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biografie 1]

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inhoud:

• Origin and childhood
• At the Stadtkonvikt (1808 - 1813)
• Teacher at an elementary school (1814 - 1816)
• A freelance composer
• The years of crisis (1819 - 1822)
• The last years (1823 - 1828)
• The Schubertiads
• Schubert`s friends

BIOGRAPHY

Franz Schubert was born on January 31st 1797 in Vienna and he died thirty-one years old on November 19th 1828. He left approximately thousand compositions - a lifework which appears even more colossal considering the shortness of his life.
This life was not only short, but also lacking in "great" events in comparison to other important composers. Schubert never played a particular part in public life, he made just a few short journeys and lived basically a inconspicuous life.

 But the posterity could not accept the unspectacular biography of the creator of such marvelous music and so the composer was exalted to an unappreciated romantic genius with particular „gentle" traits some decades after his death.
Since the middle of the 19th century, a long line of „biographic" novellas and novels as well as innumerable sculptural portrayals, among them about 700 postcards, caused a false popularity of Schubert. The concrete facts about the course of his life handed down scantily were „completed" by doubtful „memories" and anecdotes.
The „biographic" Singspiel „Das Dreimäderlhaus", performed for the first time in 1916 in Vienna, contributed to the diffusion of an utterly distorted picture of Schubert: This work feigns authenticity by including original compositions by Schubert. Off the handed down clichés, our Schubert documentary is limited to a short summary of the secured facts about his life, a short survey of his works and an outline of the Austrian Schubert memorial places.

Whoever visits the birthplace altered into a museum, should not be misled by the solemn quiet atmosphere: At the beginning of the 19th century, there were 16 smallest apartments here, offering an utmost inhospitable lodging to the tenants.
The first floor housed a modest school, where the Schubert's father teached for the time being just handful of children from poor families. In spring 1801, he acquired by means of a mortgage the nearby house Säulengasse 3, called „Zum schwarzen Rössl", established a school there and moved then also with his family to the own house. Franz Schubert went to the elementary school of his father. The father gave him also the first music lessons by teaching him violin playing. His brother Ignaz, his senior by twelve years, instructed him in piano playing.

The Schubert family made music regularly and the father was soon able to form a string quartet, where the elder sons Ignaz and Ferdinand played the violin, himself the violoncello and Franz the viola.
Outside the family, Michael Holzer, the Regens chori of the parish church of Lichtenthal, strove for the musical development of Schubert. He initiated him into the practice of a church musician, taught him for instance the practical application of the thorough bass and the extempore playing, the „preluding" on the organ.
Franz Schubert proved to be an extraordinarily talented student. Probably already at the age of eight or nine, he tried his hand at the first compositions. Only a „singing in C" for bass voice and piano without text (D1A) is maintained from that time.

While Schubert's reports as court choirboy were brilliant without exception, he made just slight progress in Latin, Greek and mathematics. He took part as violinist in the orchestra of the school, which was founded by the art-loving principal of the institute, father Innozenz Lang. They made music every evening and played a complete symphony among other pieces. Haydn,Mozart and Beethoven were the highlights of the repertoire, where also composers feature which are already fallen into oblivion today, for instance Anton Eberl (1785-1807), Leopold Kozeluch (1747-1818), Franz Krommer (1759-1831) or Franz Anton Rösler alias Antonio Rosetti (1750-1792).

Joseph von Spaun about this time:

 „Schubert played standing behind me from the same sheet of music. I noticed very soon that the little musician surpassed myself in reliability of the time. My attention having been drawn to him by it, I noticed how the otherwise quiet and indifferent looking boy abandoned himself lively to the impressions of the beautiful symphonies we performed."

 The Viennese court organist Wenzel Ruzicka took the rehearsals. He gave piano and thorough bass lessons to the pupils of the Konvikt. He noticed also soon the extraordinary talent of Schubert and paid consequently more attention to him.br> Schubert's mother died at the end of 1812. She did not see her youngest son anymore since falling ill.

 Schubert's entry in a music notebook of the court music orchestra reads „Schubert Franz crowed the last time. July 26th 1812" - due to the beginning breaking of the voice, he could not sing anymore with the choirboys. His place at the Konvikt was preserved for another year, but as his achievements in mathematics were consequently unsatisfactory during this school year, he had to leave the boarding-school in autumn 1813.

 At that time he had already composed a considerable number of works in different genres: approximately fifteen lieder, eight string quartets, one piano trio, five overtures, one symphony as well as numerous fantasias and dances for piano and several unfinished compositions.

 Approximately at the same time, as Schubert left the choirboys, he became Antonio Salieri's student. The lessons with the famous opera composer were concentrated on the field of the Italian arias and Schubert composed for practice several arrangements of arias from the librettos of Pietro Metastasio. Also numerous canons and fugues from that time are supposed to have been composed for the lessons.

