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There have been a great deal of classical composers that were centred in Vienna, Austria, whom we associate with the city itself. Among them are Haydn, Beethoven, Schubert, and Mozart, although Franz Schubert was only one of the above-mentioned who was actually born in the city.
Unfortunately, he was also the only one of these composers who had never received the well-deserved recognition and fame during his lifetime. On the other hand, his works and everything he created cannot be appreciated enough today.
Having been born in a suburb in Vienna, known as Lichtental, he was the fourth son of a schoolmaster. He actually learned to play piano and violin from his family, although he had already surpassed them at a very early age. At age eleven, he won a choral scholarship to the Konvikt, Vienna’s Imperial College, a type of elite boarding school. Schubert was taught by Antonio Salieri, a famous composer at the time, who recognised the talents of the young man. By the age of 15, Franz Schubert had already written a great deal of string quartets as well as an opera. It was shortly after this that he left school to start training to be a teacher, after which he taught in his father’s school. During this period in time, he wrote a large amount of works, including five symphonies, 6 operas, and what he was most noted for, his songs - Lieder. (* German- ‘Das Lied’ plural ‘die Lieder’ is a term used to describe a German art song of the 19th century for voice and piano.)
In 1914, he was very taken back by a literary work that had inspired a large number of musicians at the time, namely Faust by Goethe. This work gave him the inspiration he needed to write Gretchen am Spinnrade (Gretchen at the Spinning Wheel) and Erlkönig, two great masterpieces. Having been so enthralled by the works of Goethe, it led him to read a great deal of other distinguished poets of the time. Putting so many of the poets feeling and ideas into his ‘Lieder’ or songs did what no other musician could have imagined. It was once said that Schubert, “unleashed a Shakespearean canvas of characters.”
- He had the ability to incorporate the power of these literary works into his songs. The works he created were a product of the great deal of literature, painting, and music of the time, along with all the ideals that stood behind them. He wrote pieces as if he had not only been a musician, but a storyteller at the same time. The great composer Brahms once wrote, “There’s not one of Schubert’s songs from which you cannot learn something.”
In 1816, Schubert stopped teaching and went to Vienna to live with his friend, Franz von Schober, who admired his music quite a bit. In Vienna, Schubert made the acquaintance of a famous baritone player, Johann Michael Vogl, a famous baritone singer at the time. Meeting him was quite significant on account of the fact that Vogl performed a lot of Schubert’s pieces for the public.
To his great despair, Schubert contracted syphilis in 1823. He was working on his Eighth Symphony, which he had begun a year before his illness. It is still debated, but many believe that his illness had contributed to the fact that he never finished it.
His illness did not stop him from writing altogether though. It was during this time that he wrote a great deal of works including Winterreise (Winter Journey), the Impromptus and Moments Musicaux. In the last years of his life, he wrote the Piano Sonatas in C minor, A major, and B flat, as well as his String Quintet in C. The latter was the last piece he composed before his illness entered its last stage and he died in 1828 at the age of 31. Franz Schubert had unfortunately been destined to have a short life, but gave so much to the world to be enjoyed for an eternity.
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