EARLY LIFE
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| Portrait of Franz Schubert by Franz Eybl (1827) |
His father, Franz, the son of a Moravian peasant farmer, was a parish schoolmaster.
Franz's father was a man of worth and integrity. He possessed some reputation as a teacher, and his school, on the Himmelpfortgrund, was well attended.
Franz snr was also a fair amateur musician, and transmitted his own measure of skill to his two elder sons, Ignaz and Ferdinand
Franz's mother, Elizabeth Vietz, came from Silesia. Before her marriage she had been a cook in a Viennese family.
Of Franz's fourteen brothers and sisters, ten died in infancy; his surviving siblings were Ignaz (b. 1785), Ferdinand (b. 1794), Karl (b. 1796), and Theresia (b. 1801).
Young Franz showed an extraordinary childhood aptitude for music and learnt to play the piano, violin and viola, the latter he played in the family string quartet.
At the age of 7, Franz became a boy soprano in the village choir.
EDUCATION
At the age of five Schubert began to receive regular instruction from his father, who taught him the rudiments of the violin and his brother Ignaz who showed him the basics of the pianoforte.
At six Franz entered the Himmelpfortgrund school where he spent some of the happiest years of his life.
At seven, having outstripped the simple teaching of his father and brother, Franz was placed under the charge of Michael Holzer, the Kapellmeister of the Lichtenthal 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 neighboring pianoforte warehouse and give him the opportunity of practicing on a better instrument than the poor home could afford.
In October 1808, when Franz was 11, he was accepted as a chorister in the Vienna court chapel music Stadtkonvikt school where he studied under the notable Antonio Salieri's direction. Here Franz remained until nearly seventeen, profiting little by the direct instruction but much by the practices of the school orchestra and by association with congenial comrades.
Many of Franz's most devoted lifetime friends were among his schoolfellows: Spaun and Stadler and Holzapfel, and many others helped him out of their slender pocket-money, bought him music-paper which he could not buy for himself, and gave him loyal support and encouragement.
It was at the Stadtkonvikt, that Franz first made acquaintance with the overtures and symphonies of Mozart and between them and lighter pieces, and occasional visits to the opera, he began to lay for himself some foundation of musical knowledge.
After Franz left the Stadtkonvikt at the end of 1813, he got private lessons in composition from Salieri, who did more for Schubert´s training than any of his other teachers.
CAREER
When Schubert left the Stadtkonvikt, in order to avoid military service, he entered his father's school as teacher of the lowest class.
His father had remarried in the meantime, to Anna Kleyenboeck, the daughter of a silk dealer from the suburb Gumpendorf. For over two years the young man endured the drudgery of the work, which, we are told, he performed with very indifferent success.
In 1814, Schubert met a young soprano named Therese Grob, daughter of a local silk manufacturer, and wrote several of his liturgical works (including a "Salve Regina" and a "Tantum Ergo") for her
One of Schubert's most prolific years was 1815. He composed over 20,000 bars of music, more than half of which was for orchestra, including nine church works, a symphony, 20 waltzes and about 140 Lieder.
Schubert was also introduced to Franz von Schober in 1815. Schober, a student of good family and some means, had heard some of Schubert's songs at Spaun's house, came to pay a visit to the composer. The following year Schober proposed to carry him off from school-life and give him freedom to practice his art in peace. The proposal was particularly opportune, for Schubert had just made an unsuccessful application for the post of Kapellmeister at Laibach (now Ljubljana), and was feeling more acutely than ever the slavery of the classroom.
In late 1817, Schubert's father gained a new position at a school in Rossau, not far from Lichtental. Schubert rejoined his father and reluctantly took up teaching duties there.
By 1818, Schubert had began to gain more notice in newspapers for his musical compositions, and the first public performance of a secular work, an overture performed in February 1818, received praise from the press in Vienna and abroad.
