FRANZ PETER SCHUBERT (1797-1828).

BACKGROUND AND THE LAST STRING QUARTETS

The last of the four composers that Matthew Taylor will discuss in
this series is Schubert, a pall bearer at Beethovens funeral; to
follow him twenty months later and to be buried next to him.
Compared to the other composers we have dealt with it is a little
more difficult to highlight the events of Schuberts life. No
appointment as kappelmeister; no aristocratic patrons; hardly a
publisher to take him on and a fairly humdrum life as a school
teacher but happily composing songs and instrumental works,
without publication, for his friends to play.
All four of the composers of the series had their lives centred on or
near Vienna. Schubert was the only one of them born and bred
there. His parents were not quite exactly immigrants but his father
came from Moravia, now the eastern extreme of the Czech Republic
and his mother was, before marrying, a housemaid from Silesia
which is mostly now part of Poland adjoining the north east border
of the Czech Republic. Both areas were part of the Hapsburg
Empire at the time. Eastern European transplantation is obviously
nothing new and it is hard to associate Schubert, so Viennese,
even distantly with Janacek. As they might say in Brno, Not all
Moravians are the same.

Stopping here for a moment, lets just see where Schubert fits into
the chronology we have dealt with in earlier lectures. Mozart had
died, in 1791, six years before Schuberts birth in 1797. He was
therefore born round about the time Beethoven was approaching
the end of his first period and shortly to write his Opus 18 quartets.
Haydn was at his peak and Schubert would have been twelve when
Haydn died, whilst Beethoven at the same time was at the height of
his middle period writing his Emperor piano concerto and the Harp
string quartet. Schubert finished his schooling in 1815, when
Beethoven was going through his lean patch before emerging into
his late period. Schubert was to commence his late period, if one
can call it such, round about 1822 with the unfinished symphony
and the quartettsatz amongst others, shortly before Beethoven
would premier his 9th symphony and receive commissions for the
first three of his late quartets.
Returning now to the Schubert family, his parents had fourteen
children of whom only five survived infancy, about par for the
survival rate of the times. His father was an elementary school
music teacher who started giving lessons to Schubert at five. He
taught Schubert the violin whilst one of his brothers taught him the
piano. A year later, Schubert began attending his fathers school
and began writing for the family quartet. He himself was by then
playing the viola, the chosen instrument also of Mozart and
Beethoven. Aged 7 (1804) he first came to the notice of Antonio
Salieri who gave Schubert singing tuition. Oh if only that man had
consulted me I reckon I could have recovered, no win no fee, a
mint in libel damages.
In 1808, having passed his 11+, Schubert went on to the
Stadtkonvikt, the imperial music school where he was introduced
to the orchestral sounds of Mozart and was able to make
occasional visits to the opera which widened his knowledge. It was
there that he came across the works of Zamstelg, a songwriter
which was his introduction to the lied. The Konvikt had an
orchestra which Schubert would sometimes lead on the violin. He
was also taking private lessons in composition and theory from
Salieri and their master pupil relationship continued, without
charge, until 1817 when Schubert was 20. He could have continued
with his musical education but in 1813 he left the Stadtkonvikt at
about which time his mother died and he went to a teachers
training college before becoming a teacher at his fathers school

for two years. By all accounts he was bored with the job and in
consequence not very good at it. He was however composing. His
first works appear about 1810 when he wrote his first two
symphonies for the Stadtkonvikt and chamber music to be played
at home. He also wrote masses. In 1814 he had met a young
soprano whom he wanted to marry. Unfortunately for the young
couple a new law was passed in 1815 requiring the proposed
husband to satisfy the state authorities that he could support his
intended. Obviously, getting a wife was like getting a dog. You
needed a licence and Schubert was turned down.
After two years Schubert gave up teaching, although he did return
to it for a short time later on, and moved in with various friends,
poets painters etc., and he was able to bed down in their places.
He was writing prolifically but not getting public performances.
However, his works were played at private gatherings of friends
and began to circulate. In 1818, he obtained a position with the
Esterhazy family - now theres a name which takes us back to our
opening Haydn lectures. It was a different Esterhazy, Count
Johann, who had two daughters who were taught piano by
Schubert. It has been suggested that his piano duets, including the
famous marche militaire were written for them. Actually the three
marches militaries were eventually published in 1826 by Diabelli
which turned out to be a good earner for him. Incidentally, this is
the self same Diabelli who invited various composers to write a
single variation on his theme. Schubert was one of many.
Beethoven, as we know, wrote thirty three.
From 1820 there was an expansion of Schuberts activities but this
led to many unfinished works, not just the eighth symphony. There
was an oratorio to be called Lazarus. Of course there was the
Quartettsatz, a single movement of an unfinished quartet. He
obtained performances of two of his operas but they failed, not
necessarily because of the music. One called The Conspirators
was prohibited by the State Censor. Some of Schuberts friends
had already been arrested for their activities and Schubert had
received a reprimand. The title to this particular opera therefore
was never going to help to obtain a production. Schubert saw
himself as an emerging opera composer, a route towards public
recognition but his talent was to be overshadowed by the
emergence of a new star in Vienna, Rossini.

