Franz Schubert
Austrian early Romantic master of art song with over 600 lieder
1797
1828
Austrian
Romantic
Winterreise, Trout Quintet, Symphony No. 8 (Unfinished)
Early life
Franz Schubert was born on 31 January 1797 in the Himmelpfortgrund district of Vienna. His father, a schoolmaster, gave him his first violin lessons, while his elder brother taught him the piano. He soon outstripped both and was sent to Antonio Salieri for instruction in harmony and counterpoint. From 1808 to 1813 he attended the Imperial Seminary as a choirboy, singing in the court chapel and playing violin in the seminary orchestra, where he gained intimate knowledge of the symphonic and chamber repertoire of Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven.
Career and major works
Schubert's creative output was staggering in both quantity and quality, particularly given that he died at thirty-one. He composed over six hundred Lieder (art songs), transforming the genre from a domestic entertainment into a sophisticated art form in which voice and piano are equal partners in dramatic expression. The song cycles Die schöne Müllerin (1823) and Winterreise (1827) are pinnacles of the genre. His setting of Goethe's 'Erlkönig' (1815), composed at eighteen, is a tour de force of dramatic narrative. Beyond song, Schubert produced nine symphonies — including the 'Unfinished' No. 8 in B minor and the 'Great' No. 9 in C major — as well as the 'Trout' Piano Quintet (1819), the String Quintet in C major (1828), the late piano sonatas, and the song cycle Schwanengesang (1828), published posthumously.
Musical style and legacy
Schubert's music is characterised by an apparently inexhaustible gift for melody, rich and often adventurous harmony — he modulates between keys with a freedom that astonished even Brahms — and a lyrical warmth that can shade without warning into desolation. He lived in relative obscurity, never securing a major professional appointment, and his larger orchestral and chamber works were scarcely known during his lifetime. He died in Vienna on 19 November 1828, and the true scale of his achievement only became apparent decades later.