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Franz Schubert

 
Franz Schubert

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Franz Schubert



 
 
Franz Peter Schubert (January 31, 1797 – November 19, 1828) was an Austria
Austria

Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It borders both Germany and the Czech Republic to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the west....
n composer
Composer

A composer is a person who creates music, usually in the medium of musical notation, for interpretation and performance. The level of distinction between composers and other musicians varies, which affects issues such as copyright and the deference given to individual interpretations of a particular piece of music....
. He wrote some 600 lieder, nine symphonies (including the famous "Unfinished Symphony
Symphony No. 8 (Schubert)

Franz Schubert's Symphony No. 8 in B minor, commonly known as the Unfinished symphony , was started in 1822 but left with only two movements complete even though Schubert would live for another six years....
"), liturgical
Liturgy

A liturgy is the customary public worship done by a specific religious group, according to their particular traditions. The word may refer to an elaborate formal ritual such as the Eastern Orthodox Divine Liturgy and Mass , or a daily activity such as the Muslim salat and Jewish Jewish services....
 music, opera
Opera

Opera is an Performing arts in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work which combines a text and a musical score. Opera is part of the Western classical music tradition....
s, and a large body of chamber
Chamber music

Chamber music is a form of classical music, written for a small group of instruments which traditionally could be accommodated in a palace chamber....
 and solo piano
Piano

The piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard instrument. Widely used in Western music for solo performance, ensemble use, chamber music, and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to musical composition and rehearsal....
 music. He is particularly noted for his original melodic and harmonic writing.

Schubert was born into a musically knowledgeable family, and received formal musical training through much of his childhood. While Schubert had a close circle of friends and associates who admired his work (including the prominent singer Johann Michael Vogl
Johann Michael Vogl

Johann Michael Vogl was an Austrian baritone singer and composer. Though famous in his day, he is remembered mainly for his close professional relationship and friendship with composer Franz Schubert....
), wide appreciation of his music during his lifetime was limited at best.






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When I wished to sing of love, it turned to sorrow. And when I wished to sing of sorrow, it was transformed for me into love.

No one feels another's grief, no one understands another's joy. People imagine that they can reach one another. In reality they only pass each other by.






Encyclopedia


Franz Peter Schubert (January 31, 1797 – November 19, 1828) was an Austria
Austria

Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It borders both Germany and the Czech Republic to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the west....
n composer
Composer

A composer is a person who creates music, usually in the medium of musical notation, for interpretation and performance. The level of distinction between composers and other musicians varies, which affects issues such as copyright and the deference given to individual interpretations of a particular piece of music....
. He wrote some 600 lieder, nine symphonies (including the famous "Unfinished Symphony
Symphony No. 8 (Schubert)

Franz Schubert's Symphony No. 8 in B minor, commonly known as the Unfinished symphony , was started in 1822 but left with only two movements complete even though Schubert would live for another six years....
"), liturgical
Liturgy

A liturgy is the customary public worship done by a specific religious group, according to their particular traditions. The word may refer to an elaborate formal ritual such as the Eastern Orthodox Divine Liturgy and Mass , or a daily activity such as the Muslim salat and Jewish Jewish services....
 music, opera
Opera

Opera is an Performing arts in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work which combines a text and a musical score. Opera is part of the Western classical music tradition....
s, and a large body of chamber
Chamber music

Chamber music is a form of classical music, written for a small group of instruments which traditionally could be accommodated in a palace chamber....
 and solo piano
Piano

The piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard instrument. Widely used in Western music for solo performance, ensemble use, chamber music, and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to musical composition and rehearsal....
 music. He is particularly noted for his original melodic and harmonic writing.

Schubert was born into a musically knowledgeable family, and received formal musical training through much of his childhood. While Schubert had a close circle of friends and associates who admired his work (including the prominent singer Johann Michael Vogl
Johann Michael Vogl

Johann Michael Vogl was an Austrian baritone singer and composer. Though famous in his day, he is remembered mainly for his close professional relationship and friendship with composer Franz Schubert....
), wide 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. He made some money from published works, and occasionally gave private musical instruction. In the last year of his life he began to receive wider acclaim. He died at the age of 31, apparently of complications from syphilis
Syphilis

Syphilis is a sexually transmitted disease caused by the spirochete bacterium Treponema pallidum subspecies pallidum. The route of transmission of syphilis is almost always through sexual contact, although there are examples of congenital syphilis via transmission from mother to child in utero....
.

Interest in Schubert's work increased dramatically in the decades following his death. Composers like Franz Liszt
Franz Liszt

Franz Liszt was a Kingdom of Hungary composer, virtuoso pianist and teacher.Liszt became renowned throughout Europe for his great skill as a performer during the 19th century....
, Robert Schumann
Robert Schumann

Robert Schumann, sometimes given as Robert Alexander Schumann, was a German composer, aesthete and influential music critic. He is one of the most famous Romantic music composers of the 19th century....
 and Felix Mendelssohn
Felix Mendelssohn

Jakob Ludwig Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy, born, and generally known in English-speaking countries, as Felix Mendelssohn was a Germany composer, pianist, organist and conducting of the early Romantic music period....
 discovered, collected, and championed his works in the 19th century, as did musicologist Sir George Grove
George Grove

Sir George Grove was an England writer on music, immortalised in the title of Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians.He was born in Clapham, and studied to be a civil engineer, working for two years in a factory near Glasgow....
. Franz Schubert is now widely considered to be one of the greatest composers in the Western tradition.

Biography


Early life and education

Schubert was born in Vienna on January 31, 1797. His father, Franz Theodor Schubert, the son of a Moravia
Moravia

Moravia is a Historical regions of Central Europe in the east of the Czech Republic, one of the former Czech lands. It takes its name from the Morava River, Central Europe which rises in the northwest of the region....
n peasant, was a parish
Parish

A parish is a local church; it is an administrative unit typically found in Roman Catholic, Anglican, United Methodist, and Presbyterianism churches....
 schoolmaster; his mother, Elizabeth Vietz was the daughter of a Silesia
Silesia

Silesia is a historical region of Central Europe located mostly in present-day Poland, with parts in the Czech Republic and Germany.Silesia is rich in mineral and natural resources, and includes several important industrial areas....
n master locksmith, and had also been a housemaid for a Viennese family prior to her marriage. Of Franz Theodor's sixteen children (one illegitimate child was born in 1783), eleven died in infancy; five survived. Their father was a well-known teacher, and his school in Lichtental, a part of Vienna's 9th district
Alsergrund

Alsergrund is the ninth district of Vienna, Austria . It is located just north of the first, central district, Innere Stadt. Alsergrund was incorporated in 1862, with seven suburbs....
, was well attended. He was not a famous musician, but he taught his son what he could of music.

