Franz Schuberm Free Sheet Music, Program Notes, Recordings and Biography

On March 29, 1827, a somber procession moved through the streets of Vienna for the funeral of Ludwig van Beethoven. Among the thirty-six torchbearers was a short, bespectacled, and profoundly humble 30-year-old composer named Franz Schubert. For his entire life, Schubert had lived and worked in the shadow of the colossal Beethoven, whom he revered above all others. As he walked, holding his torch high, he could not have known the tragic irony that awaited him. Just twenty months later, Schubert himself would be dead, his own life's work tragically cut short. His final wish was to be buried near his idol, a wish that was granted. In that short span, the torch of Viennese musical genius had been passed and just as quickly extinguished, leaving behind a legacy of melody unparalleled in its beauty and scope.

A Gifted Childhood in Vienna

Franz Peter Schubert was born on January 31, 1797, in a suburb of Vienna. He was the twelfth of fourteen children born to Franz Theodor Schubert, a parish schoolmaster, and Elisabeth Vietz. Music was central to the Schubert household, and his prodigious talents were recognized early. He received his first lessons from his father and older brother Ignaz, but he quickly surpassed them. Soon, he was studying with the local church organist, who was reportedly so astonished by the boy's gift for harmony that he confessed, "I have learned nothing from him, for he knew it all by himself."

At age eleven, his beautiful soprano voice earned him a place in the prestigious Stadtkonvikt (Imperial Seminary) choir, which sang in the Imperial Chapel. This provided him with the best musical education available in Vienna. He played violin in the student orchestra, studied theory with Beethoven's own former teacher, Antonio Salieri, and was exposed to the music of Haydn, Mozart, and, most importantly, Beethoven. It was here that his compulsion to compose took hold. He wrote his first symphony, piano pieces, and numerous songs, often neglecting his other studies to fill reams of manuscript paper with music.

The Birth of the Lied and the Schubertiade

After leaving the seminary, Schubert reluctantly followed his father's wishes and became a schoolteacher's assistant, a job he detested. His mind was consumed by music, and it was during this period that he produced one of his first undisputed masterpieces. On October 19, 1814, at the age of seventeen, he read Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's Faust and was immediately inspired. In a single afternoon, he composed "Gretchen am Spinnrade" ("Gretchen at the Spinning Wheel"). With its evocative piano accompaniment perfectly capturing the spinning wheel's motion and the heroine's agitation, the song was a revolutionary moment. Schubert had elevated the German art song, or Lied, from a simple folk-like form into a powerful vehicle for dramatic and psychological expression.

He abandoned teaching for good in 1818 to pursue composition full-time, a financially precarious choice. Lacking the aristocratic patronage that supported Beethoven, Schubert relied on a close-knit circle of friends—poets, painters, and music lovers—who adored him and his music. These gatherings became known as Schubertiades, intimate evenings in Viennese apartments where his latest works were performed. His friend, the baritone Johann Michael Vogl, was a particularly important champion, performing his songs with a dramatic flair that brought them to a wider audience. Schubert set the poetry of friends like Johann Mayrhofer and literary giants like Goethe and Friedrich Schiller, ultimately composing over 600 Lieder and cementing his status as the genre's unrivaled master.

Symphonic Ambitions and Personal Struggles

While song composition came to him with astonishing ease, Schubert longed for success in the larger forms of opera and the symphony, the domains of his hero Beethoven. His operas met with little success, but his instrumental music was a different story. Works like the Piano Quintet in A major ("The Trout" Quintet) and the Wanderer Fantasy for piano showcased his genius.

In 1822, he began work on a symphony in B minor, completing two magnificent movements filled with lyrical melancholy and dramatic tension before setting it aside for reasons that remain a mystery. It would become his most famous orchestral work, the Symphony No. 8, the "Unfinished." Around this same time, Schubert contracted syphilis, a devastating diagnosis that had no cure. The illness brought periods of intense suffering and depression, and its shadow can be felt in the darker, more introspective works of his later years, such as the haunting song cycle Winterreise ("Winter Journey") and the string quartet "Death and the Maiden."

Despite his illness and constant money troubles, his creative energies never waned. He completed his final symphony, the magnificent Symphony No. 9 in C Major ("The Great"), a work of "heavenly length," as Robert Schumann would later describe it. Its grandeur and scale proved Schubert was more than capable of meeting Beethoven on his own turf.

The Final Year and Enduring Legacy

The final year of Schubert’s life, 1828, was one of the most astonishingly productive in music history. Knowing his time was short, he composed at a feverish pace, producing a string of timeless masterpieces: the sublime String Quintet in C major, his last three monumental Piano Sonatas, and the Mass No. 6 in E-flat. On March 26, 1828, he gave his first and only public concert dedicated entirely to his own works. It was a critical and financial success, giving him a brief moment of public validation.

His health, however, declined rapidly. In November, he contracted typhoid fever, and his already weakened body could not fight it. Franz Schubert died on November 19, 1828, at the age of 31.

Schubert's fame grew exponentially after his death. Composers like Schumann, Franz Liszt, and Johannes Brahms championed his work, unearthing unpublished manuscripts and bringing them to the world. He is now recognized as one of history's greatest melodists and a pivotal figure bridging the Classical and Romantic eras. While he never achieved the worldly success or long life of his idol, the sheer volume and sublime quality of the music he left behind secure his place as one of the most beloved and essential composers of all time.

Section 4: References and Further Reading

• Newbould, Brian. Schubert: The Music and the Man. University of California Press, 1997.

• McKay, Elizabeth Norman. Franz Schubert: A Biography. Clarendon Press, 1996.

• Fischer-Dieskau, Dietrich. Schubert's Songs: A Biographical Study. Translated by Kenneth S. Whitton, Alfred A. Knopf, 1977.

• Gibbs, Christopher H., ed. The Cambridge Companion to Schubert. Cambridge University Press, 1997.