SCHUBERT, FRANZ

Eminent composer of the classical school and master of the German lied; b. Vienna, Jan. 31, 1797; d. Vienna, Nov. 14, 1828. He was the 12th child of Franz, a suburban schoolteacher, and Elizabeth (Vitz) Schubert. His father was devoted to music, and gave the gifted boy the best possible instruction. At 12 young Franz entered the Imperial Chapel Royal choir and the Stadt-convict, where the then-famous composer Salieri was his principal teacher and where he created his first important works. For three years after finishing there he taught in his father's school, but at 20 ventured on a career as free-lance composer. He occasionally accompanied his lieder but otherwise neither conducted nor performed in public nor taught regularly; he lived entirely on the earnings from his published songs, which his large circle of personal friends helped to popularize. For years he was depressed and intermittently ailing; he died of typhoid fever shortly after a special Schubert concert without ever having heard his major works performed. While he shared the anticlericalism of his day, he died a Catholic; his body was buried next to that of beethoven in the Währing District cemetery.

Although he had composed music of high distinction for piano and for choral, chamber, and symphonic combinations, his fame rested on his lieder until attention was drawn to his other works by brahms, who anonymously edited the last Mass and piano music; by Sir George Grove, who wrote the first comprehensive Schubert essay; and by others who assessed his true importance. Today he is recognized as the last of the Viennese classicists. He mastered the classical language as a child and used it creatively without revolutionizing it. His leaning toward long movements, however, anticipates the future as does the use of "cyclic" motifs. Unlike that of Beethoven, Schubert's music rarely conveys one prevailing mood. His oscillation between major and minor is characteristic, as is his use of Viennese folk music and dance patterns.

Of the six completed Masses, four belong among his masterworks: the G major (D.167), written when he was 18; C major (D.452), with a Benedictus recomposed in 1828 (D.961); A-flat major (D.678); and E-flat major (D.950). Their serene beauty, heightened by occasional passages of almost mystical inspiration, rules out prominent vocal solos and orchestral dramatics. As he stated in a letter of July 25, 1825, with reference to his celebrated Ave Maria, "I have never forced devotion in myself and never compose hymns or prayers… unless it overcomes me unawares; but then it is usually the right and true devotion." In all his Masses he omitted certain words (not always the same ones) from the text, but there is no evidence that this was caused by more than negligence. Their use in Catholic worship would require completion of the text, as well as the admissibility of orchestral accompaniment. Of his other spiritual works, the German Requiem (D.621), the completed portion of his Easter cantata, Lazarus (D.689), the Offertorio Intende Voci (D.963), the Ave Maria and other devotional songs are of the greatest beauty.

Bibliography: Franz Schuberts Werke: Kritisch durchgesehene Gesammtausgabe, ed. j. brahms et al., 43 v. in 41 (Leipzig 1884–97). o. e. deutsch, Schubert: Thematic Catalogue (London 1951); Schubert, A Documentary Biography, tr. e. blom (London 1947). a. einstein, Schubert: A Musical Portrait, tr. d. ascoli (New York 1951). m. j. e. brown, Schubert (London 1958). m. j. e. brown et al., Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart, ed. f. blume (Kassel-Basel 1949–) 12:106–185, extensive bibliog. o. wissig, Franz Schuberts Messen (Leipzig 1909). l. black, "Schubert and Fierrabras: A Mind in Ferment," The Opera Quarterly 14/4 (1998) 17–39. r. bockholdt, "Die Kunst, heim zu finden: Über Schlüsse und Anschüsse in Schuberts Instrumentalmusik," Musiktheorie 13 (1998) 145–56. k. haid, "The Sad Story Behind Schubert's Variations," Flute Talk 20/2 (2000) 22–23. r. kramer, Distant Cycles: Schubert and the Conceiving of Song (Chicago 1994). a. lindmayr-brandl, "Johannes Brahms und Schuberts Drei Klavierstücke D. 946: Entstehungsgeschichte, Kompositions-prozess und Werkverständnis," Die Musikforschung 53 (2000) 134–44. d. montgomery, "Modern Schubert Interpretation in the Light of the Pedagogical Sources of His Day," Early Music 25 (1997) 100–118. r. steblin, "The Peacock's Tale: Schubert's Sexuality Reconsidered," 19th Century Music 17 (1993) 5–33. m. wessel, "Die Zyklusgestaltung in Franz Schuberts Instrumentalwerk: Eine Skizze zu Anlange und Ästhetik der Finalsätze," Die Musickforschung 49 (1996) 19–35. s. youens, Schubert, Müller, and 'Die schöne Müllerin' (Cambridge 1997).

[k. wolff]