Franz Schubert: The King Of Austrian Composers

Over the past few years I have been interested in various composers that I have heard, and one that has sparked my interest is the Austrian composer Franz Peter Schubert. I have personally sung one of his composed tenor solos named Die Forelle, but in English it is translated to The Trout. That was an incredibly fun and peppy piece of music literature about a fish, and that piece is what mainly sparked the interest of Franz’s life. After having looked up Franz Schubert I found that he was born in Himmelpfortgrund, Austria, which is near Vienna, on January 31st, 1797. Franz was the fourth son of his parents, his father being a teacher. Franz’s musical talents possibly were passed from his father, who taught him basic violin skills while he was young. Franz’s older brother also taught him piano skills. Later, when he was seven, he was given his first lessons by the organist and choirmaster of the local church. During this time Franz practiced and even played viola in his family’s string quartet. This family ensemble possibly started Franz’s love for writing music. The very first compositions Franz Schubert wrote were actually for string quartets, and for his family ensemble. Along with Franz’s orchestral skills, his voice also gained attention during these years. It became noticed enough that Franz received a choir scholarship became and became a pupil at the Stadtkonvikt Imperial Seminary School. Schubert played the violin in the student’s orchestra, and also participated in the student choir. While at school, Franz was introduced to the works of Mozart and other classic composers. These likely intrigued Schubert and led him to want to make his own works even more than before. It was during these years that he started writing more compositions. His earlier works included a lengthy orchestra piece named Fantasia for Piano Duet, various chamber music pieces, and three string quartets. Schubert was supposedly very shy in school, but through the interest of his peers and his music he eventually overcame his shyness and brought his finished works to Antonio Salieri, the musical authority of Vienna. By 1813 Franz left school and returned home to work as a teacher like his father. He started with the youngest children and worked for two years. But meanwhile he was still in contact with Salieri, and took lessons from him. The numerous compositions he wrote on the side between 1813 and 1815 are his most remarkable.

In 1815 he composed over 20,000 bars of music, and more than half were for orchestra. He continued composing, but by 1822 his financial needs were going unmet, and he became severely sick with possibly syphilis. He continued composing for six years, until 1828 when he died. He was only 31 years old, but by the life expectancy of the time that was still a fairly long life. Schubert’s first and final public concert took place in March, 1828, and allowed him to by a piano with the money he collected. With his health getting worse he moved in with his brother Ferdinand. He died on November 19, 1828 in Vienna, Austria. By the end of his life he had composed some 1500 pieces, with his largest genre being solo voice and piano. It was only after he died that his music received the recognition it deserved. His choral pieces make up 500 in total, and were written for male and female voices, along with mixed voices. One of the many pieces that Franz Schubert composed for choral is In Monte Oliveti. This piece was published in the year 1891 and I think this piece is a good example of the pieces he wrote but never published in his lifetime. I chose this piece truthfully because it was short and sweet. It sounded good while listening to it and was an A capella SATB which I respect. The overall tone of the piece is pretty light, but still sad to me. The piece is sung in the Latin language and is a sacred song for the purpose of Palm Sunday. The harmonies and dynamics stand out to me the most in this short piece, since the choir that sings does them very well and you can notice the time that they put into making the piece well sung. The second choral piece is quite the contrary of my first piece I looked at from Schubert’s compositions. This piece named Mass No. 2 in G major is in fact over twenty minutes long instead of being just a two minute A Capella piece like In Monte Oliveti. This behemoth of a choral piece published in 1844 is actually very interesting to listen to, meaning that it keeps your attention better than expected. I enjoy having the extra instruments in the background, and that is a major reason I picked this piece. This piece requires several string instruments, including 2 violins, a viola, and a cello. Not only are the strings enjoyable but the piece also involves a bass, an organ, 2 trumpets, and 2 oboes. All of these instruments stand out greatly in this piece and make it extremely enjoyable and relaxing to listen to. This piece is written for a full SATB choir, with a mini orchestra on the side. The language is Latin, and the choir I found singing this piece is exceptional. There are a few solos in the piece for a soprano, tenor, and a bass, which make the Latin language stand out strongly and boldly. Since this piece is so long it includes several separate parts, or movements as I believe they are called. These smaller pieces each have their own tone, but for the majority of Mass No. 2 in G major I found it to be bright like a hymn, since that is what Schubert wrote it for. Like the previous piece this gargantuan of a song is a sacred hymn majorly for Masses in the Catholic faith. I enjoyed listening to Schubert’s piece and would actually like to sing parts of it myself.

The third and final piece that I decided to look at is very similar to the first piece. This piece, composed in 1891, is Lebenslust, a piece that I think is far on the brighter side of Schubert’s compositions. I chose this piece because of its brightness, musical technique of the piano, and because it reminds me of Die Forelle that I sang last spring. The tenor voices in this song stand out to me the most, maybe because I myself am a tenor. This piece is written again for an entire SATB choir, but does not include solos like the second piece. I enjoy Schubert’s choice of using the piano in this piece, and I really enjoy all of the piano’s riffs and runs in this composition. This is a piece, also like Die Forelle that involves the German language. Possibly because of this the piece is more peppy and enjoyable than the others in my ears. I enjoy the fast speed and the bright tones that make this piece my favorite out of the three pieces I chose to look at in Schubert’s arrays of compositions. Franz Schubert’s life may have only been 31 years long, but he composed many splendous compositions in that time. I am truly amazed at how much music he wrote, not only for choral, but for orchestra and mixed compositions. Schubert is now one of my favorite composers, but not from listening to his many works. He is my favorite because of his dedication to writing and composing. Just like a lot of us today Franz Schubert had a job. He wrote on the side when he could when he was starting off. He wasn’t actually famous or well known until after he died, but he kept writing these pieces of music literature. That impresses me as well as makes me admire him all the more. The pieces I looked at all come from Schubert’s compositions. Out of the three pieces, none were published while Franz Schubert was living, but after he was dead and six feet under the ground. Society finally took notice to these pieces of music and published them. That is something all three of these pieces have in common. All of them are different in their own ways, and that is also partially why I chose them specifically. One was a capella, one was with piano, and one was with several musical instruments. The instruments made a huge difference. One piece was many minutes longer than the others, and makes you wonder how incredibly long the composer spent writing this piece. Not to forget the languages that these pieces were meant to be sung in. Two were in Latin, and one in German, which contributed to the pieces in different ways. All these different things add up in pieces and make them so much better to listen to, and it is good to listen to different music that you haven’t heard before. These pieces were great to listen to and I am actually glad that I had to look these pieces up. Without it I may not have ever known about these pieces or this much about one specific Austrian composer. Franz Schubert deserves recognition for all of his pieces, and I am glad to fully endorse his writing techniques and style by calling him the King of Austrian Composers.