To be influenced
by Beethoven
 Throughout his life Schubert was a devout admirer of Beethoven. He
was within walking distance of this great composer but he could never
pluck courage to meet and acquaint himself with the person who had a
great influence in his work.
Vienna was the city that composers were linked to, the city that
great Schbert was born. Apart from him there were Beethoven, Brahms,
Bruckner, Gluck, Haydn, Mahler, Mozart and the Strauss trio (father and
two sons). While many of them ventured out to seek international fame,
Schubert who was born and bred in Vienna never ventured out in his very
short life of under thirty one years. Cherubic, handsome in a quaint way
bit a imposing figure, he was gentle mild seeking solitude all the time,
that influenced his gentle scores, a trait he sought from his hero,
Beethoven.
Without much help from outside, Schubert had to struggle to public
his works due to lack of finances. During his lifetime, he was not able
to publish any of his symphonies and published one out of his 19
quarters. Neither none of his operas saw the day while only one of the
seven masses took wings.
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Franz Shubert, the short-lived virtuoso Vienese composer |
He wrote a total of 600 songs of which 187 hit the music shops. He
was still a composer unknown to the world outside Vienna in 1837 in
London, a compilation of musical favourites was published that had the
works of Hummel, Kalkbrenner, Kulhau and Moscheles but Schubert was not
included. In 1839, his ‘Great’ C major Symphony was performed under
Mendelsohn. It had a lukewarm reception. But in 1850s his genius started
to surface and the first book about him appeared in 1865.
It was in the same year that his Unfinished Symphony was first
performed. When music, critic, George Grove heard him perform the C
major Symphony, he believed it to be Scubert’s only symphony. However,
when Grove published the famous Dictionary of Music and his splendid
article on Schubert, it gave the impetus the youthful composer sought
desperately.
This led to the appreciation of the composer’s genius being firmly
established. His complete works went into print in 1897 but as late as
in the 1950s, his Nineth Symphony was mistakenly printed as Seventh
Symphony. Schubert was not there to see the mistake.
Now, the world acknowledged him as the greatest song writer and there
lay his chief glory with his output in three song-cycles. He brought in
the quainteness of the Vienese spirit in scores like Die Schone Mullerin,
Winterreise and Schwanengesang. It was an accepted fact that Schubert
never came across the magic libretto that so often inspire a composer.
But his operatic music is full of delight and still awaits full
discovery. At times we can discover a sense of uncertainty because the
rest of his works were between perfection and imperfection.
The lack of formal discipline and overall vision so desperately he
tried to adopt from Beethoven was an uphill task for him. But suddenly
we are confronted with music of a genius that had never been surpassed.
In his chamber music where he was clearly more and more at home
especially in the String Quintet and of course the spontaneity of the
Trout Quintet.
He had no concertos to his credit and the piano music he scored and
sonatas, now accepted by many leading pianists, seemed rambling at the
beginning. Yet the magical riches found in the masses of waltzes and
dances he scored for are spectacular and staggering and Schubert’s life
was so short, he never lived to feel its warmth.
Short Life-Span
At an age when most of the great composers scored high and might,
when their works were getting recognition around the world, Shubert was
ready to die and leave behind some spectacular scores that had his own
individuality, inspired by Beethoven. Hardly had he turned thirty one,
his untimely death made the classical musical world poorer and hungrier.
Strikingly different from the great Masters that Vienna produced, Franz
Shubert was born on 31 January, 1797 and died on 19 November, 1828. His
father Franz Shubert snr was school teacher from Moravia and survived
just above poverty line with a large family of which few survived into
adulthood. By the time young Schubert was old enough to attend his
father’s school which had moved into a better premises, he became a full
time pupil.
He displayed early signs of prodigious promise for music and helped
the local choirmaster. He was trained to be a chorister for the The
Chapel of the Imperial Court and impressed the examiners so much among
whom, was Salieri, who offered him a place in the solemn rigueur choir.
The following five years of routine was like a prison but it offered him
the opportunity to study and play Haydn and Mozart in the school
orchestra. It was during this time that Schubert acquainted himself with
Beethoven.
In the meantime his father was insisting his young son to be a
teacher in his school. Reluctantly Schubert remained for three years,
loathing it. Weary of teaching, he decided to abandon it and in 1816,
applied for a post of music-teaching. At last, he managed to get paid
for the first time for a cantata he scored. He made little but
progressive achievements in the following years. By 1817, he had written
such wondrous potential scores like Die Forelli and An Die Musik.
His Fourth Symphony considered very daring was given a performance
and an Overture in the Italian Style influenced by Rossini’s visit to
Vienna was his first professional debut. Following its success, he wrote
his one-act opera, Die Zwillingsbruder that he later used for Rosamunde.
He kept writing more scores and his very inspired score out of Vienna,
which was first journey out of this city, titled Piano Quintet based on
the Trout. His concentration was failing and he found it hard to invent
new scores though many remained unpublished.
Yet, by 1821, he was hovering on the brink of becoming a mega
composer though his work was still considered too modern. At last a
break-through came when his first song Gretchen and Spinnrade was
published by Diabelli in response to a public demand.
After a customary bout of drinking, he was lead astray by some
inebriated friends and visited a brothel, he contacted syphilis and died
in 1828 because his health was seriously undermined. But prior to his
death in the four years, he virtually achieved success on his operas.
He produced wonderful songs despite being very sick that were
eventually published. On Wednesday 19 November, he was laid to rest and
was buried next to Beethoven at whose funeral he had been a pall-bearer.
On his gravestone, poet Franz Grillparzer’s epitaph reads ‘The Art of
Music here entombed a rich possession but even fairei hopes’.
[Some of Shubert’s creations]
*Symphony No. 1 in D major, D 82
*Symphony No. 2 in B-flat major, D 125
*Symphony No. 3 in D major, D 200
*Symphony No. 4 in C minor, D 417 Tragic
*Symphony No. 5 in B-flat major, D 485
*Symphony No. 6 in C major, D 589 Little C major |
