Austrian Composer Franz Schubert

Lieder of Songs and Greatest Melodist of All-time

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Franz Schubert with Book, Music with Ease

Biography of Austrian composer Franz Schubert - famous for 8th Symphony "Unfinished," "Trout Quintet," "Serenade," and numerous songs, including "Ave Maria."

Considered the greatest melodist of all time, Austrian composer Franz Schubert showed extraordinary aptitude for music. He was renowned for his songs or German 'lied' (solo voice with accompaniment, usually, piano), one of the most highly respected forms of Western music.

Among the prominent composers associated with Vienna – Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven – only Schubert was born there, a true blue-blooded Viennese.

Schubert's Early Life and Training

Schubert was the son of a schoolmaster, his father an amateur but a keen musician. He was born in Vienna on January 31, 1797, initially learned violin from his father and piano from his elder brother. He showed great talent and interest in music that aged 11, he was accepted as a choir boy in the court chapel. He later became a school teacher, composing whenever time allowed.

As his talent for composing songs became more known, later gave up teaching to concentrate in composition. As a teenager, he produced piano pieces and string quartets. He also composed his first symphony, a three-act opera Des Teufels Lustschloss (The Devil’s Pleasure Palace) and his first song, Gretchen am Spinnerade (Gretchen at the Spinning Wheel.)

At 19 years old, he left school and joined his friend Schober in gathering a circle of literary and artistic friends around him rather than his musical colleagues and friends.

Schubert's Compositions

By 1820 he had written some of his finest instrumental works, including the fourth and fifth symphonies, and the delightful Trout Quintet, a favourite to this day.

Franz Schubert composed more than 600 German lieder / songs (the most enduring being Ave Maria, Serenade, The Erlking, Who is Sylvia and Hark, Hark the Lark) embodying the Romantic expression of emotion with pure melody.

Franz Schubert's Major Works

Schubert's Final Years

At 25, he became ill with syphilis, but it was typhoid that killed him. He died at the young age of 31 with majority of his successful compositions posthumous. Unlike other prominent composers who travelled a lot to other places to perform or eventually migrate, Franz Schubert lived in Vienna all his life, except for some summer excursions and two visits to Hungary as domestic musician to the Esterhazy family in his early 20s.

Franz Schubert paved the way of Romantic era German 'lieder' for Schumann, Richard Strauss and Mahler.

Recommended Works by Schubert

Sources:

The Grove Dictionary of Music, Macmillan (1994)

Classical Music by John Stanley, Mitchell Beazley (1994)


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Franz Schubert with Book, Music with Ease
       


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