Franz Schubert (1797-1828) Bio and Chronology

The division between the Classical and Romantic eras of music history is often made on any timeline between Beethoven, Classical, and Schubert, Romantic. Curiously the two composers happened to live in Vienna at the same time (though they never met), and died only one year apart. The reason for the arbitrary line is probably because of the original, Romantic and expressive qualities of Schubert's songs.

Franz Schubert was born in Vienna in 1797. His father was an elementary school teacher. Schubert received piano lessons from his brother and violin lessons from his father. His brother wrote that "within a very short time he progressed so far I had to recognize in him a master who far out-stripped me." At the age of ten, Schubert disbanded piano lessons and went on to study music theory and organ from the choirmaster Michael Holzer. Holzer in turn referred Schubert to Salieri for advanced instruction.

By the time he was 16 years old, Schubert had studied the violin, piano, organ, music theory, and had sung in the court choir. His first Mass was composed at the age of 14, his first symphony at 16, and the famous song " Erlkonig" at 18. In 1814, Schubert was a teacher at his father's school and singing as a tenor in the Lichtental church choir. During this time he set love poems by the German poet Goethe to music, creating his earliest masterpiece "Gretchen at the Spinning Wheel." Somehow Schubert was able to recreate the rotation of the spinning wheel in the piano accompaniment, while the melodies relate Gretchen's ever-changing emotional state. Schubert set many poems of Goethe to music but even after he sent the manuscript of Erlkonig to the great poet, Goethe did not acknowledge it.

Again and again, Schubert demonstrated the power of expressiveness of the piano to reflect lyrical poetry in his songs. Schubert composed two song cycles to poems by Wilhelm Muller: Die schone Mullerin (1823) and Winterreise (1827). The song cyles are musical dramas that capture a sequence of events and the emotional states of a solitary man. It is interesting that most critics do not suggest that the lone man could in any way reflect the shy and retiring Schubert. Die shone Mullerin describes a young man's arrival to a mill, his love for and loss of the miller's daughter, and the lullaby of a millstream. Winterreise seems to pick up the story as the jilted miller becomes a romantic wanderer, as music of the streams give way to his weary footsteps on a barren and frozen landscape. It can be bleak but this work is unbelievably beautiful.

There really was no precedent for Schubert's songs, remarkable for their originality, harmonic and melodic ingenuity and a canvas of colors. While Schubert did not give public concerts or write any operas for the Viennese musical establishment, he often performed for small groups of up to fifty friends at musical events called "Schubertiads." These wonderful events would take place in Biedermeier parlors, in Viennese cafes or little taverns. The salon performances were warmly received and popular. Schubert would sing and play the piano.

In 1823 Schubert's health failed due to typhoid fever. He died in his brother Ferdinand's house at the age of 32. The night before he died, Ferdinand said Schubert asked him: "Do I not deserve a place on the face of the earth?"

Suggested listening: Die shone Mullerin, Winterreise, Sonata in B flat major D. 960, Trout Quintet.

Sources: Encyclopedia of Classical Music: Billboard Books
Gerard Gefen, Composers' Houses: Vendome Press

1797 Born Jan. 31st (my bday!), Vienna
1806 Studies organ and harmony under Holzer
1808 Choral scholar, Imperial Court Chapel
1812 Lessons with Salieri; mother died
1813 Imperial teacher training college; writes First Symphony
1814 Composes first Goethe songs
1815 Teaches in father's school; writes 145 songs
incl. Erlkonig
1818 Summer as music master to Count Esterhazy in Hungary
1825 Tour of Austria with Johann Vogl
1826 G major Piano Sonata and G major String Quartet
1827 Failing health; composes Winterreise; torch-bearer at
Beethoven's funeral
1828 Completes C major Symphony; Mass, 14 songs, 3 piano sonatas
Died Nov. 19th