Franz Schubert

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"Schubert" redirects here. For another composer with a similar name, see
François Schubert. For other uses, see Schubert (disambiguation).

Oil painting of Franz Schubert by Wilhelm August Rieder (1875), made from his own
1825 watercolour portrait

Franz Peter Schubert (German: [ˈfʁants͡ ˈpeːtɐ ˈʃuːbɐt]; 31 January 1797 – 19

November 1828) was an Austrian composer of the late Classical and early
Romantic eras. Despite his short lifetime, Schubert left behind a vast oeuvre,
including more than 600 secular vocal works (mainly Lieder), seven complete
symphonies, sacred music, operas, incidental music and a large body of
piano and chamber music. His major works include the Piano Quintet in A
major, D. 667 (Trout Quintet), the Symphony No. 8 in B minor, D. 759
(Unfinished Symphony), the three last piano sonatas (D. 958–960), the opera
Fierrabras (D. 796), the incidental music to the play Rosamunde (D. 797),
and the song cycles Die schöne Müllerin (D. 795) and Winterreise (D. 911).
Born to immigrant parents in the Himmelpfortgrund suburb of Vienna,
Schubert's uncommon gifts for music were evident from an early age. His
father gave him his first violin lessons and his older brother gave him piano
lessons, but Schubert soon exceeded their abilities. In 1808, at the age of
eleven, he became a pupil at the Stadtkonvikt school, where he became
acquainted with the orchestral music of Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven. He
left the Stadtkonvikt at the end of 1813, and returned home to live with his
father, where he began studying to become a schoolteacher; despite this, he
continued his studies in composition with Antonio Salieri and still composed
prolifically. In 1821, Schubert was granted admission to the Gesellschaft der
Musikfreunde as a performing member, which helped establish his name
among the Viennese citizenry. He gave a concert of his own works to critical
acclaim in March 1828, the only time he did so in his career. He died eight
months later at the age of 31, the cause officially declared to be typhoid fever,
but credited by some to be syphilis.
Appreciation of Schubert's music while he was alive was limited to a relatively
small circle of admirers in Vienna, but interest in his work increased
significantly in the decades following his death. Felix Mendelssohn, Robert
Schumann, Franz Liszt, Johannes Brahms and other 19th-century composers
discovered and championed his works. Today, Schubert is ranked among the
greatest composers of the 19th century, and his music continues to be
popular.

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Sheet musicBiography[edit]
Early life and education[edit]
Franz Peter Schubert was born in Himmelpfortgrund (now a part of
Alsergrund), Vienna, Archduchy of Austria on 31 January 1797, and baptised
in the Catholic Church the following day.[1] He was the twelfth child of Franz
Theodor Florian Schubert (1763–1830) and Maria Elisabeth Katharina Vietz
(1756–1812).[2] Schubert's immediate ancestors came originally from the
province of Zukmantel in Austrian Silesia.[3] His father, the son of a Moravian
peasant, was a well-known parish schoolmaster, and his school in Lichtental
(in Vienna's ninth district) had numerous students in attendance.[4] He came to
Vienna from Zukmantel in 1784 and was appointed schoolmaster two years
later.[5] His mother was the daughter of a Silesian master locksmith and had
been a housemaid for a Viennese family before marriage. Of Franz Theodor
and Elisabeth's fourteen children (one of them illegitimate, born in 1783),[6]
nine died in infancy.

