Franz Schubert

Franz Peter Schubert ranked among the earliest Romantics and stood out as the composer who elevated the art song, or lied, to complete artistic stature. Across a brief yet remarkably productive life he created masterworks in nearly every genre, all marked by opulent harmonic writing, a spacious rethinking of classical structures, and an apparently boundless melodic invention.

Initial instruction in music came from his father and brothers. After passing an audition he entered the Stadtkonvikt, the school that prepared adolescent singers for the Imperial Court chapel. While there he began composing and produced a song that reached the institution’s director, Antonio Salieri; Salieri and the harmony professor together declared the youthful Schubert a genius. In 1813, once his voice changed, he returned to his father’s home, where he was instructed to adopt the same occupation of schoolteacher. He accepted the post unwillingly and endured it unhappily by day, even while turning out compositions in great quantity by night. Before reaching the age of twenty he had already finished more than one hundred songs together with numerous symphonic, operatic, and chamber scores.

Schubert eventually abandoned teaching to devote himself entirely to music. During the summer of 1818 he served as private music instructor to the aristocratic Esterházy family. After leaving that position in the autumn he adopted a somewhat bohemian existence, composing steadily and associating with a circle of friends who formed his personal support network. In 1820 the Karthnerthor Theatre and the Theatre-an-der-Wein each commissioned an opera from him. He supplied Die Zwillingsbrüder and Zauberharfe; both met with lukewarm receptions. No publisher would risk issuing works by a largely unknown composer whose harmonic language departed from convention, so Schubert, aided by his artistic circle, issued his music privately for a group of roughly one hundred subscribers. These ventures brought little financial return, and he continued to struggle for subsistence. His compositions attracted scant notice, while fellow composers rejected them as overreaching and immature.

In 1823 the Musikverein of Graz elected Schubert an honorary member. Although the distinction carried neither financial benefit nor practical consequence, he valued the modest recognition and expressed his thanks by composing the famous Unfinished Symphony. Five years later a concert at Vienna’s Musikverein presented his music to an enthusiastic audience and highly favorable critical response—the sole occasion during his lifetime when he enjoyed such success. The event restored a measure of optimism; despite declining health he maintained an extraordinary pace of work, began planning ways to broaden his reputation, and considered private study of harmony. His condition worsened, and near the end he directed his brother Ferdinand to arrange burial beside Ludwig van Beethoven. Schubert had long revered Beethoven and remained grateful for the praise Beethoven had offered after hearing several of his songs. He also held Franz Joseph Haydn and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart in the highest regard. Franz Schubert died of syphilis.

Despite the brevity of his life he left a large body of symphonies, operas, masses, chamber music, and piano sonatas, most of which have entered the standard repertoire. He is chiefly remembered for hundreds of songs, among them Gretchen am Spinnrade and Erlkönig. With such cycles as Die Schöne Müllerin and Winterreise he established the song-cycle form and exerted a decisive influence on the vocal writing of both Robert Schumann and Gustav Mahler.