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
Violin

The violin is a Bow string instrument with four strings usually tuned in perfect fifths. It is the smallest and highest-pitched member of the violin family of string instruments, which also includes the viola and cello....
. At seven, Schubert was placed under the instruction of Michael Holzer, the local church organist and choirmaster. Holzer's lessons seem to have mainly consisted of conversations and expressions of admiration and the boy gained more from his acquaintance with a friendly joiner
Joiner

A joiner differs from a carpenter in that he cuts and fits joints in wood that do not use nails, usually in a workshop environment since the formation of the various joints generally require non-portable machinery....
's apprentice who used to take him to a neighboring pianoforte warehouse where he had the opportunity to practice on better instruments.

In October 1808, he became a pupil at the Stadtkonvikt (Imperial seminary) through a choir scholarship. At the Stadtkonvikt, Schubert was introduced to the overtures
Overture

Overture in music is the instrumental introduction to a dramatic, choir or, occasionally, Musical composition. During the early Romantic era, composers such as Ludwig van Beethoven and Felix Mendelssohn began to use the term to refer to instrumental, programmatic works that presaged genres such as the symphonic poem....
 and symphonies of Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Mozart showed prodigious ability from his earliest childhood in Salzburg. Already competent on keyboard and violin, he composed from the age of five and performed before European royalty; at seventeen he was engaged as a court musician in Salzburg, but grew restless and traveled in search of a better position, always...
. His exposure to these pieces and various lighter compositions, combined with his occasional visits to the opera
Opera

Opera is an Performing arts in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work which combines a text and a musical score. Opera is part of the Western classical music tradition....
 set the foundation for his greater musical knowledge. At the Stadtkonvikt he would also form a number of close friendships that would last the rest of his life, notably with Joseph von Spaun, who, in those early days, furnished the impoverished Schubert with manuscript paper.

Meanwhile, his genius began to show in his compositions. Schubert was occasionally permitted to lead the Stadtkonvikt's orchestra. Antonio Salieri
Antonio Salieri

Antonio Salieri , was a Republic of Venice composer and Conducting. As the Austrian imperial Kapellmeister from 1788 to 1824, he was one of the most important and famous musicians of his time....
, a leading composer of the period, became aware of the talented young man and decided to train him in musical composition and music theory
Music theory

Music theory is the field of study that deals with how music works. It examines the language and notation of music. It identifies patterns that govern composer techniques....
. Schubert's early essay in chamber music is noticeable, since 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
Cello

The violoncello is a bowed string instrument. A person who plays a cello is called a cellist. The cello is used as a solo instrument, in chamber music, and as a member of the string section of an orchestra....
 and Franz himself the viola
Viola

The viola is a bowed string instrument. It is the middle voice of the violin family, between the violin and the cello.The casual observer may mistake the viola for the violin because of their similarity in size, closeness in pitch range , and nearly identical playing position....
. 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
Kyrie

K?rie is from the Greek language word ????e , the vocative case of ?????? , meaning O Lord. It is the common name of an important prayer of Christian liturgy, also called K?rie, el?ison which is Greek language for Lord, have mercy....
 (D. 31) and Salve Regina
Salve Regina

:For the university, see Salve Regina University.The "Salve Regina" is one of four Marian antiphons sung at different seasons within the Christian liturgical calendar of the Roman Catholic Church....
 (D. 27), an octet
Octet (music)

In music, an octet is a musical ensemble consisting of eight Musical instrument or voices, or a musical composition written for such an ensemble....
 for wind instruments (D. 72/72a, said to commemorate the 1812 death of his mother), a cantata for guitar and male voices (D. 110, in honor of his father's birthday in 1813), and his first symphony
Symphony No. 1 (Schubert)

The Symphony No. 1 in D Major, D. 82, was composed by Franz Schubert in 1813, when he was just 16 years old. Despite his youth, No. 1 is an impressive piece of orchestral music for both its time and size....
 (D. 82).

Teacher at his father's school

At the end of 1813 he left the Stadtkonvikt, and returned home for studies at the Normalhauptschule to train as a teacher. In 1814 he entered his father's school as teacher of the youngest students. 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 continued to receive private lessons in composition from Salieri, who did more for Schubert’s musical training than any of his other teachers. Salieri and Schubert would part ways in 1817.

In 1814 Schubert met a young soprano named Therese Grob
Therese Grob

Therese Grob was the first love of the composer Franz Schubert He petitioned to marry her but the petition was turned down on account of his impecuniosity: Metternich's Marriage Consent Law expressly forbade marriages by men in Schubert's class if they could not verify their ability to support a family....
, the daughter of a local silk manufacturer. Several of his songs (Salve Regina and Tantum Ergo) were composed for her voice, and she also premiered his first Mass in F in October 1814. In 1994 musicologist Rita Steblin discovered the marriage petition of Schubert's brother Karl on the attic floor of the Lichtental church. She interpreted this document to show that Schubert had wanted to marry Grob, but was hindered by the harsh marriage consent law of 1815, however more prosaic reasons, such as the lack of means to support a wife appear more likely. In November 1816, after failing to gain a position at Laibach
Ljubljana

Ljubljana is the capital city of Slovenia and its largest town. It is located in the center of the country and is a mid-sized city of some 270,000 inhabitants....
, Schubert sent Grob a collection of songs, which were retained by her family into the 20th century.

1815 probably was the most prolific period of Schubert's life. He composed over 20,000 bars of music, more than half for orchestra, including nine church works, a symphony, and about 140 lieder. His schoolfriend Joseph von Spaun once surprised him amid composition of Erlkönig
Der Erlkönig

File:Erl king sterner.jpgDer Erlk?nig is a poem by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. It depicts the death of a child assailed by a supernatural being, the Erlking or "Erlk?nig" ....
 (D. 328, published as Op. 1.) In that year he was also introduced to Anselm Hüttenbrenner
Anselm Hüttenbrenner

Anselm H?ttenbrenner was an Austrian composer. He was on friendly terms with both Beethoven, whom he visited on his death-bed, and Schubert, his recollections of whom — recorded for Franz Liszt in 1854 — constitute an interesting but probably unreliable document in Schubert biographical studies....
 and Franz von Schober, who would become lifelong friends. Another friend, Johann Mayrhofer, was introduced to him by Spaun in 1814.