The house in which Schubert was born, today Nussdorferstrasse 54

At the age of five, Schubert began to receive regular instruction from his
father, and a year later was enrolled at his father's school. Although it is not
exactly known when Schubert received his first musical instruction, he was
given piano lessons by his brother Ignaz, but they lasted for a very short time
as Schubert excelled him within a few months.[7] Ignaz later recalled:[8]
I was amazed when Franz told me, a few months after we began, that he had
no need of any further instruction from me, and that for the future he would
make his own way. And in truth his progress in a short period was so great
that I was forced to acknowledge in him a master who had completely
distanced and out stripped me, and whom I despaired of overtaking.
His father gave him his first violin lessons when he was eight years old,
training him to the point where he could play easy duets proficiently.[9] Soon
after, Schubert was given his first lessons outside the family by Michael
Holzer, organist and choirmaster of the local parish church in Lichtental.
Holzer would often assure Schubert’s father, with tears in his eyes, that he
had never had such a pupil as Schubert,[10] and the lessons may have largely
consisted of conversations and expressions of admiration.[11] According to
Holzer, he did not give him any real instruction as Schubert would already
know anything that he tried to teach him; rather, he looked upon Schubert
with "astonishment and silence".[9] The boy seemed to gain more from an
acquaintance with a friendly apprentice joiner who took him to a neighbouring
pianoforte warehouse where Schubert could practise on better instruments.[12]
He also played viola in the family string quartet, with his brothers Ferdinand
and Ignaz on first and second violin and his father on the cello. Schubert
wrote his earliest string quartets for this ensemble.[13]
Young Schubert first came to the attention of Antonio Salieri, then Vienna's
leading musical authority, in 1804, when his vocal talent was recognised.[13] In
November 1808, he became a pupil at the Stadtkonvikt (Imperial Seminary)
through a choir scholarship. At the Stadtkonvikt, he was introduced to the
overtures and symphonies of Mozart, the symphonies of Joseph Haydn and
his younger brother Michael Haydn, and the overtures and symphonies of
Beethoven, a composer he developed a significant admiration for.[14][15] His
exposure to these and other works, combined with occasional visits to the
opera, laid the foundation for a broader musical education.[16] One important
musical influence came from the songs by Johann Rudolf Zumsteeg, an
important composer of Lieder. The precocious young student "wanted to
modernize" Zumsteeg's songs, as reported by Joseph von Spaun, Schubert's
friend.[17] Schubert's friendship with Spaun began at the Stadtkonvikt and
lasted throughout his short life. In those early days, the financially well-off
Spaun furnished the impoverished Schubert with much of his manuscript
paper.[16]
In the meantime, Schubert's genius began to show in his compositions. The
boy was occasionally permitted to lead the Stadtkonvikt's orchestra, and
Salieri decided to start training him privately in music theory and even in
composition.[18] It was the first orchestra he wrote for, and he devoted much of
the rest of his time at the Stadtkonvikt to composing chamber music, several
songs, piano pieces and, more ambitiously, liturgical choral works in the form
of a "Salve Regina" (D 27), a "Kyrie" (D 31), in addition to the unfinished
"Octet for Winds" (D 72, said to commemorate the 1812 death of his mother),
[19] the cantata Wer ist groß? for male voices and orchestra (D 110, for his

father's birthday in 1813), and his first symphony (D 82).[20]

Teacher at his father's school[edit]
At the end of 1813, Schubert left the Stadtkonvikt and returned home for
teacher training at the St Anna Normal-hauptschule. In 1814, he entered his
father's school as teacher of the youngest pupils. For over two years young
Schubert endured severe drudgery;[21] there were, however, compensatory
interests even then. He continued to take private lessons in composition from
Salieri, who gave Schubert more actual technical training than any of his
other teachers, before they parted ways in 1817.[18]
In 1814, Schubert met a young soprano named Therese Grob, daughter of a
local silk manufacturer, and wrote several of his liturgical works (including a
"Salve Regina" and a "Tantum Ergo") for her; she was also a soloist in the
premiere of his Mass No. 1 (D. 105) in September[22] 1814.[21] Schubert wanted
to marry her, but was hindered by the harsh marriage-consent law of 1815[23]
requiring an aspiring bridegroom to show he had the means to support a
family.[24] In November 1816, after failing to gain a musical post in Laibach
(now Ljubljana, Slovenia), Schubert sent Grob's brother Heinrich a collection
of songs retained by the family into the twentieth century.[25]
One of Schubert's most prolific years was 1815. He composed over 20,000
bars of music, more than half of which was for orchestra, including nine
church works (despite being agnostic),[26][27] a symphony, and about 140
Lieder.[28] In that year, he was also introduced to Anselm Hüttenbrenner and
Franz von Schober, who would become his lifelong friends. Another friend,
Johann Mayrhofer, was introduced to him by Spaun in 1815.[29]
Throughout 1815, Schubert lived with his father at home; his mother died in
1812. He continued to teach at the school and give private musical
instruction, earning enough money for his basic needs, including clothing,
manuscript paper, pens, and ink, but with little to no money left over for
luxuries.[30] Spaun was well aware that Schubert was discontented with his life
at the schoolhouse, and was concerned for Schubert's development
intellectually and musically. In May 1816, Spaun moved from his apartment in
Landskrongasse (in the inner city) to a new home in the Landstraße suburb;
one of the first things he did after he settled into the new home was to invite
Schubert to spend a few days with him. This was probably Schubert's first
visit away from home or school.[31] Schubert's unhappiness during his years
as a schoolteacher possibly showed early signs of depression, and it is a
virtual certainty that Schubert suffered from cyclothymia throughout his life.[32]
The musicologist Maynard Solomon has suggested that Schubert was
erotically attracted to men,[33] a thesis that has, at times, been heatedly
debated.[34][35] The musicologist and Schubert expert Rita Steblin has said that
he was "chasing women".[36] The theory of Schubert's homosexuality has
begun to influence the interpretation of his work in scholarly papers.[37]