Schubert, Franz

The Life of Schubert (Musical Lives)

Franz Schubert is a singularly undocumented composer. Direct accounts of his life are scarce, incomplete, and contradictory; even the memoirs of his closest friends, mostly written long after his death, reflect the writers more than the subject. His own surviving letters and diaries are often poignant, but sparse; it is in his music that he truly revealed himself. No wonder he has been the victim of endless speculation and rumor, leaving his image encrusted in fantasy, sentimentality, and condescension. Numerous serious, conscientious biographies have attempted to rectify this. Christopher Gibbs's excellent, informative, generously illustrated new study is a welcome addition. Gibbs has written and lectured widely on Schubert; his style is lucid, scholarly but not pedantic, and except for a stiff, ponderous beginning, flows with natural ease.

Gibbs focuses on some relatively unexplored areas, notably Beethoven's profound influence on Schubert, both personal and musical, though they never met. He also demolishes several popularly held misconceptions, showing, for example, that Schubert took an active part in promoting his own career, enjoyed frequent successes, and lived to see his fame begin to grow. Gibbs demonstrates that Schubert was by no means a "natural," untutored composer who simply shook melodies out of his sleeve, and that it was not his untimely death that caused so many works to remain "unfinished." Some of these refutations have already been offered by previous writers, but are well worth repeating. Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, in his splendid book On the Trail of the Schubert Songs, points out that Schubert's self-criticism often drove him to compose the same text several times, though unlike Beethoven he left no "sketchbooks that resemble battlefields." Hans Gál, in his Franz Schubert and the Essence of Melody (a beautiful book despite the clumsy title), suggests with a composer's empathetic insight that Schubert may have abandoned a work, like the C-major Piano Sonata, because he had modulated himself into a corner or hit a snag in the development, going on to something else while hoping for future inspiration.

Gibbs deserves special gratitude for attacking the credibility of the most recent Schubert scholarship, which claims to have uncovered evidence of heavy drinking, debauchery, and unbridled sensuality, both hetero- and homosexual, born and bred from Vienna's depraved climate, Schubert's hedonistic circle of friends, and his own allegedly immoral nature. These assertions reveal more about our own times and attitudes than about Schubert and his world. --Edith Eisler

Franz Schubert's tragically short life was lived in one of Europe's most richly musical cities: a Vienna that worshipped Beethoven and where Rossini and Paganini drew crowds. Christopher Gibbs considers how and what Schubert composed, taking a fresh look at this misunderstood composer, particularly the unfolding of his professional career, his relationship to Beethoven, the growth of his reputation and public image and his darker side of drinking, depression and sexual ambiguity. This searching and sympathetic biography questions the customary sentimental clichés and the recent revisionist views concerning this elusive genius.

Christopher Gibbs takes a fresh look at this misunderstood composer, particularly the unfolding of his professional career, his relationship to Beethoven, the growth of his reputation and public image and the darker side of drinking, depression and sexual ambiguity.

The Schubert Song Companion

Distant Cycles: Schubert and the Conceiving of Song

The New Grove Schubert (The New Grove)

The most remarkable composer of song literature in the history of Western music, Franz Schubert sometimes gets overlooked in favor of his more bombastic contemporaries. 1997 marks the bicentennial of his birth; record companies and concert programmers, who love such pegs, have accordingly scheduled loads of Schubert for the year. You can find some useful insights into the composer and his work with this biography, a slightly expanded version of the essay written for the New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians. Also helpful is the detailed chronicle of his music, arranged by type and date of composition.

Franz Schubert: Die schone Mullerin * Winterreise (The Lovely Miller Maiden * Winter Journey) (The Lovely Miller Maiden, Winter Journey)

Franz Shubert's two great song cycles are among the summits of the repertoire for Lieder singers and their accompanists. Arnold Feil, Professor of Music at Tubingen University, has written a thoughtful and subtle analysis of these two masterworks. His aim has been to provide a guide for musicians and their audiences that may lead to more meaningful interpretation and more intelligent listening. HARDCOVER.

The Cambridge Companion to Schubert (Cambridge Companions to Music)

This volume explores the culture in which the composer Franz Schubert (1797SH1828) lived and worked, and provides a basic outline of his life examined in relation to the most persistent myths and legends. Schubert's music is then explored according to genre, a chapter on his songs, another on his symphonies, and so forth. The final section looks at the reception of Schubert's music, primarily during the nineteenth century, and considers the performance tradition of his music.

This volume explores the culture in which the composer Franz Schubert (1797SH1828) lived and worked, and provides a basic outline of his life examined in relation to the most persistent myths and legends. Schubert's music is then explored according to genre, a chapter on his songs, another on his symphonies, and so forth. The final section looks at the reception of Schubert's music, primarily during the nineteenth century, and considers the performance tradition of his music.

Schubert: The Music and the Man

Brian Newbould brings together the biographical data of Schubert's life with the music that he composed. The book is both readable and informative, the work of a professor of music at the University of Hull in Britain whose biographical data describes him as a composer, conductor, pianist, and lecturer. Newbould has been so bold as to finish the Unfinished Symphony and other of Schubert's uncompleted works, and he has a deep understanding of the man and his music.

