FRANZ SCHUBERT

Franz Peter Schubert was born in 1797, the twelfth of fourteen children and only the fourth to survive past infancy. He lived all his life in Vienna, the center of the musical universe in those days. A contemporary of Haydn, Liszt, and Mendelssohn, and Beethoven, he was among the composers moving from the Classical era to the Romantic.

Schubert showed talent from the start, but the family sent him to school to be a teacher because it was a more reliable profession than musician. Still, he composed two or three hundred songs called leider by the time he was seventeen, and another few hundred by the end of his life. As a young man, he met the wealthy Franz von Schober, who urged Schubert to quit teaching and live with him. Schubert’s songs became so popular that they inspired gatherings called Schubertiads, where friends gathered round the piano to sing leider.

Schubert composed nine symphonies and many pieces for piano, strings, voice and other instruments. Shy by nature, he did not perform much in public but loved to play socially for friends. Though his songs were popular, he sold them for meager amounts and never had much money.

He was a highly productive and happy musician until late 1823, when he started feeling ill. Most likely, he had contracted a venereal disease. Schubert kept writing, but his music had a sadder, more reflective tone.

In 1827, Schubert was a pallbearer at Beethoven’s funeral. Later that night, he proposed this toast: "To him whom we have just buried." Then he said "To him who is to follow." Schubert died the following year, at 31. On his request, he was buried next to Beethoven.

Schubert’s music was kept alive by Franz Liszt, Robert Schumann and other composers who admired his work. It remains healthy and well-loved to this day.