Franz Schubert: The Great Lieder

Unlike Vienna-based musicians as Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven, Schubert was Viennese by birth, and he lived his entire but tragically short life in his hometown.  Schubert’s gift for music was discovered in 1804, when his vocal gift was acknowledged through a choir scholarship at the Stadtkonvikt Imperial seminary, where his music teachers included Antonio Salieri.  By the time he left in 1813, he had already written a remarkable number of pieces.

At the end of 1813, Schubert returned home for studies in Normalhauptschule to train as a schoolteacher, just like his father.  However, unlike his father who was modestly successful in his chosen profession, Schubert felt that his work was a complete drudgery.  During his three years working as a teacher, he wrote four masses, five symphonies, string quartets and literally hundreds of Lieder (German for “songs”) including some of his famous, such as “Gretchen am Spinnrade” and Erlkönig”).  Schubert was always of the opinion that his job was getting in the way of his composing, so he decided in 1816 to take up composing full time.

After leaving his job, Schubert shared an apartment with a law student and began to mix in literary and artistic circles.  His new friends were tremendously appreciative of his music and frequently got together for private performances of his songs, with the composer at the piano.  Schubert became the toast of the middle classes in Vienna, but he wasn’t getting any of his music published or publicly performed, and consequently found life financially difficult.  Though he had the occasional commission, such as for the “Trout” quintet and a brief teaching job at Esterháza, he did not have the luxury of a salary from a rich patron. 

Undeterred, Schubert continued composing, not only Lieder but also opera (none of which became successful).  By the mid-1820s he had already developed his own personal lyrical style, producing symphony no. 8 (the “Unfinished”), the song cycle Die Schöne Müllerin, and the string quartets in A minor and D minor (“Death and the Maiden”).  In his final years, when typhoid and syphilis were setting in, he exceeded even these achievements with a magnificent final symphony (the “Great” C major), the string quartet in G, piano sonata in B flat, and the Winterreise song cycle. 

All in all, despite having died at a young age of only 31, Schubert was extremely prolific, having composed over 1,000 works, including 600 Lieder, 9 symphonies (7 of which was completed), and a large body of chamber and solo piano music including 21 complete piano sonatas. Appreciation of his works was very limited during his lifetime, but interest in his music dramatically increased in the decades that followed through the promotional efforts of Franz Liszt, Robert Schumann, Johannes Brahms and Felix Mendelssohn, among others. Today, Schubert remains one of the most loved and frequently performed composers.

More classical music treats:

• Johann Sebastian Bach: The Well-tempered Musician
• Ludwig Van Beethoven: The Extraordinary Genius
• Hector Berlioz: Truly Fantastique
• Johannes Brahms: The Classical Romantic
• Frederic Chopin: The Poet of the Piano
• George Frideric Handel: The Harmonious Tunesmith
• Franz Joseph Haydn: Father of The Symphony
• Felix Mendelssohn: The Midsummer Night’s Dreamer
• Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: The Wunderkind
• Franz Schubert: The Great Lieder
• Antonio Vivaldi: The Red Priest