Schubert was the son of a lower-middle-class Viennese schoolmaster. There was always music in the home, and the boy received a solid musical education in the training school for Viennese court singers. His talent amazed his teachers and also a number of his schoolmates, who remained devoted to him throughout his career. Schubert began by following in his father’s footsteps as a schoolteacher, without much enthusiasm, but soon gave up teaching to devote all his time to music.

Schubert was an endearing but shy and unspectacular individual who led an unspectacular life. However, it was the sort of life that would have been impossible before the Romantic era. Schubert never married — it is believed he was gay — and never held a regular job. He was sustained by odd fees for teaching and publications and by contributions from a circle of friends who called themselves the Schubertians — young musicians, artists, writers, and music lovers. One of the Schubertians, Moritz von Schwind, who became an important painter, has left us many charming pictures of the group at parties, on trips to the country, and so on (see page 235).

It was an atmosphere especially conducive to an intimate musical genre such as the lied. Schubert wrote nearly seven hundred lieder and many choral songs. For a time he roomed with a poet, Johann Mayrhofer, who provided him with gloomy texts for about fifty of them.

But it’s unfortunate that Schubert’s wonderful songs have tended to overshadow his symphonies, sonatas, and chamber music. Starting out with Classical genres, Schubert in his very short lifetime transformed them under the influence of Romanticism. He never introduced himself to Beethoven, even though they lived in the same city; perhaps he instinctively felt he needed to keep his distance from the overpowering older master. It speaks much for Schubert that he was able to write such original and powerful works as the “Unfinished” Symphony, the so-called Great Symphony in C, and others, right under Beethoven’s shadow. (We listened to the beginning of the “Unfinished” Symphony in Unit I; see page 11.)

A few of Schubert’s instrumental works include melodies taken from his own songs: the popular Trout Quintet, the String Quartet in D Minor (Death and the Maiden), and the Wanderer Fantasy for piano.

Schubert died in a typhoid fever epidemic when he was only thirty-one. He never heard a performance of his late symphonies, and much of his music came to light only after his death.

Our portrait shows Schubert around the time he wrote The Erlking.

Chief Works: Lieder, including the song cycles Die schöne Müllerin, Winterreise, and Schwanengesang, “The Erlking,” “Gretchen at the Spinning Wheel,” “Hedgerose,” “Death and the Maiden,” “The Trout,” and hundreds of others ◼ “Character” pieces for piano; waltzes ◼ Symphonies, including the “Unfinished” — Schubert completed only two movements and sketches for a scherzo — and the Great Symphony in C ◼ Piano sonatas; Wanderer Fantasy for piano ◼ Four mature string quartets; a string quintet; the genial Trout Quintet for piano and strings (including double bass)

Encore: After “The Erlking,” listen to the “Unfinished” Symphony and songs from Winterreise.

Image credit:Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna, Austria/The Bridgeman Art Library.