 The seventeen-year-old Schubert

After leaving the Konvict in autumn 1813, Schubert returned to the parental house in Himmelpfortgrung. In the meantime, his father had contracted a second marriage with Anna Kleyenböck, the daughter of a silk dealer from the suburb Gumpendorf. To be able to earn his living, Schubert began a ten-month training to be a „school assistant", a sunordinate teacher at an elementary school. He graduated from the „teacher's preparatory" at the „k. k. Normalhauptschule St. Anna" with mediocre results. Then he reported for the hated duty at the school of his father. This duty lasted two years and these two years were at the same time compositionally the most fruitful in his life. In his strict regulated day, a fixed stretch was reserved exclusively for composition.

For the centennial of the parish church of Lichtenthal, Schubert composed his first complete mass, the Mass in F major (D 105). At the first performance on October 16th 1814, his friend of the youth Therese Grob sang the soprano solo. Three days later, he composed the lied „Gretchen am Spinnrade", which marked the beginning of the modern German lied.

 Through Joseph von Spaun, his friend at the Konvikt, Schubert got to know the young poet Johann Mayrhofer. He set several poems of him to music. He owed his acquaintance of Franz von Schober also to Spaun. Mayrhofer and Schober soon belonged to the closest circle of friends of Schubert. He kept up a deep friendship also with Johann Senn and Anton Holzapfel, two mates from the Konvikt.

 In autumn, Schubert moved to the Schober family at Tuchlauben in the Innere Stadt. He stayed as guest of the family till August 1817.

Till that time, he had composed already more than five-hundred works - a wealth of lieder, several string quartets and five symphonies - but his compositions were just known by a relatively small circle of friend and music-lovers. In this regard, a change was impending with the move to the Schober family: In their house, Schubert met the well-known court opera singer Johann Michael Vogl (1768-1840), who pleaded for him as interpreter in the following years and paved the way to the public for the lied composer.

In February 1818, Schubert performed publicly also an orchestral work: One of his two overtures in Italian style was performed in a concert at the tavern „Zum Römischen Kaiser". These two overtures (D 590 and 591) were a response to the „Rossini fever" raging in Vienna since 1816 and the performance was not only a success with the public, but reaped also appreciation of the critic of the „Wiener Allgemeine Theater-Zeitung".

In private circles of musicians, Schubert was already held in high esteem and so he was proposed as music teacher to the Esterházy family. From July to October 1818, he was invited as teacher at the country residence of the Esterházy family in Zseliz in Hungary (today Slovakia), where he gave lessons to the two daughters - later, he dedicated his piano fantasia for four hands F minor (finished in 1828) to her.

 Back to Vienna, Schubert and his friend Mayrhofer lived with a tobacconist at Wipplingerstraße. He got in touch with a culturally-minded circle around Ignaz von Sonnleithner (1770-1831). This circle of friends performed important private concerts at Sonnleithner's apartment and was found very useful to Schubert.

In summer 1819, Schubert came to Steyr in Upper Austria, the native town of Vogl. One of the numerous lieder evenings, that he performed with Vogl there, Schubert met Sylvester Paumgartner, an art patron and amateur cellist, who commissioned Schubert to compose a piano quintet - later, it became well-known as „trout quintet".
In this year, Schubert's circle of friends grew with the painter Moritz von Schwind, which landscape pictures and portraits represent an important pictorial documentation of Schubert's life.

In autumn, a period of personal and artistic unsureness began for Schubert. He moved in circles of students kept under surveillance by the police. Schubert's friend Johann Senn was arrested in his presence and Schubert himself was cautioned for „maliciously reviling the authorities". Fragmentary composition and relatively long creative processes are an evidence of the creative crisis.

The just mediocre success of two plays contributed probably to the aggravation of the situation: At the Kärntnertortheater the Singspiel „Die Zwillingsbrüder" was performed for the first time in June 1820 and the melodrama „Die Zauberharfe", composed in a few weeks, was performed at the Theater an der Wien. It is true that the critics appreciated the „beautiful" music, but the plays were soon taken off the program. The hoped-for breakthrough failed to come and Schubert strove still in vain for a publishing house for his compositions. Finally his friends took charge of the anticipatory finance for the printing of the first songbooks published by Cappi & Diabelli.

In summer 1820, Schubert visited with his friends for the first time Atzenbrugg castle in Lower Austria. It belonged to the possessions of the Augustinian canons convent in Klosterneuburg and was managed by Josef Derffel, an uncle of Franz Schober. He invited the circle of friends several times to spend in summer some days at the castle and so the Schubertiads were performed here in 1821 and 1822.

In Summer 1821, Schubert made several short journeys with Schober. In late autumn, they lodged for a longer time in St. Pölten, were working on a joint opera, „Alfonso und Estrella", and performed several Schubertiads. From the end of 1821 to the beginning of 1823, Schubert lived mainly with Schober at the Göttweiger Hof. In February 1822, he met the German composer Carl Maria von Weber (1786-1826), who came to Vienna to conduct a performance of his opera „Der Freischütz" at the Kärntnertortheater. Weber is supposed to have promised him the performance of „Alfonso und Estrella", but it was not to be.