Supported by friends

Franz Schubert
The year 1816 saw some real change in his fortunes. Schober, a student of good family and some means, invited Schubert to room with him at his mother's house. The proposal was particularly opportune, for Schubert had just made an unsuccessful application for the post of Kapellmeister
Kapellmeister

Kapellmeister is a German language word designating a person in charge of music-making. The word is a compound word, consisting of the roots Kapelle and Meister ....
 at Laibach
Ljubljana

Ljubljana is the capital city of Slovenia and its largest town. It is located in the center of the country and is a mid-sized city of some 270,000 inhabitants....
, and had also decided not to resume teaching duties at his father's school. By the end of the year he became 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 compose every morning, and when one piece is done, I begin another." During this year, he focused on orchestral and choral works, although he continued to write lieder.

In early 1817, Schober introduced Schubert to Johann Michael Vogl
Johann Michael Vogl

Johann Michael Vogl was an Austrian baritone singer and composer. Though famous in his day, he is remembered mainly for his close professional relationship and friendship with composer Franz Schubert....
, a prominent baritone 20 years Schubert's senior. Vogl, for whom Schubert wrote a great many songs, went on to become one of Schubert's main proponents in Viennese musical circles. He also met Joseph Hüttenbrenner (brother to Anselm), who would also play a role in promoting Schubert's music. These, and an increasing circle of friends and musicians, became responsible for promoting, collecting, and, after his death, preserving, his work.

In late 1817, his father gained a new position at a school in Rossau (not far from Lichtental), and Schubert rejoined his father and reluctantly took up teaching duties there. In early 1818 he was rejected for membership in the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde
Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde

The Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde in Wien was founded in 1812 by Joseph von Sonnleithner, general secretary of the Court Theatre, Vienna. Its official charter, drafted in 1814, states that the purpose of the Society was to promote music in all its facets....
, something that might have furthered his musical career. Schubert spent the summer of 1818 as music teacher to the family of Count Johann Karl Eszterházy at their chateau in Zseliz
Želiezovce

?eliezovce is a town in Slovakia in the Nitra Region, in the Levice District, near the Hron river....
, Hungary
Hungary

Hungary , officially in English the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in the Carpathian Basin of Central Europe, bordered by Austria, Slovakia, Ukraine, Romania, Serbia, Croatia, and Slovenia....
. His duties were relatively light (teaching piano and singing to the two daughters, Marie and Karoline), and the pay comparably good. As a result, he happily continued to compose during this time. On his return from Zseliz, he took up housing with his friend Mayrhofer. The respite at Zseliz led to a succession of compositions for piano duet.

The compositions of 1819-1820 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
Quartettsatz (Schubert)

The Quartettsatz in C minor, D. 703 was composed by Franz Schubert in December 1820. It represents the first movement , the Allegro assai, of a Twelfth string quartet which Schubert never completed....
 in C minor (D. 703), and the "Wanderer Fantasy
Wanderer Fantasy

The Fantasie in C major, Op. 15 , popularly known as the Wanderer Fantasy, is a four-movement fantasy for solo piano composed by Franz Schubert in November 1822....
" for piano (D. 760). But of almost more biographical interest is the fact that in 1820 two of Schubert's operas were staged: Die Zwillingsbrüder (D. 647) appeared at the Theater am Kärntnertor
Theater am Kärntnertor

Theater am K?rntnertor or K?rntnertortheater was a prestigious theater in Vienna during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Its official title was Kaiserliches und K?nigliches Hoftheater zu Wien, the "Imperial and Royal Court Theater of Vienna"....
 on June 14, and Die Zauberharfe (D. 644) appeared at the Theater an der Wien
Theater an der Wien

The 'Theater an der Wien' is a theatre in Vienna....
 on August 21. 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 distant, with Anton Diabelli
Anton Diabelli

Anton Diabelli was an Austrian music publisher, editor and composer. Best known in his time as a publisher, he is most familiar today as the composer of the waltz on which Ludwig van Beethoven wrote his set of thirty-three Diabelli Variations....
 hesitatingly agreeing 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 meager pittances which were all that the great publishing houses ever accorded to him. The situation improved somewhat in March 1821 when Vogl sang Der Erlkönig at a concert that was extremely well received.

The production of the two operas turned Schubert's attention more firmly than ever in the direction of the stage, where, for a variety of reasons, he was almost completely unsuccessful. In 1822, Alfonso und Estrella
Alfonso und Estrella

Alfonso und Estrella is an opera with music by Franz Schubert, set to a German language libretto by Franz von Schober, written in 1822. Along with the later Fierrabras , composed in 1823, it marks Schubert's attempt to compose grand Romantic opera in German, departing from the Singspiel tradition....
 was refused, partly due to its libretto. Fierrabras
Fierrabras (opera)

Fierrabras is a three-act opera written by the composer Franz Schubert in 1823, to a libretto by Josef Kupelwieser, the general manager of the Theater am K?rntnertor ....
 (D. 796) was rejected in the fall of 1823, but this was largely due to the popularity of Rossini and the Italian operatic style, and the failure of Carl Maria von Weber
Carl Maria von Weber

Carl Maria Friedrich Ernst von Weber was a Germans composer, conducting, pianist, guitarist and critic, one of the first significant composers of the Romanticism school....
's Euryanthe
Euryanthe

Euryanthe is a Germany Romanticism opera by Carl Maria von Weber, first performed at the Theater am K?rntnertor, Vienna on 25 October, 1823....
. Die Verschworenen (D. 787) was prohibited by the censor (apparently on the ground of its title), and Rosamunde
Rosamunde

Rosamunde can refer to:* The German name for the Beer Barrel Polka* Music by Franz Schubert:**Rosamunde incidental music**Rosamunde String Quartet ...
 (D. 797) was withdrawn after two nights, owing to the poor quality of the play for which Schubert had written incidental music. Of these works the two former are written on a scale which would make their performances exceedingly difficult (Fierrabras, 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 of both Weber and Beethoven
Ludwig van Beethoven

Ludwig van Beethoven was a German composer and pianist. He was a crucial figure in the transitional period between the Classical music era and Romantic music eras in classical music, and remains one of the most acclaimed and influential composers of all time....
, but little came of it in either case. Beethoven cordially acknowledged his genius on several occasions, saying, "Truly, the spark of divine genius resides in this Schubert!" However, due to the failure to stage these works, and the fact that his close friend Schober was away from Vienna, these were the darkest years of his life.

