The New Student's Reference Work/Schubert, Franz Peter

Schubert (sho͞o′bẽrt), Franz Peter, a celebrated musical composer, was born at Vienna, Jan. 31, 1797. Before he was 11 years old he was singing in a church-choir, and was soon sent to the chorister's school of the court-chapel, where he became leader of the school-band. The Erl King, his immortal song, was composed when only 18, and the Mass in F while teaching in his father's school at Lichtenthal. In 1819 one of his songs, The Shepherd's Lament, was given at a concert at Vienna, and his comic operetta, The Twins, was produced at the theater there. As his songs became known, the enthusiasm with which they were received made publishers ready to accept his manuscripts, and as many as 20 songs were published in eight months. He made a tour with Vogl in 1825, delighting everyone with the performance of Schubert's seven songs from the Lady of the Lake, though the songs were afterward sold for only $100. He gave his first and only concert in Vienna in 1828, which was so successful as to put the needy composer, who had been selling some of his best songs at a penny, beyond want for a time. His musical productions are very numerous, as he wrote rapidly and steadily, sometimes composing six or seven songs in a morning. Everything he saw, heard or read suggested a subject; one of his piano-duets was inspired by the song which he heard sung by a Hungarian girl as he passed the kitchen door, and his Hark! Hark! the Lark flashed over him in a beer-garden. His songs are among his finest work, Beethoven, who saw them only on his deathbed, saying: “Surely Schubert has the divine fire.” His compositions include more than 500 songs, ten symphonies, six masses, several operas, cantatas and a host of sonatas. He died on Nov. 19, 1828. See Life by Frost.