Franz Schubert

To Franz Schubert falls the dubious distinction of dying youngest of all the great composers—at age 31. Yet during his brief life, he composed over a thousand works in all the principal genres of his time, from short songs and dances to large symphonies and operas. He initially won fame with music intended for the home, which gave rise to domestic events known as Schubertiades, where friends and supporters would play and hear his latest compositions. Most prominently featured were Schubert’s songs (Lieder in German), which he raised to a new level of artistic prominence. A supreme lyrical impulse also infused his instrumental music, some of which he based on songs, as in the “Trout” Quintet and the “Death and the Maiden” String Quartet.

Early Years: The Prince of Song

Bach, Mozart, and Beethoven all hailed from musical families and were expected to continue that tradition. Schubert was also expected to go into his family’s business, but that meant being a schoolteacher like his father and brothers. The family was musical—he played string quartets at home with them, but not professionally. It was Schubert’s extraordinary early musical talents that provided special opportunities. His abilities as a boy soprano earned him a scholarship to an elite school in the heart of Vienna, where he met some older students (from wealthier families) who gave him poems to set to music and nurtured his budding career. Schubert’s early compositional gifts led to studies with Antonio Salieri, a very powerful musical figure in Vienna (who did not murder Mozart!).

Schubert’s earliest compositions, written as a young teenager, were songs and piano pieces. His first masterpieces set words by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, the preeminent poet of the day and the one Schubert turned to most often. Erlkönig, D. 328, Op. 1 (1815), and Gretchen am Spinnrade (Gretchen at the Spinning Wheel), D. 118, Op. 2 (1814), were immediately recognized as breaking new ground in their use of the piano, and in their penetrating interpretation of the poetry. Ultimately, Schubert composed more than 600 Lieder. Beyond the smaller domestic pieces, the young composer also wrote chamber music, symphonies, masses, and even operas. He apparently viewed these larger works as opportunities to learn—not meant for public performance, although many are now beloved repertoire.

Schubert: “Gretchen am Spinnrade” for Voice and Piano, D. 118, Op. 2

Middle Years: Schubert’s Beethoven Project

Through the advocacy of friends, Schubert’s songs and piano dances began to be published in 1821—the “Wanderer” Fantasy for Piano, D. 760, Op. 15, in 1822—and his fame slowly started to spread beyond his native Vienna. (Unlike many composers before and after him who were drawn to the “City of Music,” Schubert lived there his entire life.) He tried his hand at writing full-scale operas, but Vienna was then enthralled by those of the Italian Gioachino Rossini. Operas in German stood little chance of success, and Schubert’s two major ones remained unperformed during his lifetime. He shifted his energies to significant instrumental works, including piano sonatas, symphonies, and string quartets: this was the musical realm dominated by the reclusive, but still living, Beethoven—the composer Schubert most revered.

Schubert’s “Beethoven Project,” as it has aptly been called, was derailed in late 1822 by serious illness, most likely the result of syphilis. He spent some months in the hospital and despaired in letters (not many of which survive) that his health would never be right again. His bold compositional experiments, combined with his fragile state, meant that he did not complete some major works, such as the “Unfinished” Symphony No. 8 in B minor, D. 759, the Quartettsatz, D. 703, and the “Reliquie” Piano Sonata in C major, D. 840; and yet, they remain important parts of the standard repertoire.

Schubert: Quartettsatz in C minor for Strings, D. 703

Late Period: Under the Shadow of Death

Can someone who dies as young as Schubert be said to have a “late” style, rather than just last works? Because of his health crisis in his mid-20s, Schubert lived his remaining years as a marked man, well aware that he would probably die young, perhaps painfully. He continued to focus on instrumental music, while not ignoring Lieder, religious music, and even further dramatic projects. He also began to enjoy some success in prominent public performances presented by the leading instrumentalists of the day—mostly Beethoven’s musicians. These works started to be published, among them three piano sonatas and the String Quartet No. 13 in A minor, D. 804, Op. 29.

Schubert was deeply affected by Beethoven’s death on March 26, 1827, and was a torchbearer at his funeral three days later. On the first anniversary of Beethoven’s death, he presented the only public concert of his career devoted entirely to his own music. The centerpiece was the premiere of his Piano Trio in E-flat, D. 929, Op. 100, in which he honored his hero by quoting the funeral march of Beethoven’s Eroica Symphony. During the 20 months of his life remaining after Beethoven’s death, Schubert wrote an astonishing quantity of music of staggering quality. In the final months alone, he composed the Drei Klavierstücke, D. 946, Mass No. 6 in E-flat, D. 950, the song cycle Schwanengesang, D. 957, three magnificent piano duets (D. 940, D. 947, D. 951), the String Quintet in C major, D. 956, the last three piano sonatas (D. 958–60), as well as some brief sacred works, part-songs, dances, and Lieder.

Schubert: Quintet in C major for Two Violins, Viola, and Two Cellos, D. 956, Op. 163

Death And Legacy: “Far Fairer Hopes”

At Beethoven’s funeral, Schubert heard the celebrated oration written by Franz Grillparzer, Austria’s preeminent poet. The eloquent address mourns the passing of the man who marked the end of an epoch. What must have Schubert made of the poet’s challenging question: “He was an artist—and who shall arise to stand beside him?” But not long after, Grillparzer was enlisted to write the epitaph for Schubert’s grave: THE ART OF MUSIC HERE ENTOMBED A RICH POSSESSION, BUT EVEN FAR FAIRER HOPES. This captures a sentiment many have felt at the time and ever since: what more might Schubert have accomplished had he lived longer? Robert Schumann, however, lost patience with these words and observed, “It is pointless to guess at what more [Schubert] might have achieved. He did enough; and let them be honored who have striven and accomplished as he did.”

And yet there is another twist: Schubert’s legacy is particularly complex because Grillparzer and  Schumann—as well as even close friends—were unaware of just how much music he had composed. Over the decades to come, many of Schubert’s greatest pieces were unveiled to an astonished public who cherished the revelation of works by the beloved composer. A new generation of Romantic composers, including Schumann, Felix Mendelssohn, and Franz Liszt, was inspired by his example and became passionate advocates, spreading his posthumous fame.

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