europeana

Franz Schubert

“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.”

Franz Schu­bert

Born on 31 Jan­u­ary 1797 in Vienna, Franz Schu­bert is con­sid­ered one of the great­est com­posers and is one of the most fre­quently played com­posers today. His melodic and har­monic music was praised by Lud­wig van Beethoven, and inspired com­posers like Franz Liszt, Robert Schu­mann and Felix Mendelssohn who col­lected and cham­pi­oned his works.

Ave Maria

Schu­bert was first intro­duced to music by his father, who was a parish school mas­ter. He also gave young Franz vio­lin lessons, while Schubert’s brother Ignaz gave him piano lessons. The fam­ily also played together as a string quar­tet, with broth­ers Fer­di­nand and Ignaz play­ing the vio­lin, Schu­bert – the viola, and their father — the cello. Many of Schubert’s early com­po­si­tions were writ­ten for these fam­ily occasions.

Impromptu in G major Op. 90 No. 3

In 1808, Schu­bert received a choir schol­ar­ship to study at the Con­vict school that trained young vocal­ists to sing at the chapel of the Impe­r­ial Court. There his genius was rec­og­nized by the institution’s direc­tor and Vienna’s lead­ing musi­cal author­ity, Anto­nio Salieri, who played a great role in Schubert’s life.

String Quar­tet No.13 in A-, D. 804, Op.29 “Rosamunde”

In 1813, after Schubert’s voice broke, he returned home and, influ­enced by his father, com­pleted stud­ies at the Nor­mal­hauptschule to become a school teacher. The mis­ery of hav­ing to per­form teacher’s duties at his father’s school Schu­bert com­pen­sated by music. At nights, freed from the tedious work, Schu­bert pro­lif­i­cally com­posed, pro­duc­ing many of his works – about 140 Lieder, one sym­phony, litur­gi­cal and oper­atic music.

The song cycle “Die schöne Müllerin”

After a cou­ple of years, Schu­bert finally decided to leave his teach­ing posi­tion and ded­i­cate him­self fully to music. How­ever, Schu­bert was unable to secure a per­ma­nent employ­ment, and his music did not receive much acclaim. It was only after Schubert’s death that his works received wide recognition.

Sym­phony No. 8 in B minor “Unfinished”

Dur­ing his brief, but very pro­lific life (Schu­bert died at 31), he wrote some 600 Lieder, nine sym­phonies, includ­ing the famous Unfin­ished Sym­phony, operas, litur­gi­cal music as well as cham­ber and solo piano music.