Last years and masterworks


In 1823 Schubert, in addition to Fierrabras, also wrote his first song cycle
Song cycle

A song cycle is a group of Art song designed to be performed in a sequence as a single entity. As a rule, all of the songs are by the same composer and often use words from the same poet....
, Die schöne Müllerin
Die schöne Müllerin

Die sch?ne M?llerin , is a song cycle by Franz Schubert on poems by Wilhelm M?ller. It is the earliest song cycle to be widely performed. The work is considered one of Schubert's most important, and it is widely performed and recorded....
 (D. 795), after poems by Wilhelm Müller
Wilhelm Müller

Wilhelm M?ller was a Germany lyric poet....
. This work, together with the later cycle "Winterreise
Winterreise

Winterreise is a cycle of 24 poems by Wilhelm M?ller, best known as the song cycle set for male voice and piano by Franz Schubert . It is the second of Schubert's two great song cycles on M?ller's poems, the earlier being Die sch?ne M?llerin ....
" (D. 911; also written to texts of Müller in 1827) is widely considered one of the pinnacles of Lied
Lied

, is a German language word, meaning literally "song"; among English speakers, however, the word is used primarily as a term for European European classical music songs, also known as art songs....
er. He also composed the song Du bist die Ruh ("You are stillness/peace") D. 776 during this year. Also in that year, symptoms of syphilis
Syphilis

Syphilis is a sexually transmitted disease caused by the spirochete bacterium Treponema pallidum subspecies pallidum. The route of transmission of syphilis is almost always through sexual contact, although there are examples of congenital syphilis via transmission from mother to child in utero....
, which ultimately caused his death, first appeared.

In the spring of 1824 he wrote the Octet in F
Octet (Schubert)

The Octet in F major, D. 803 was composed by Franz Schubert in March 1824. It was commissioned by the renowned clarinetist Ferdinand Troyer and came from the same period as two of Schubert's other masterpieces, the String Quartet No....
 (D. 803), "A Sketch for a Grand Symphony"; and in the summer went back to Zseliz, when he became attracted by Hungarian
Hungary

Hungary , officially in English the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in the Carpathian Basin of Central Europe, bordered by Austria, Slovakia, Ukraine, Romania, Serbia, Croatia, and Slovenia....
 idiom, and wrote the Divertissement à l'Hongroise (D. 818) for piano duet and the String Quartet in A minor
String Quartet No. 13 (Schubert)

The String Quartet No. 13 in a minor , D. 804, Op. 29, was written by Franz Schubert between February and March 1824. It dates roughly to the same time as his monumental Death and the Maiden Quartet, emerging around three years after his previous attempt to write for the string quartet genre, the Quartettsatz that he never finished....
 (D. 804). It has been said that he held a hopeless passion for his pupil Countess Karoline Eszterházy; the only work he dedicated to her was his Fantasie in F minor (D. 940) for piano duet. His friend Bauernfeld penned the following verse, which appears to reference these unrequited sentiments:
In love with a Countess of youthful grace,
—A pupil of Galt's; in desperate case
Young Schubert surrenders himself to another,
And fain would avoid such affectionate pother


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. He completed the Mass in A flat (D. 678)and, in 1822, began the "Unfinished Symphony" (Symphony No. 8 in B minor, D. 759
Symphony No. 8 (Schubert)

Franz Schubert's Symphony No. 8 in B minor, commonly known as the Unfinished symphony , was started in 1822 but left with only two movements complete even though Schubert would live for another six years....
). Why the symphony was "unfinished" has been debated endlessly without resolution. To 1824, beside the works mentioned above, belong the variations for flute and piano on Trockne Blumen, from the cycle Die schöne Müllerin
Die schöne Müllerin

Die sch?ne M?llerin , is a song cycle by Franz Schubert on poems by Wilhelm M?ller. It is the earliest song cycle to be widely performed. The work is considered one of Schubert's most important, and it is widely performed and recorded....
, and several string quartets. He also wrote the Arpeggione Sonata (D. 821), at a time when there was a minor craze over that instrument
Arpeggione

The arpeggione is a six-stringed musical instrument, fretted and tuned like a guitar, but bowed like a cello, and thus similar to the bass Viol....
.

The setbacks of previous 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
Upper Austria

Upper Austria is one of the nine States of Austria or Bundesl?nder of Austria. Its capital is Linz. Upper Austria borders on Germany and the Czech Republic, as well as on the other Austrian states of Lower Austria, Styria , and Salzburg ....
, where Schubert was welcomed with enthusiasm. It was during this tour that he produced his "Songs from Sir Walter Scott". This cycle contains Ellens dritter Gesang
Ellens dritter Gesang

Ellens dritter Gesang , Ellen's third song in English language, composed by Franz Schubert in 1825, is one of Schubert's most popular works, although some misconceptions exist regarding its provenance....
 (D. 839), a setting of Adam Storck's German translation of Scott
Walter Scott

Sir Walter Scott, 1st Baronet, was a prolific Scotland historical novelist and poet popular throughout Europe during his time.In some ways Scott was the first English-language author to have a truly international career in his lifetime, with many contemporary readers all over Europe, Australia, and North America....
's hymn from The Lady of the Lake, which is widely, though mistakenly, referred to as "Schubert's Ave Maria". It opens with the greeting Ave Maria, which recurs in the refrain; the entire Scott/Storck text in Schubert's song has occasionally been substituted with the complete Latin text of the traditional Ave Maria
Hail Mary

File:Madonna. Petit Palais Avignon.jpgThe Hail Mary or Ave Maria is a traditional Catholic prayer asking for the intercession of the Mary , the mother of Jesus....
 prayer. In 1825 Schubert also wrote the Piano Sonata in A minor
Piano Sonata in A minor, D. 845 (Schubert)

The Piano Sonata No. 16 in A minor, D. 845 by Franz Schubert is a sonata for solo piano, composed in May 1825. The sonata is in four movements:...
 (Op. 42, D. 845), and began the "Great" C major Symphony (Symphony No. 9
Symphony No. 9 (Schubert)

The Symphony No. 9 in C major, D. 944, known as the Great, is the final symphony completed by Franz Schubert. Nicknamed The Great C major originally to distinguish it from his Symphony No....
, D. 944), which was completed the following year.

