, the " See also:Rondeau brilliant," for piano and violin, and the See also:fine sonata in G which, by some pedantry of the publisher's, is printed without its proper title . To these should be added the three Shakespearian songs, of which " Hark !
Hark! the See also:Lark " and " Who is Sylvia?" were written on the same day, the former at a See also:tavern where he See also:broke his afternoon's walk, the latter on his return to his lodging in the evening
.
In 1827 he wrote the Winterreise, the fantasia for piano and violin, and the two piano trios: in 1828 the Song of Miriam, the C major symphony, the Mass in Eb, and the exceedingly beautiful Tantum Ergo in the same See also:
He wrote always at headlong See also:speed, he seldom blotted a See also:line, and the greater See also:part of his work bears, in consequence, the essential See also:mark of improvisation: it is fresh, vivid, spontaneous, impatient of See also:restraint, full of rich See also:colour and of warm imaginative feeling
.
He was the greatest songwriter who aver lived, and almost everything in his hand turned to song
.
In his Masses, for instance, he seems to chafe at the contrapuntal numbers and pours out his whole soul on those which he found suitable for lyrical treatment
.
In his symphonies the lyric and elegiac passages are usually the best, and the most beautiful of them all is, throughout its two movements, lyric in character
.
The standpoint from which to See also:judge him is that of a singer who ranged over the whole See also: Every one of them is a masterpiece, and a masterpiece such as Schubert alone could have written . The days of brilliant promise were over and were succeeded by the days of full and mature achievement . His larger operas are marred both by their inordinate length and by their want of dramatic power . The slighter comedies are See also:pretty and tuneful, but, except as curiosities, are not likely to be revived . We may, however, deplore the See also:fate which has deprived the stage of the Rosamunde music . It is in Schubert's best vein; the entractes, the Romance, and the ballets are alike excellent, and it is much to be hoped that a poet will some day arise and See also:fit the music to a new See also:play . Of his pianoforte compositions, the sonatas, as might be expected, are the least enduring, though there is not one of them which does not contain some first-See also:rate work . On the other hand his smaller pieces. in which the lyric character is more apparent, are throughout interesting to play and extremely pleasant to hear . He See also:developed a special pianoforte technique of his own—not always " orthodox," but always characteristic . A special word should be added on his fondness for piano duets, a form which before his time had been rarely attempted . Of these he wrote a great many—fantasias, See also:marches, polonaises, variations—all bright and melodious with See also:sound texture and a remarkable command of See also:rhythm . His concerted pieces for the See also:voice are often extremely difficult, but they are of a rare beauty which would well repay the labour of rehearsal .
The 23rd psalm (for See also:female voices) is exquisite; so are the Gesang der Geister, the Nachthalle, the Nachtgesang See also:im Walde (for male voices and horns), and that " dewdrop of See also:celestial See also:melody " which See also:Novello has published with English words under the title of " Where See also:Thou Reignest." Among all Schubert's mature works there are none more undeservedly neglected than these
.
Of the songs it is impossible, within the See also:present limits, to give even a sketch
.
They number over 600, excluding scenas and operatic pieces, and they contain masterpieces from the beginning of his career to the end
.
Gretchen am Spinnrade was written when he was seventeen, Erlkonig when he was eighteen; then there follows a continuous stream which never checks or runs dry, and which broadens as it flows to the Miillerlieder, the Scott songs, the Shakesperian songs, the Winterreise, and the Schwanengesang
.
He is said to have been undiscriminating in his choice of words
.
Schumann declared that " he could set a handbill to music," and there is no doubt that he was inspired by any lyric which contained, though even in imperfect expression, the germ of a poetic See also:idea
.
But his finest songs are almost all to fine poems
.
He set over 70 of Goethe's, over 6o of Schiller's; among the others are the names of See also:Shakespeare and Scott, of See also:Schlegel and See also:Ruckert, of ,See also:Novalis and Wilhelm See also: Neither See also:Handel nor Mozart—his two great predecessors in lyric tune—have surpassed or even approached him in fertility and variety of resource . The songs in See also:Acis are wonderful; so are those in Zauberflote, but they are not so wonderful as Litaney, and " Who is Sylvia?" and the Stdndchen . To Schubert we owe the introduction into music of a particular quality of romance, a particular " addition of strangeness to beauty "; and so long as the art remains his place among its supreme masters is undoubtedly assured . (W . H . |
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