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FRANZ PETER SCHUBERT (1797-1828)

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Originally appearing in Volume V24, Page 382 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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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:Elizabeth Fitz, had before her See also:marriage been See also:cook in a Viennese See also:family . Of their fourteen See also:children nine died in See also:infancy; the others were Igraz (b . 1784), See also:Ferdinand (b . 1794), Karl (b . 1796), Franz and a daughter Theresia (b . 18or) . The father, a See also:man of See also:worth and integrity, possessed some reputation as a teacher, and his school, in the Lichtenthal, was well attended . He was also a See also:fair See also:amateur musician, and transmitted his own measure of skill to his two See also:elder sons, Ignaz and Ferdinand . At the See also:age of five See also:Schubert began to receive See also:regular instruction from his father . At six he entered the Lichtenthal school where he spent some of the happiest years of his See also:life . About the same See also:time his musical See also:education began .

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:Church . Holzer's lessons seem to have consisted mainly in expressions of admiration, and the boy gained more from a friendly joiner's apprentice, who used to take him to a neighbouring pianoforte warehouse and give him the opportunity of practising on a better See also:instrument than the poor See also:home could afford . The unsatisfactory See also:character of his See also:early training was the more serious as, at that time, a composer had little See also:chance of success unless he could See also:appeal to the public as a per-former, and for this the meagre education was never sufficient . In See also:October 18o8 he was received as a See also:scholar at the Convict, which, under See also:Salieri's direction, had become the See also:chief See also:music-, school of Vienna, and which had the See also:special See also:office of training the choristers for the See also:Court See also:Chapel . Here he remained until nearly seventeen, profiting little by the See also:direct instruction, which was almost as careless as that given to See also:Haydn at St See also:Stephen's, but much by the practices of the school See also:orchestra, and by association with congenial comrades . Many of the most devoted See also:friends of his, after life were among his schoolfellows: Spaun and Stadler and Holzapfel, and a See also:score of others who helped him out of their slender See also:pocket-See also:money, bought him music-See also:paper which he could not buy for himself, and gave him loyal support and encouragement . It was at the Convict, too, that he first made acquaintance with the overtures and symphonies of See also:Mozart—there is as yet no mention of See also:Beethoven—and between them and lighter pieces, and occasional visits to the See also:opera, he began to See also:lay for himself some See also:foundation of musical knowledge . Meanwhile his See also:genius was already showing itself in See also:composition . A pianoforte See also:fantasia, See also:thirty-two See also:close-written pages, is dated See also:April 8-May 1, 1810 : then followed, in 1811, three See also:long vocal pieces written upon a See also:plan which Zumsteeg had popularized, together with a " quintet-See also:overture," a See also:string quartet, a second pianoforte fantasia and a number of songs . His See also: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 See also:brothers played the violin, his father the 'cello and Franz himself the See also:viola . It was the first germ of that amateur orchestra for which, in later years, many of his compositions were written .

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:white-See also:heat of See also:inspiration " hurling " the notes on the music-paper . A few See also:weeks later Von Schober, a See also:law-student of good family and some means, who had heard some of Schubert's songs at Spaun's See also: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 See also:art in See also:peace . The proposal was particularly opportune, for Schubert had just made an unsuccessful application for the See also:post of Kapellmeister at See also:Laibach, and was feeling more acutely than ever the See also:slavery of the class-See also:room . His father's consent was readily given, and before the end of the See also:spring he was installed as a See also:guest in Von Schober'slodgings . For a time he attempted to increase the See also: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 . " 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:March 1 . It also saw the beginning of his only See also:official See also:appointment, the post of music-See also:master to the family of See also:Count Johann Esterhazy at Zelesz, where he spent the summer amid pleasant and congenial surroundings . The compositions of the year include a Mass and a symphony, both in C major, a certain amount of four-hand pianoforte music for his pupils at Zelesz and a few songs, among which are Einsamkeit, Marienbild and the Litaney . On his return to Vienna in the autumn he found that Von Schober had no room for him, and took up his See also:residence with Mayrhofer . There his life continued on'its accustomed lines . Every See also:morning he began composing as soon as he was out of See also:bed, wrote till two o'See also:clock, then dined and took a See also:country walk, then returned to composition or, if the See also:mood forsook him, to visits among his friends . He made his first public See also:appearance as a See also:song-writer on See also:February 28, 1819, when the Schafers Klagelied was sung by See also:Jager at a Jail concert . In the summer of the same year he took a See also:holiday and travelled with Vogl through Upper See also:Austria . At See also:Steyr he wrote his brilliant piano quintet in A, and astonished his friends by transcribing the parts without a score . In the autumn he sent three of his songs to Goethe, but, so far as we know, received no See also:acknowledgment . The compositions of 182o are remarkable, and show a marked advance in development and maturity of style . The unfinished See also:oratorio See also:Lazarus was begun in February; later followed, amid a number of smaller works, the 23rd See also:Psalm, the Gesang der Geister, the Quartettsatz in C minor and the See also:great pianoforte fantasia on Der Wanderer .