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 was relatively uneventful, and is little more than a record of his compositions. In 1826, he dedicated a symphony
Symphony No. 9 (Schubert)

The Symphony No. 9 in C major, D. 944, known as the Great, is the final symphony completed by Franz Schubert. Nicknamed The Great C major originally to distinguish it from his Symphony No....
 (D. 944, that would come to be known as the "Great") to the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde
Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde

The Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde in Wien was founded in 1812 by Joseph von Sonnleithner, general secretary of the Court Theatre, Vienna. Its official charter, drafted in 1814, states that the purpose of the Society was to promote music in all its facets....
 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. 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 (Op. 70, D. 895), 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 "An Silvia" (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
Winterreise

Winterreise is a cycle of 24 poems by Wilhelm M?ller, best known as the song cycle set for male voice and piano by Franz Schubert . It is the second of Schubert's two great song cycles on M?ller's poems, the earlier being Die sch?ne M?llerin ....
 (D. 911), a colossal peak of the art of art-song (remarkable is already the way it was presented at the Schubertiades), the Fantasia for piano and violin in C (D. 934), the Impromptus
Impromptus (Schubert)

Franz Schubert's Impromptus, Opus 90 and 142 , are a series of pieces for solo piano composed in 1827 and first published during the composer's lifetime under that name....
 for piano, and the two piano trios (the first
Piano Trio No. 1 (Schubert)

The Trio No. 1 in B-flat major for piano, violin, and violoncello, Otto Erich Deutsch 898, was written by Franz Schubert in 1827 in music. The composer finished the work in 1828, in the last year of his life....
 in B flat, D. 898, and the second
Piano Trio No. 2 (Schubert)

The Trio No. 2 in E-flat major for piano, violin, and violoncello, Otto Erich Deutsch 929, was one of the last compositions completed by Franz Schubert, dated November 1827 in music....
 in E flat, D. 929); in 1828 the Mirjams Siegesgesang (Song of Miriam, D. 942) on a text by Franz Grillparzer
Franz Grillparzer

Franz Seraphicus Grillparzer , an Austrian dramatic poet, was born in Vienna....
, the Mass in E-flat (D. 950), the Tantum Ergo (D. 962) in the same key, the String Quintet in C
String Quintet (Schubert)

The String Quintet in C major, Otto Erich Deutsch 956, Opus number posth. 163, is a piece of chamber music written by Franz Schubert. It was composed during the summer of 1828, two months before his death, and is Schubert's final instrumental work....
 (D. 956), the second Benedictus to the Mass in C, the last three piano sonatas
Schubert's last sonatas

The three piano sonatas numbered 958 through 960 in Otto Erich Deutsch's catalogue of Franz Schubert's complete works are the composer's last major compositions for the piano, often referred to in short simply as Schubert's last sonatas....
, and the collection of songs published posthumously as Schwanengesang
Schwanengesang

Schwanengesang is the title of a posthumous collection of songs by Franz Schubert.Unlike the earlier Die sch?ne M?llerin and Winterreise, it uses poems by two poets, Ludwig Rellstab and Heinrich Heine ....
 ("Swan-song", D. 957). This collection, while 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
Heinrich Heine

Christian Johann Heinrich Heine was a journalist, essayist, and one of the most significant German literature German Romanticism poets. He is remembered chiefly for selections of his lyric poetry, many of which were set to music in the form of lieder by German composers....
, whose Buch der Lieder appeared in the autumn. The Symphony No. 9
Symphony No. 9 (Schubert)

The Symphony No. 9 in C major, D. 944, known as the Great, is the final symphony completed by Franz Schubert. Nicknamed The Great C major originally to distinguish it from his Symphony No....
 (D. 944) is dated 1828, but Schubert scholars believe that this symphony was largely written in 1825-6, and was revised for prospective performance in 1828. This was 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. For example, the song Der Doppelgänger 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.

Final illness and death

Franzschubert
In the midst of this creative activity, his health deteriorated. The syphilis
Syphilis

Syphilis is a sexually transmitted disease caused by the spirochete bacterium Treponema pallidum subspecies pallidum. The route of transmission of syphilis is almost always through sexual contact, although there are examples of congenital syphilis via transmission from mother to child in utero....
 he had contracted in 1822 was taking its toll. 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 then a common treatment for syphilis). His solace in his final illness was reading, and he had become a passionate fan of the writings of James Fenimore Cooper
James Fenimore Cooper

James Fenimore Cooper was a prolific and popular United States writer of the early 19th century. He is best remembered as a novel who wrote numerous sea-stories and the historical novels known as the Leatherstocking Tales, featuring frontiersman Natty Bumppo....
. He died aged 31 on Wednesday November 19, 1828 at the apartment of his brother Ferdinand in Vienna. By his own request, he was buried next to Beethoven
Ludwig van Beethoven

Ludwig van Beethoven was a German composer and pianist. He was a crucial figure in the transitional period between the Classical music era and Romantic music eras in classical music, and remains one of the most acclaimed and influential composers of all time....
, whom he had adored all his life, in the village cemetery of Währing
Währing

W?hring is the 18th district of Vienna, Austria. It is in the northwest part of the city. In addition to currently hosting a number of Vienna's foreign embassies, W?hring was the site of the original burial places of composers Ludwig van Beethoven and Franz Schubert....
.

In 1872, a memorial to Franz Schubert was erected in Vienna's Stadtpark
Stadtpark, Vienna

The Viennese City Park extends from the Ringstra?e in the Innere Stadt up to the Heumarkt in the Landstra?e and is visited both by tourists and by native Viennese....
. In 1888, both Schubert's and Beethoven's graves were moved to the Zentralfriedhof
Zentralfriedhof

The Zentralfriedhof is situated in the district of Simmering , Simmeringer Hauptstra?e 230?244, Vienna 1110, Austria, and is the largest and most famous cemetery among Vienna's nearly 50 cemeteries....
, where they can now be found next to those of Johann Strauss II
Johann Strauss II

Johann Strauss II was an Austrian composer famous for having written over 500 waltzes, polkas, March , and galops. He was the son of the composer Johann Strauss I, and brother of composers Josef Strauss and Eduard Strauss....
 and Johannes Brahms
Johannes Brahms

Johannes Brahms , composer and pianist, was one of the leading musicians of the Romantic music. Born in Hamburg, Brahms spent much of his professional life in Vienna, Austria, where he was a leader of the musical scene....
.