Schubert spent the summer of 1818 as a music teacher to the family of Count Johann Karl Esterházy at their château in Zseliz (now Želiezovce, Slovakia). The pay was relatively good, and his duties teaching piano and singing to the two daughters were relatively light, allowing him to compose happily.
The following year, Schubert abandoned teaching and instead relied on his circle of artistic friends to encourage and sustain him.
Schubert wasn't a public performer (he wasn't a good enough pianist). Despite being a prolific composer of songs, symphonies and other works, he gave only one public concert presenting his own works.
Always poor he wrote several operas to make money but they were never performed.
WORKS
Schubert is said to have been the fastest ever composer. He composed 1000 works (134 hours of music) in 18 years (May 1810 to Oct 1828.)
Franz Schubert often slept with his spectacles on in case he got an idea for a song in the night and wanted to write it down.
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| Schubert's glasses |
He set over 600 poems to music; he wrote 8 songs in one day and 146 in a single year. Schubert's lieder or songs established the lied as a major art form.
Schubert excelled in writing small short piano pieces which he called "Musical moments".
He wrote his famous song "Gretchen am Spinnrade" (Gretchen at the Spinning Wheel) aged 17.
Schubert's Marche Militaire for piano duet in D Major was part of a series of Marches Militaires generated by the Napoleonic period that had bought much suffering to the composer's beloved Vienna in the early parts of the century. It was written during Schubert's stay at Count Johann Karl Esterházy's summer home in Zseliz in 1818. He had accepted a job there as music teacher to the Count's daughters, and these and similar works were written for instructional purposes.
In 1823 Schubert wrote his first large-scale song cycle, Die schöne Müllerin (The Beautiful Maid of the Mill), based on poems by Wilhelm Müller, when the ailing composer was in hospital battling syphilis and his father's house. It is the earliest extended song cycle to be widely performed.
In 1827, Schubert wrote Winterreise (Winter Journey) a song cycle for voice and piano about a distracted, distressed lover's journey along a winter road. A setting of 24 poems by Wilhelm Müller, the series along with Die schöne Müllerin are widely considered one of the pinnacles of Lieder.
"Ave Maria" was inspired by an episode in Walter Scott's novel The Lady in the Lake. Schubert set to music a prayer from this book during a holiday in Upper Austria in 1825, using a German translation by Adam Storck. It was one of seven songs from this book he set to music.
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| 1879 painting of Ellen's Isle, Loch Katrine |
Schubert's Symphony No. 9 was unusually long for a symphony of its time; a typical performance of work takes around 55 minutes. Schubert completed the symphony in 1827, but it wasn't performed until ten years after Schubert's death, when it was performed publicly for the first time by Felix Mendelssohn at the Leipzig Gewandhaus on March 21, 1839. It is today often considered Schubert’s finest piece for orchestra.
The String Quintet in C Major is a piece of chamber music composed by Schubert during the summer of 1828. It was Schubert's final instrumental work and was written by him it two months before his tragic early death at the age of 31. The very last chord of the work eerily anticipates his passing, ending with a C major chord against a dissonant D-flat.
The work stands out for its somewhat unconventional instrumentation, as Schubert added a second cello to create dense and varied textures and only employed one rather than the customary two violas.
The Quintet was first performed on November 17, 1850 at the Musikverein in Vienna many years after his death. At the time Schubert was regarded as a composer who mainly focused on songs and piano pieces, and was not taken seriously as a chamber music composer.
The second movement, The Adagio, is the best known part of the Quintet. It is the second most requested piece of music from the BBC radio series Desert Island Discs over its first 60 years of broadcast.
The Trout Quintet (Forellenquintett) is the popular name for Schubert's Piano Quintet in A major, D. 667. The work was composed in 1819, when he was 22 years old, but was not appreciated in his time; it was not published, until 1829, a year after his death.
The piece is known as the Trout because the fourth movement is a set of variations on Schubert's earlier Lied "Die Forelle" (The Trout).