Of all the great composers, none, not even Mozart, has been so dogged by myth and misunderstanding as Schubert. Since the 1920s, when the musical Blossom Time hit the stage, the notion of Schubert as a pudgy, love-lorn Bohemian schwammerl (mushroom) scribbling gemülich tunes on the back of menus in idle moments has never been quite eradicated. But in this major new biography (the first comprehensive work on Schubert in over fifty years) Brian Newbould lays to rest the stereotype of the composer plucking melodies out of the air, relying on instinct more than well-honed craft. Instead he paints a vivid and compelling portrait of a man who was compulsively dedicated to his art, a composer so prolific that he produced roughly one thousand works in an eighteen year period.
Gifted with an intuitive know-how, coupled with a Mozartian facility for composition, Schubert combined the relish and wonder of an amateur with the discipline and technical rigor of a professional. He moved quickly and comfortably among genres, and sometimes composed directly into score; but many pieces required painstaking revision before they satisfied his growing self-criticism. Examining afresh the enigmas surrounding Schubert's religious outlook, his loves, his sexuality, his illness and death, Newbould offers above all a celebration of a unique genius, an idiosyncratic composer of an astonishing body of powerful, enduring music.

Crossing Paths: Schubert, Schumann, and Brahms

In Crossing Paths, John Daverio explores the connections between art and life in the works of three giants of musical romanticism. Drawing on contemporary critical theory and a wide variety of nineteenth-century sources, he considers topics including Schubert and Schumann's uncanny ability to evoke memory in music, the supposed cryptographic practices of Schumann and Brahms, and the allure of the Hungarian Gypsy style for Brahms and others in the Schumann circle. The book offers a fresh perspective on the music of these composers, including a comprehensive discussion of the 19th century practice of cryptography, a debunking of the myth that Schumann and Brahms planted codes for "Clara Schumann" throughout their works, and attention to the late works of Schumann not as evidence of the composer's descent into madness but as inspiration for his successors. Daverio portrays the book's three key players as musical storytellers, each in his own way simulating the structure of lived experience in works of art. As an intimate study of three composers that combines cultural history and literary criticism with deep musicological understanding, Crossing Paths is a rich exploration of memory, the re-creation of artistic tradition, and the value of artistic influence.

Schubert's Vienna (Aston Magna Academy Book)

The Vienna in which Franz Schubert lived for the thirty-one years of his life was a city of music, dance, and coffeehouses-a center of important achievements in the arts. But it was also the capital of an empire that was constantly at war in the composer`s youth and that became a police state during his maturity. Now, in the bicentennial of Schubert`s birth, this elegantly written and richly illustrated book paints a vivid picture of the culture, society, and politics of Schubert`s Vienna.

Sleeping with Schubert: A Novel

Bonnie Marson's debut novel, Sleeping with Schubert, is the unlikely story of what happens when the passionate spirit of a legendary 19th-century composer inhabits an ordinary Brooklyn lawyer. While the premise of this exploration seems preposterous (and often is too unbelievable to merit any serious thought), Marson does a commendable job of creating a genuinely likeable protagonist whom she surrounds with an equally amusing and entertaining cast of supporting characters. These portraits, combined with a sharp, witty sense of irony on the author's part, save this book from what could have been a grave misstep into the world of fantasy Chick Lit.

Sleeping with Schubert follows its heroine Liza Durbin from her debut at a Nordstrom piano to a full-fledged world tour that culminates in a grand finale at Lincoln Center. Along the way, Liza's quirky family make guest appearances, as well as her on-again/off-again boyfriend Patrick, her eccentric piano teacher, and a host of admirers and jealous acquaintances posing as well-wishers. Because this is inherently Chick Lit, Marson indulges in the issues so central to the genre, including warped body images, stunning sisters, cherished best friends, bad hair days, and crazy mothers ("Your father and I have a theory. Maybe you could be just a teeny little bit like an idiot-savant."). However, Schubert's presence adds a layer of complexity that is rare to this type of book; rather than dwelling on the hardships of magazine publishing and office flirtations, Marson treats the reader to a bit of culture and sophistication. By combining an unusual circumstance with a welcome and inviting level of introspection that is rare to most heroines in the genre, Marson offers audiences the chance to imagine a reality in which baby grand pianos fit in Brooklyn apartments and frumpy lawyers can become renowned Romantic composers. --Gisele Toueg

It seems that the legendary composer Franz Schubert is alive—well, sort of—in the twenty-first century: His soul has taken up residence in the body of Brooklyn lawyer Liza Durbin. Even more astonishing, so has his prodigious gift. A mediocre pianist at best as a child, Liza can suddenly pound out concertos and compose masterly music out of the blue. But how can a brilliant male Austrian composer from the nineteenth century coexist in the everyday life of a modern American woman? And how can Liza explain what’s happened to her without everyone thinking she’s gone off the deep end?

Fortunately, the evidence is tangible, and Liza is soon brought into the esteemed halls of Juilliard under the tutelage of the revered—and feared—Greta Pretsky, a humorless woman whose only interest in Liza is her channeling of Schubert. Greta’s greedy for her next big star, and the entire New York City press is whispering of Liza’s brilliance as the public awaits her debut at Carnegie Hall. Even Liza’s boyfriend, Patrick, seems more in love with her than ever.

Yet as Liza yields to Franz’s great passion, her own life and identity threaten to elude her. Why was she chosen as the vessel for this musical genius—and when, if ever, will he leave? Their entwined souls follow a path of ecstasy, peril, and surprise as they search for the final, liberating truth.

A strikingly original novel, Sleeping with Schubert plays on years of speculation regarding Franz Schubert’s “Unfinished Symphony.” Bonnie Marson’s extraordinary imagination supposes that Schubert cannot truly die until the mystery is solved—even if it means being resurrected in the body of a deceptively ordinary woman. Filled with drama and humor, this irresistible novel explores love, genius, and identity in ways that will engage and amaze readers.