Music


Schubert wrote almost 1000 works in a remarkably short career. The largest number (over 600) of these are songs. He wrote 7 complete symphonies, as well as the two movements of the "Unfinished" Symphony, a complete sketch (with partial orchestration) of a ninth, and arguable fragments of a 10th. There is a large body of music for solo piano, including 11 complete sonatas and many short dances, and a relatively large set of works for piano duet. There are nearly 30 chamber works, including some fragmentary works. His choral output includes six masses. He wrote only five operas, and no concertos.

Style

In July 1947 the twentieth-century composer Ernst Krenek
Ernst Krenek

Ernst Krenek was an Austrian composer. He explored atonality and other Contemporary classical music styles and wrote a number of books, including Music Here and Now , a study of Johannes Ockeghem , and Horizons Circled: Reflections on my Music ....
 discussed Schubert's style, abashedly admitting that he at first "shared the wide-spread opinion that Schubert was a lucky inventor of pleasing tunes ... lacking the dramatic power and searching intelligence which distinguished such 'real' masters as Bach or Beethoven
Ludwig van Beethoven

Ludwig van Beethoven was a German composer and pianist. He was a crucial figure in the transitional period between the Classical music era and Romantic music eras in classical music, and remains one of the most acclaimed and influential composers of all time....
". Krenek wrote that he reached a completely different assessment after close study of Schubert's songs at the urging of friend and fellow composer Eduard Erdmann
Eduard Erdmann

Eduard Erdmann was a Baltic German pianist and composer.Erdmann was born in Cesis in Livonia. He was the great-nephew of the philosopher Johann Eduard Erdmann....
. Krenek pointed to the piano sonatas as giving "ample evidence that [Schubert] was much more than an easy-going tune-smith who did not know, and did not care, about the craft of composition." Each sonata then in print, according to Krenek, exhibited "a great wealth of technical finesse" and revealed Schubert as "far from satisfied with pouring his charming ideas into conventional molds; on the contrary he was a thinking artist with a keen appetite for experimentation."

That "appetite for experimentation" manifests itself repeatedly in Schubert's output in a wide variety of forms and genres, including opera, liturgical music
Liturgical music

Liturgical music originated as a part of religious ceremony, and includes a number of traditions, both ancient and modern. Liturgical music is well known as a part of Catholic Mass, the Anglican Holy Communion service , the Lutheran mass, the Orthodox Christianity liturgy and other Christian services including the Divine Office....
, chamber and solo piano music, and symphonic works. Perhaps most familiarly, his adventurousness manifests itself as a notably original sense of modulation, as in second movement of the String Quintet
String Quintet (Schubert)

The String Quintet in C major, Otto Erich Deutsch 956, Opus number posth. 163, is a piece of chamber music written by Franz Schubert. It was composed during the summer of 1828, two months before his death, and is Schubert's final instrumental work....
, where he modulates from C major, through E major, to reach the tonic key of C major. It also appears in unusual choices of instrumentation, as in the Arpeggione Sonata
Arpeggione Sonata

The Sonata in A minor for Arpeggione and Piano, Otto Erich Deutsch 821, was written by Franz Schubert in Vienna in November 1824 in music. The sonata is the only substantial composition for the arpeggione which remains extant today....
 or the unconventional scoring of the Trout Quintet
Trout Quintet

The Trout Quintet is the popular name for the Piano Quintet in A major by Franz Schubert. In Otto Erich Deutsch's catalogue of Schubert's works, it is D....
. If it not infrequently led Schubert up blind alleys, resulting in fragmentary works, it also enabled him to create music unlike anything that had come before, such as his two song cycles of unprecedented scope.

While he was clearly influenced by the Classical sonata form
Sonata form

Sonata form is a musical form that has been used widely since the early Classical music era. While it is typically used in the first Movement of multimovement pieces, it is sometimes employed in subsequent movements as well....
s of Beethoven and Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Mozart showed prodigious ability from his earliest childhood in Salzburg. Already competent on keyboard and violin, he composed from the age of five and performed before European royalty; at seventeen he was engaged as a court musician in Salzburg, but grew restless and traveled in search of a better position, always...
 (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 combination of Classical form and long-breathed Romantic melody sometimes lends them a discursive style: his 9th Symphony was described by Robert Schumann
Robert Schumann

Robert Schumann, sometimes given as Robert Alexander Schumann, was a German composer, aesthete and influential music critic. He is one of the most famous Romantic music composers of the 19th century....
 as running to "heavenly lengths". His harmonic innovations include movements in which the first section ends in the key of the subdominant
Subdominant

In music, the subdominant is the technical name for the fourth tonal degree of the diatonic scale. It is so called because it is the same distance "below" the Tonic as the dominant is above the tonic - in other words, the tonic is the dominant of the subdominant....
 rather than the dominant
Dominant (music)

In music, the dominant is the fifth degree of the Scale . For example, in the C major scale , the dominant is the note G; and the dominant chord uses the notes G, B, and D....
 (as in the last movement of the Trout Quintet). Schubert's practice here was a forerunner of the common Romantic technique of relaxing, rather than raising, tension in the middle of a movement, with final resolution postponed to the very end.

It was in the genre of the Lied
Lied

, is a German language word, meaning literally "song"; among English speakers, however, the word is used primarily as a term for European European classical music songs, also known as art songs....
, 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." 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
Romantic nationalism

Romantic nationalism is the form of nationalism in which the state derives its political legitimacy as an organic consequence of the unity of those it governs....
. Among Schubert's treatments of the poetry of Goethe, his settings of Gretchen am Spinnrade
Gretchen am Spinnrade

Gretchen am Spinnrade is a selection of text from Goethe's Faust. It was set to a singspiel by Franz Peter Schubert in 1814, Opus number.2, Otto Erich Deutsch.118, and was his first successful lied....
 and Der Erlkönig
Der Erlkönig

File:Erl king sterner.jpgDer Erlk?nig is a poem by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. It depicts the death of a child assailed by a supernatural being, the Erlking or "Erlk?nig" ....
 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
Wilhelm Müller

Wilhelm M?ller was a Germany lyric poet....
, Die schöne Müllerin
Die schöne Müllerin

Die sch?ne M?llerin , is a song cycle by Franz Schubert on poems by Wilhelm M?ller. It is the earliest song cycle to be widely performed. The work is considered one of Schubert's most important, and it is widely performed and recorded....
 and Winterreise
Winterreise