A portion of the fourth movement of The Trout Quintet is used today in some Samsung washing machines, to signal the end of a cycle.
Despite being a fine songsmith, Schubert's attempts to write music for operas and plays were unsuccessful as the plays themselves flopped. His music for Rosamunde, Princess of Cypress was lost for 50 years as the play itself, by Helmina Vonchezy only lasted for two performances due to the poor plot. The score was only rediscovered in 1867 by Arthur Sullivan, one half of Gilbert and Sullivan.
Though today people wax lyrically about his music, Schubert never made a public name for himself in his lifetime. When he died he was famous as a songwriter in Austria and Germany and partly famous in the rest of Europe. He wasn't so well known for his instrumentals, his first six symphonies were not widely played until this century.
Mencken said "Schubert hatched more good ideas in 31 years than the rest of mankind has hatched since the beginning of time."
APPEARANCE AND CHARACTER
Schubert was only five foot one tall and was known to his friends as ‘Schwammerl’ (Little Mushroom).
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| Oil painting of Schubert by Wilhelm August Rieder (1875), from his own 1825 watercolor |
Popular and gregarious, Schubert was a divided soul at times frank, open and jolly, other times melancholic with sudden outbursts of boisterous high spirits.
He was known by half a dozen affectionate nicknames, of which the most characteristic was Kann er 'was? ("Is he able?"), his usual question when a new acquaintance was proposed.
RELATIONSHIPS
A sexual hedonist Schubert was consistently in love but he never had a long term girlfriend.
Schubert hoped to marry his great love the soprano Therese Grob but he felt he could not provide for her.
Schubert had an insatiable need for friends and cultural debate. He enjoyed relaxing in the evenings making music in convivial company in a cafe or tavern. The composer was always the leader of the party.
Schubert was one of the coffin bearers at Beethoven's funeral.
HOBBIES AND INTERESTS
Schubert's excursions into the Austrian countryside were some of the happiest times of his life.
He wrote "Die Forellen" (The Trout Song) about fishing.
His evenings were often spent playing games such as charades.
HOMES
Schubert lived in Vienna for most of his life. He occupied a total of 17 residences in Vienna including the first five years of his life at Nussdorfer Strasse, now the Schubert House Museum.
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| House in which Schubert was born. Photo: Andreas Praefcke |
When Schubert was four, his family moved to Saulenstrasse 3 Vienna. When he was accepted as a chorister in the Vienna Court Chapel, he boarded nearby. After leaving his parent's school house he had lodgings with Schober at Spiegelgasse 9 and his pianist friend Schwind at Tuchlauben 14 in suburb of Wieden. In his final syphilis illness he stayed with his brother Ferdinand at Kettenbruckengasse 6.
DEATH
Schubert was often depressed and he battled syphilis as a result of his promiscuity from 1822.
He died aged 31 on November 19, 1828 surrounded by family and friends in his brother Ferdinand's house. The most likely source of death was typhoid fever complicated by syphilis. Other causes have been proposed; some of his final symptoms match those of mercury poisoning (mercury was a common treatment for syphilis in the early 19th century);
His last words were "This is my end".
Schubert's wish to be buried next to his idol Beethoven was granted. His remains were laid next to the great composer, whom he had adored all his life, at the village Währinger cemetery.
The epitaph on his large tombstone was written by Schubert's friend, the poet Franz Grillparzer. "The art of music has been interred a rich possession but still fairer hopes." He was depicted arriving bewildered in Heaven with his spectacles on amidst angels.
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| The site of Schubert's first tomb at Währing. By HeinzLW |
In 1888 both Schubert and Beethoven's bones were disinterred and taken in pomp across to Vienna to rest in two of the graves in the central cemetery. Schubert and Beethoven's graves can now be found next to those of Johann Strauss I and Johannes Brahms.
Sources My entries for Songfacts, Franz Schubert: A Biography By Henry Frost
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