![]() The single-movement Quartettsatz, all that Schubert completed in 1820 of a planned string quartet in C minor, promised to take his instrumental music to a totally different level, but Schubert still craved wider recognition and devoted much of his energies in the early 1820s to writing operas. Few composers led such uneventful lives as Schubert apparently did Though the two composers would not meet until 1822, Beethoven’s influence is clear in the piano sonatas of that period and especially in the Sixth Symphony, which replaces the lightness and Mozartian grace of the earlier symphonies with much more dramatic intent. These gatherings also attracted the attention of the Viennese police, on the lookout for revolutionary activity in the aftermath of the Napoleonic wars, and Schubert and four of his friends were arrested. The composer, who – barely 5ft tall – was nicknamed Schwammerl ( “Little Mushroom”), was the pianist. That period also saw the beginning of the Schubertiades, informal evenings in private houses, sponsored by wealthy patrons, in which Schubert and his friends met to read poetry and to hear performances of his music. In the Trout Quintet, written two years later, the song became the theme of a set of variations, and in 1824 Schubert would use another song of 1817, Das Tod und die Mädchen (Death and the Maiden), in the best known of his string quartets, in D minor. His reputation was beginning to grow, and he continued to compose feverishly – orchestral and choral works, as well as more songs, including some of his most famous, such as An die Musik and Die Forelle (The Trout), which both date from 1817. He was making friends in Viennese literary and musical circles, and in 1816 he left his family home to share lodgings with a poet friend, Franz von Schober, in the centre of the city. At that time the writer was the standard bearer for German romanticism, and Schubert, like Beethoven before him, would play a major part in the musical transition between the classical era and romanticism. It was quickly followed by others to Goethe texts, such as Erlkönig and Heidenröslein. One of the triggers to Schubert’s explosion of songwriting had been his discovery of Goethe in 1814: his setting of Gretchen am Spinnrade, from Faust, was perhaps his first great song. Before he was 20 he had written five symphonies, four masses, six operas (mostly unfinished), three string quartets, three piano sonatas and about 300 songs. He found the drudgery of teaching hard, yet he was composing at an incredible rate. He met a young singer, Therese Grob, for whom he composed a number of works, but he was prevented from marrying her by a law that required prospective husbands to prove they had the financial means to support a wife. His First Symphony was completed in 1813.Īt the end of 1813, he returned to his family home – his mother had died the previous year – to begin work at his father’s school as well as giving private lessons, while still studying with Salieri. As well as composing string quartets, his first piano pieces and songs, Schubert also wrote for the college orchestra. ![]() Among his teachers there was Antonio Salieri, the éminence grise of Viennese music at the beginning of the 19th century who gave the boy private composition lessons. ![]() He began learning the violin aged eight, played the viola in his family’s string quartet, and began composing pieces for the group at the age of 11 he won a choral scholarship to the Imperial College. He rarely travelled far outside the city of Vienna, where he was born the 12th child of a schoolmaster in the Lichtental district. Photograph: Getty Imagesįew composers led such uneventful lives as Schubert apparently did. ![]() ![]() A slice of Viennese life … a 19th century illustration of Schubert at the piano. ![]()
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