Winterreise is a cycle of 24 poems by Wilhelm M?ller, best known as the song cycle set for male voice and piano by Franz Schubert . It is the second of Schubert's two great song cycles on M?ller's poems, the earlier being Die sch?ne M?llerin ....
, which helped to establish the genre and its potential for musical, poetic, and almost operatic dramatic narrative. The Theaterzeitung, writing about Winterreise at the time, commented that it was a work that "none can sing hear with out being deeply moved". Antonín Dvorák
Antonín Dvorák

Anton?n Leopold Dvor?k was a Czechs composer of Romantic music, who employed the idioms and melodies of the folk music of Moravia and his native Bohemia....
 wrote in 1894 that Schubert, whom he considered one of the truly great composers, was clearly influential on shorter works, especially Lieder and shorter piano works: "The tendency of the romantic school has been toward short forms, and although Weber helped to show the way, to Schubert belongs the chief credit of originating the short models of piano forte pieces which the romantic school has preferably cultivated. [...] Schubert created a new epoch with the Lied. [...] All other songwriters have followed in his footsteps."

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
Franz Grillparzer

Franz Seraphicus Grillparzer , an Austrian dramatic poet, was born in Vienna....
, "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 manuscripts of many of the longer works, whose existence was not widely known, remained hidden in cabinets and file boxes of Schubert's family, friends, and publishers. In 1838 Robert Schumann
Robert Schumann

Robert Schumann, sometimes given as Robert Alexander Schumann, was a German composer, aesthete and influential music critic. He is one of the most famous Romantic music composers of the 19th century....
, on a visit to Vienna, found the dusty manuscript of the C major symphony
Symphony No. 9 (Schubert)

The Symphony No. 9 in C major, D. 944, known as the Great, is the final symphony completed by Franz Schubert. Nicknamed The Great C major originally to distinguish it from his Symphony No....
 (the "Great", D. 944) and took it back to Leipzig
Leipzig

Leipzig is, with a population of over 511,252, the largest city in the States of Germany of Saxony, Germany....
, where it was performed by Felix Mendelssohn
Felix Mendelssohn

Jakob Ludwig Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy, born, and generally known in English-speaking countries, as Felix Mendelssohn was a Germany composer, pianist, organist and conducting of the early Romantic music period....
 and celebrated in the Neue Zeitschrift
Neue Zeitschrift für Musik

Die Neue Zeitschrift f?r Musik was a music magazine published in Leipzig, founded by Robert Schumann. Its first issue appeared on 3 April 1834....
. The most important step towards the recovery of the neglected works was the journey to Vienna which Sir George Grove (widely known for the Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians) and Arthur Sullivan
Arthur Sullivan

Sir Arthur Seymour Sullivan Royal Victorian Order was an English composer, of Irish and Italian descent, best known for his comic opera Gilbert and Sullivan with libretto W....
 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.

From the 1830s through the 1870s, Franz Liszt
Franz Liszt

Franz Liszt was a Kingdom of Hungary composer, virtuoso pianist and teacher.Liszt became renowned throughout Europe for his great skill as a performer during the 19th century....
 transcribed and arranged a number of Schubert's works, particularly the songs. Liszt, who was a significant force in spreading Schubert's work after his death, said Schubert was "the most poetic musician who ever lived." Schubert's symphonies were of particular interest to Antonín Dvorák
Antonín Dvorák

Anton?n Leopold Dvor?k was a Czechs composer of Romantic music, who employed the idioms and melodies of the folk music of Moravia and his native Bohemia....
, with Hector Berlioz
Hector Berlioz

Louis Hector Berlioz was a French Romantic music composer and guitarist, best known for his compositions Symphonie fantastique and Requiem . Berlioz made great contributions to the modern orchestra with his Treatise on Instrumentation and by utilizing huge orchestral forces for his works; as a conductor, he performed several c...
 and Anton Bruckner
Anton Bruckner

Anton Bruckner was an Austrian composer known primarily for his symphony, mass , and motets. His symphonies are often considered emblematic of the final stage of Austro-German Romantic music because of their rich harmonic language, complex polyphony, and considerable length....
 acknowledging being influenced by the "Great" Symphony.

In 1897, the publisher Breitkopf und Härtel released a critical edition of Schubert's works, under the general editing of Johannes Brahms
Johannes Brahms

Johannes Brahms , composer and pianist, was one of the leading musicians of the Romantic music. Born in Hamburg, Brahms spent much of his professional life in Vienna, Austria, where he was a leader of the musical scene....
, enabling a wider dissemination of his music. In the 20th century, composers such as Benjamin Britten
Benjamin Britten

Edward Benjamin Britten, Baron Britten, Order of Merit Order of the Companions of Honour was an England composer, conducting, viola and pianist....
, Richard Strauss
Richard Strauss

Richard Georg Strauss was a German composer of the late Romantic music and early modern eras, particularly of operas, Lieder and tone poems. Strauss was also a prominent Conducting....
, and George Crumb
George Crumb

George Crumb is an American composer of modern and avant-garde music. He is noted as an explorer of unusual timbres and extended technique. Examples include spoken flute and glass marbles poured onto an open piano....
 either championed or paid homage to Schubert in their work. Britten, an accomplished pianist, accompanied many of Schubert's lieder and performed many piano solo and duet works.

Symphony numbering controversy
Confusion arose quite early over the numbering of Schubert's symphonies, in particular the "Great" C Major Symphony. George Grove, the rediscoverer of many of the Symphonies, assigned the following numbering after his 1867 visit to Vienna:
  • Number 7: E major D. 729 (completely sketched but not completely scored by Schubert, with multiple historic and modern completions)
  • Number 8: B minor Unfinished D. 759
  • Number 9: C major Great D. 944
Breitkopf und Härtel, when preparing the 1897 complete works publication, originally planned to only publish complete works (which would have given the Great number 7), with "fragments", including the Unfinished and the D. 729 sketch, receiving no number at all. When Johannes Brahms became general editor of that project, he assigned the following numbers:
  • Number 7: C major Great
  • Number 8: B minor Unfinished
  • no number: E major D. 729


In the 20th century, the numbering controversy continued. George Grove in his 1908 Dictionary of Music and Musicians, assigned the Great as number 10, and the Unfinished as number 9. (It is unclear from his article which symphonies, fragmentary or otherwise, are numbers 7 and 8.) However, the Unfinished is now generally referred to as number 8 in the English-speaking world, with the Great at number 9. Number 10 is generally acknowledged to be the D. 936a fragment, for which a completion by Brian Newbould exists. The 1978 revision to the Deutsch catalog leaves D. 827 without a number (in spite of numerous completions), and assigns number 7 to the Unfinished and number 8 to the Great. As a consequence, generally-available scores for the later symphonies may be published using conflicting numbers.