After his stay in hospital, Schubert lived with Josef Huber near the Stubentor bastion.
In 1824, the Esterházy family invited him once again to come to Zseliz and Schubert, supposed to be recovered, spent the summer months there. Back to Vienna, he lived in the house of his father till February 1825. Then he moved to the surroundings of the Karlskirche in the neighborhood of his friend Moritz von Schwind. He lived there till October 1826.

In May 1825, he started off on his longest journey with Vogl. It lasted just under six months and took the friends across Upper Austria and Salzburg. During a longer stay in Badgastein, where Vogl hoped for cure of gout, Schubert had probably also taken a cure. In Badgatein he composed several lieder and was working on his great C major symphony, that he began in Gmunden. At the beginning of October, he returned to Vienna via Linz.

 In 1826, he had to suffer once more a professional defeat: His application for the vacant post of Viennese vice-court conductor was rejected.
His efforts toward finding an editor for his works failed also for the moment.

 Nevertheless he was already rather well-known as composer in Vienna. The newspapers published again and again advertisements of publishers and his works were often performed in great public concerts. And when Ludwig van Beethoven died in March 1827, Schubert had the honor of taking part in the obsequies as one of the 36 torchbearers beside Grillparzer and Raimund.

 In February 1827, Schubert moved with his friend Schober as subtenants into two rooms and a „music chamber" in the house „Zum blauen Igel", Tuchlauben 14. He lived there till a few weeks before he died. He spent the September 1827 in Graz as guest of the lawyer Pachler and his wife Marie, a pianist. Back to Vienna, he was working on the second part of his lieder cycle „Winterreise", that he had begun already in February.

 On January 28th 1828, a „great" Schubertiad with prominent guests was performed with Joseph von Spaun at the „Klepperställe" in Vienna's Teinfaltstraße: It was to be the last meeting like this. Encouraged by the success, Schubert set about organizing - on his friend's Eduard von Bauernfeld (1802-1892) advice - a so-called „private concert" with exclusively own works. Exactly one year after Beethoven's death, on March 26th 1828, this concert was actually given at the hall of the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde (society of music-lovers) in the Tuchlauben. It was a great artistic and financial success for Schubert - even though it was totally outshone by the first Viennese concert of the famous violinist Niccolo Paganini. Not a Viennese newspaper took notice of that unique event in history of music.

In September 1828, Schubert went to live with his brother Ferdinand in the Viennese suburb Neu-Wieden. He was in bad health - probably he had contracted a typhoid infection. After an excursion to Eisenstadt in October, his state went from bad to worse. Nevertheless he enrolled for studies of the fugue with Simon Sechter (1788-1867), the famous theory teacher and composer, and began also with composition exercises. But finally he got just one single lesson.

 From November 11th on, Schubert was confined to bed. He died on November 19th. On November 21st, he was buried at the cemetery of Währing near Beethoven's tomb and many people took part in the obsequies. When the cemetery of Währing was closed in 1888, Schubert's mortal remains were transferred to the Wiener Zentralfriedhof (Viennese central cemetery) and interred in a tomb of honor.

 An important part of theses events, besides eating, dancing, playing and talking, were the literary and musical interludes performed by „professional" artists or „dilettantes". The piano, the piano forte was an imperative piece of furniture of the salon and became more and more in vogue in the course of the 19th century.

 Out of such private events the „Schubertiads" were formed, convivial get-togethers of Schubert's friends and acquaintances, where the composer played a central role. For him they were the occasion to present his new compositions - especially his lieder - to a public kindly disposed toward him. On the top of that, he contributed to the musical entertainment of the soiree and improvised dance music.

 The first verifiable Schubertiad was held at Franz von Schober's place in Vienna on January 21st 1821.
 
 

Such meetings were not limited to the capital Vienna. We know about Schubertiads in St. Pölten, Steyr, Linz and Graz. Among the Viennese addresses of Schubertiads there are for instance the salon of Hofrat Josef Witticzek, the houses of the Spaun and Schober families, the palace of the banker Johann Heinrich Geymüller, the apartment of the actor Heinrich Anschütz, the house of the university professor Heinrich Watteroth, the summer-house of Princess Paar in Wien-Hütteldorf rented by the Bruchmann family for the summer months 1819 to 1823. In Linz they met for the Schubertiad at the house of the Spaun family, in Steyr at the salon of Sylvester Paumgartner and in Graz at the salon of Marie Pachler.

Eduard von Bauernfeld (1802-1890)

Anselm Hüttenbrenner (1794-1868)

Johann Baptist Jenger (1792-1856)

Leopold Kupelwieser (1796-1862)

Johann Baptist Mayrhofer (1787-1836)

Franz von Schlechta (1796-1875)

Franz von Schober (1798-1882)

Moritz von Schwind (1804-1871)

Joseph von Spaun (1788-1865)

Albert Stadler (1794-1888)

Johann Michael Vogl (1768-1840)

Heinrich Watteroth (1756-1819)