At about this time he contracted syphilis for which there was no

known cure. It was a matter of time. This reflects in the music
Schubert produced in the 1820s. It has a darker hue and his
themes are very frequently concerned with death, Death and the
Maiden, Wintereisse and many others. Even if there is no title there
is the shadow of death in many of his later works which, one
masterpiece after another, were produced faster and faster as his
time, whatever it would be, was shortening. Particularly are
included the symphony No 9 (the Great C Major)(1826), the last
quartets, the string quintet and the last three piano sonatas.
Eventually he was able to mount the only public concert of his
music in his lifetime which took place in March 1828. It turned out
to be a success but, too late, his immunity irreparably weakened by
the syphilis, resulted in his dying of typhoid fever in November of
that year.
Schuberts compositions were quite considerable for the few years
he spent on this earth. By far the greatest output were well over
500 lieder. His music is particularly tuneful and this is often
attributed to his lieder writing. I would suggest that it is the
inverse; that his achievement in lieder stems from his innate ability
to write a tune. Much of his music would have been lost but we are
fortunate to be left with the considerable amount which is extant.
Of the symphonies there are eight, one of which is The Unfinished
and No 7 doesnt exist. As late as the 1950s, No 8, the Unfinished,
was treated as the last and the Great C major which came later and
is now numbered 9 used to be numbered 7.
Most of his
symphonies were influenced by Haydn and Mozart and it was only
the last two which
plumbed the more profound depths of
Beethoven.
There are several masses which are devotionally passable but
never seem to me to turn the world on fire. Concertos were not
part of his output although there is a Romance for violin and
orchestra which indicates he would have made the grade.
He wrote a fair amount of operas and incidental music, particularly
Rosamunde, but I cant recall any opera being played at Covent
Garden or ENO.

Chamber music was his forte, several piano sonatas, piano duets,
violin and piano, two great piano trios, the arpeggione sonata but
this note concentrates on his string quartets. There are fifteen
extant, one discovered well after his death, and there might well
have been more. Of the fifteen, eight were written from about 1810
and whilst he was at the Stadtkonvikt, schoolboy works. But dont
let that mislead you. These works are quite remarkable and rarely
played. We tend to hear the same Rosamunde and Death and
the Maiden quartets and the Trout Quintet in the various halls
when a trawl through some of the earlier works would produce
much delight. Even his first quartet, at times owing something to
Mozart but also nods towards Boccherini, has some indications
which point the way to later Schubert, recognizable by those dark
tragic thrusts and changes of key and which could not be by
anyone else. One can only wonder at the reception these early
quartets had in the Schubert house - a quartet consisting of his
father, two brothers and himself and new works to play by a young
teenage genius. They must have wondered at the sounds and
melodies he produced. If one takes the one numbered 7 (it
happens to be his second) it is typical and I would recommend
anyone to listen to the presto last movement which sounds as if it
could have been composed for the Ukulele Orchestra of Great
Britain. (You can buy it on Naxos for 6 and it is volume 3 in their
series). Schubert did not explore new forms as Beethoven did. He
adapted his ability to produce melody to the string quartet form. In
his last years these quartets became longer, over 45 minutes, and
deeper as he felt his way towards a future that he was never to
inhabit.
Matthews lectures will deal with the last two, 14 in D minor (Death
and the Maiden) and 15. As Matthew will do the talking I propose,
as they say in Vienna, to keep stumm.