Another controversy, which originated with Grove and Sullivan and continued for many years, surrounded a "lost" symphony. Immediately before Schubert's death, his friend Eduard von Bauernfeld
Eduard von Bauernfeld

Eduard von Bauernfeld , Austrian dramatist, was born at Vienna.Having studied jurisprudence at the university of Vienna, he entered the government service in a legal capacity, and after holding various minor offices was transferred in 1843 to a responsible post on the Lottery Commission....
 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. Brian Newbould believes that the "Last" symphony refers to a sketch in D major (D. 936A), identified by Ernst Hilmar in 1977, and which was realised by Newbould as the Tenth Symphony
Symphony No. 10 (Schubert)

Franz Schubert's Symphony No. 10 in D major, D 936A is an unfinished work that survives in a partly fragmentary piano sketch. Only properly identified in the 1970s, it has been orchestrated by Brian Newbould in a conjectural completion that has subsequently been performed, published and recorded....
. The fragment was bound with other symphony fragments (D. 615 and D. 708a) that Schubert had apparently intended to combine.

Commemorations

In 1897, the 100th anniversary of Schubert's birth was marked in the musical world by festivals and performances dedicated to his music. In Vienna, there were ten days of concerts, and the Emperor Franz Joseph
Franz Joseph I of Austria

Franz Joseph I Karl of the Habsburg was Emperor of Austrian Empire, Apostolic King of Kingdom of Hungary from 1848 until 1916 ....
 gave a speech recognizing Schubert as the creator of the art song, and one of Austria's favorite sons. Karlsruhe
Karlsruhe

Karlsruhe is a city in the south west of Germany, in the States of Germany Baden-W?rttemberg, located near the France-German border.Founded in 1715 as Karlsruhe Palace, the surrounding town became the seat of two of the highest courts in Germany, the Federal Constitutional Court of Germany whose decisions have the force of a law, and the...
 saw the first production of his opera Fierrabras.

Catalogue

Since relatively few of his works were published in Schubert's lifetime, only a small number of them have opus number
Opus number

Opus, from the Latin word opus meaning "work", is usually used in the sense of "a work of art".The Latin plural of opus, "opera", is used to refer to the genre of music drama ....
s assigned, and, even in those cases, the sequence of the numbers does not give a good indication of the order of composition. In 1951, musicologist Otto Erich Deutsch
Otto Erich Deutsch

Otto Erich Deutsch was an Austrians musicology. He is best known for compiling the first comprehensive catalogue of the works of Franz Schubert, first published in 1951 in English, new edition in 1978 in German....
 published a "thematic catalogue" of Schubert's works that lists his compositions numerically by their composition date.
  • Catalogue by Deutsch number: D 1 to 504
    Schubert compositions D number 1-504

    This is a catalogue of works by Franz Schubert, ordered according to the "D numbers" of an updated version of the chronological catalogue of Schubert compositions by Otto Erich Deutsch....
     — D 505 to 998
    Schubert compositions D number 505-998

    This is a catalogue of works by Franz Schubert, ordered according to the "D numbers" of an updated version of the chronological catalogue of Schubert compositions by Otto Erich Deutsch....
  • List of compositions by Franz Schubert
    List of compositions by Franz Schubert

    Many of Franz Schubert's works are covered in separate Wikipedia articles, for which there are links on this page.A complete list of Schubert's works arranged by "D number" , is available in the following two articles:...
     — by musical genre
  • Wikipedia articles about Schubert's compositions


Nineteenth and early 20th-century scholarship



Modern scholarship


Symphony numbers

The following citations illustrate the confusion around the numbering of Schubert's late symphonies. The B minor Unfinished Symphony is variously published as Number 7 and Number 8, in both German and English. All of these editions appeared to be in print (or at least somewhat readily available) in 2008.
  • German-language publication of the Unfinished Symphony score as Number 7.
  • English-language publication of the Unfinished Symphony score as Number 7.
  • English-language publication of the Unfinished Symphony score as Number 8.


Further reading

Otto Erich Deutsch
Otto Erich Deutsch

Otto Erich Deutsch was an Austrians musicology. He is best known for compiling the first comprehensive catalogue of the works of Franz Schubert, first published in 1951 in English, new edition in 1978 in German....
, working in the first half of the 20th century, was probably the preeminent scholar of Schubert's life and music. In addition to the catalog of Schubert's works, he collected and organized a great deal of material about Schubert, some of which is still in print.**

Elizabeth Norman McKay and Brian Newbould have done a great deal of research on the life and music of Schubert in recent years, including scholarly journal articles and books. Newbould made a completion Schubert's fragmentary 10th symphony.***

External links

  • *
  • by pianist Bart Berman
    Bart Berman

    Bart Berman is a Netherlands-Israeli pianist and composer, best known as an Interpreting of Franz Schubert and 20th century classical music.Bart Berman studied piano with Jaap Spaanderman at a predecessor of the Conservatorium van Amsterdam and complemented his piano education with Theo Bruins and a master class by Alfred Brendel....
  • , detailed time-line, biography, work list and (flawed) family tree

Recordings and MIDI files


  • , from the Cylinder Preservation and Digitization Project
    Cylinder Preservation and Digitization Project

    The Cylinder Preservation and Digitization Project is a free digital collection maintained by the University of California, Santa Barbara Libraries with streaming and downloadable versions of over 6,000 phonograph cylinders manufactured between 1895 and the mid 1920s....
     at the University of California, Santa Barbara
    University of California, Santa Barbara

    The University of California, Santa Barbara, commonly known as UCSB or UC Santa Barbara, is a public university research university and one of the 10 general campuses of the University of California system....
     Library.
  • Kunst der Fuge:


Sheet music

  • Schubert's Piano Works
  • - about 250 of Schubert's Songs (Schubertline edition)** by Mutopia Project
    Mutopia project

    The Mutopia project is a volunteer-run effort to create a library of free content sheet music, in a way similar to Project Gutenberg's library of public domain books....