Chapter 52

Franz Schubert

Characteristics of Romantic Music

• intense expressivity • closeness of music to literature

• presence of the personal voice of the composer

• individualism of expression

• expansion and reinterpretation of traditional forms

• tendency toward extremes: brevity or length

Franz Schubert’s Life (1797-1828)

• 1797 born in Vienna to family of a school teacher

• 1803 enters the choir of the court chapel in Vienna, studies later with Antonio Salieri

• 1815 composes “Erlkönig” • 1820 modest operatic success with Die

Zwillingsbrüder

• 1821 first Schubertiad

• 1822 declining health

• 1823 composes the song cycle Die schöne Müllerin

• 1828 organizes an academy (public concert) featuring his music

• 1828 dies in Vienna on 19 November

Schubert’s Principal Compositions

• songs: over 600 for voice and piano including the cycles – Die schöne Müllerin– Winterreise

• piano: sonatas (many incomplete), dances, character pieces, fantasies

• chorus: masses, motets

• orchestra: symphonies (9)

• chamber music: string quartets, String Quintet in C

* Writes in every genre except the concerto

A SchubertiadIn January 1821 Schubert’s friend Franz von Schober convened a gathering of the composer’s friends to hear his music and to socialize. This was the first Schubertiad, events that continued periodically within Schubert’s social circle and provided the composer with an opportunity to hear his music performed. A regular at the Schubertiads was the Viennese painter Moritz von Schwind, who forty years after Schubert’s death recalled the Schubertiad depicted here. Schubert is at the piano accompanying Johann Michael Vogl in the performance of a song.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Schubert’s favorite poet for song writing was the great German writer Goethe (1749–1832). Goethe’s gifts went far beyond literature.

He was a skillful painter and a noted scientist who wrote treatises on biology and optics.

He made a name for himself in the 1770s as a playwright (his play Egmont was provided with incidental music in 1810 by Beethoven), and he later wrote poetry and novels that helped to usher in the Romantic period in literature.

Goethe’s writings are filled with song texts that have been taken up by many of greatest composers—from Schubert to Anton Webern.

Franz Schubert, song “Erlkönig,” 1815

Through-composed form

Franz Schubert, song “Ganymed,” 1817

Through-composed (“scena”) form

Franz Schubert, song “Nähe des Geliebten,” 1815

Strophic form