![]() Schubert’s innovation did not begin and end with lieder. It was a brave step to take as his financial situation was precarious and even though Schubert was a recognised composer, money was tight. Schubert’s popularity in Vienna was supported by his production of songs and allowed him to move away from his work as a schoolmaster and into the professional world of composition. Whilst Schubert extensively employed musical forms from the Classical era, it is evident that his music was already heading in a new direction as the Romantic era began to gain momentum. They are certainly not songs that you would anticipate hearing in the Classical era and as such were received with significant praise. When you think about how young Schubert was when he wrote these songs, they stand as a remarkable achievement and in many ways set the tone of German songs that would greatly influence Schumann, Wolf, and Brahms. Listen, for example, to two of Schubert’s early songs: ‘Gretchen am Spinnrade’ composed in 1814, (Op.2 D118) and ‘Erlkönig’ composed in 1814 (Op.1 D328). The influence of Beethoven is also key in understanding where Schubert fits into musical history.Įven in the early works of Schubert, particularly his lieder (songs), we hear a romantic edge in the melodic lyricism, his emotional response to the words of poets like Geothe, and indeed his choice of a poet to set. One account tells of the two great composers passing on another on the street with the young Schubert too in awe of Beethoven to introduce himself. There is no doubt about Schubert’s tremendous admiration for Beethoven nor the influence his music had on him. If we accept the ‘start’ of the Romantic era as being somewhere around 1800, then indeed most of Schubert’s compositions fall into this era of musical history. Given the time in which Schubert was alive, it is easy enough to see he, in a similar way to Beethoven, spanned two musical eras Classical and Romantic. Salieri heralded the young Schubert as a genius which in itself is not an accolade to be overlooked.įrom a stylistic point of view then we can also attribute traits of Salieri in Schubert’s works linking back to the Classical tradition. It is also of interest that Antonio Salieri was Schubert’s tutor for around three years. In this brief period, Schubert was astonishingly active in the musical world composing numerous pieces for piano, hundreds of songs, operas, symphonies, and string quartets, to list but of few of the areas Schubert wrote for. ![]() ![]() Schubert, born in Austria, lived from 1789 to 1828. ![]() The tragically short life of Franz Schubert gave rise to some of the most celebrated and performed music written during that period of history. ![]()
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