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 .

Phoenix-squares

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:Grove, of a " Symphony in C major " which is not to be found among Schubert's orchestral scores . 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 Ab was completed and the exquisite " Unfinished Symphony " begun in 1822 . The Miillerlieder, and several other of his best songs, were written in 1825; to 1824, beside the works mentioned above, belong the See also:variations on Trockne Blumen and the two string quartets in E and Eb . There is also a See also:sonata. for piano and " Arpeggione," an interesting See also:attempt to encourage a cumbersome and now obsolete instrument . The mishaps of the See also: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 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:key, the string quintet, the second See also:Benedictus to the Mass in C, the last three piano sonatas, and the collection of songs known as Schwanengesang . Six of these are to words by See also:Heine, whose See also:Buck der Lieder appeared in the autumn . Every-thing pointed to the renewal of an activity which should equal that of his greatest abundance, when he was suddenly attacked by typhus See also:fever, and after a fortnight's illness died on Nov . 19 at the house of his brother Ferdinand . He had not completed his thirty-second year . Some of his smaller pieces were printed shortly after his death, but the more valuable seem to have been regarded by the publishers as See also:waste paper . In 1838 See also:Schumann, on a visit to Vienna, found the dusty manuscript of the C major symphony and took it back to See also:Leipzig, where it was performed by Mendelssohn and celebrated in the Neue Zeitschrift . The most important step towards the recovery of the neglected works was the See also:journey to Vienna which Sir George Grove and Sir See also:Arthur See also:Sullivan made in the autumn of 1867 . The See also:account of it is given in Grove's appendix to the See also:English See also:translation of Kreissle von Hellborn; the travellers rescued from oblivion seven symphonies, the Rosamunde music, some of the Masses and operas, some of the chamber works, and a vast quantity of miscellaneous pieces and songs . Their success gave impetus to a widespread public interest and finally resulted in the definitive edition of Breitkopf and Hartel . Schubert is best summed up in the well-known phrase of See also:Liszt, that he was " le musicien le plus poete qui fut jamais." In clarity of style he was inferior to Mozart, in See also:power of musical construction he was far inferior to Beethoven, but in poetic impulse and See also:suggestion he is unsurpassed .

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:field of musical composition and everywhere carried with him the See also:artistic See also:form which he loved best . Like Mozart, whose See also:influence over him was always considerable, he wrote nearly all the finest of his compositions in the last ten years of his life . His early symphonies, his early quartets, even his early masses, are too much affected by a traditional style to establish an enduring reputation . It is unfair to See also:call them imitative, but at the time when he wrote them he was saturated with Mozart, and early Beethoven, and he spoke what was in his mind with a boy's frankness . The Andante of the Tragic Symphony (No . 4) strikes a more distinctive See also:note, but the fifth is but a charming See also:adaptation of a past idiom, and the See also:sixth, on which Schubert himself placed little value, shows hardly any appreciable advance . It is a very different See also:matter when we come to the later works . The piano quintet in A major (1819) may here be taken as the turning-point; then come the Unfinished Symphony, which is pure Schubert in every See also:bar; the three quartets in A minor, D minor, and G major, full of romantic colour; the delightful piano trios; the great string quintet; and the C major symphony which, though diffuse, contains many passages of surprising beauty .

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:Muller—a list more than sufficient to compensate for the triviality of occasional pieces or the inferior workmanship of See also:personal friends . It was a tragedy that he only lived for a few weeks after the appearance of the See also:Buch der Lieder . We may conjecture what the See also:world would have gained if he had found the full See also:complement of his art in Heine . In his earlier songs he is more affected by the See also:external and pictorial aspect of the poem ; in the later ones he penetrates to the centre and seizes the poetic conception from within . But in both alike he shows a gift of See also:absolute melody which, even apart from its meaning, would be inestimable .

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 .

End of Article: FRANZ PETER SCHUBERT (1797-1828)