BY CHRISTOPHER H. GIBBS
Until you have listened to Schubert, you can have no appreciation that a human being in a short life could create a vast amount of delightful and reflective music.
5.0 stars out of 5 stars
When classical music fans are asked to name the big three composers, there is probably a near unanimous answer: Bach, Mozart, and Beethoven. When the question is modified to “Who are the big four?”, there are likely to be many names for the 4th composer. For me, it is not easy to nail down the 4th name, but Franz Schubert is certainly among the top contenders.
Ever since I listened to classical music some six decades ago, a number of Schubert’s compositions were among my favorites. These included several of his songs, the Great Symphony, the trout quintet, the second piano trio, and his piano impromptus. In the book “Men of Music” by Wallace Brookway and Herbert Winstock, which I read a long time ago, there is a chapter, among 23 chapters, entitled “Franz Peter Schubert“. During the past year, I have read books on Bach, Mozart and Beethoven and have written reviews on these books. Recently, it occurred to me that it would be interesting to add a book about Schubert to my reading list. After some search, I came across “The life of Schubert” by Christopher H. Gibbs.
Somewhere at the beginning of the book, there is the sentence “In short, Schubert’s music is magnificent; his life is dull”. However, several adjectives are used in the titles of the 8 chapters, including: Ingenious Schubert; Popular Schubert; Dark Schubert; and Immortal Schubert. It seems to me that a life that needs these many adjectives to describe could not be dull. Perhaps poetic is a better word for a life which “Live for art only”.
I am glad that the book brought my attention to several Schubert compositions which I was not aware of before. These include military marches and grand marches, dances, and the last two lieders: the light-hearted “Die Taubenpost” and the dark “Die Doppelganger”.
Beethoven was Schubert’s hero. Schubert died within a year of Beethoven’s death. It is very moving to learn that, while dying, Schubert’s friends honored his request to arrange a performance of Beethoven’s string quartet No. 14 in C-sharp minor on his bedside. The music sent Schubert into a state of delight and enthusiasm. The C-sharp minor quartet was the last music he heard. The author described this as “The king of harmony had sent the king of song a friendly bidding to the crossing.” Schubert was buried close to Beethoven in the Wahring Cemetery.
Schubert’s life spanned a mere 31 years, some 5 years shorter than Mozart. His compositions were catalogued by Ott Erich Deutsch. A composition is denoted by D and a number. For example, the Great Symphony is D944. A number as high as D990 is listed in Wikipedia. Schubert literally needed to compose even in his dreams to produce this quantity of work. Indeed, his works continuously surfaced long after his death, as if he goes on composing invisibly. In several genres (symphony, piano sonata, song, quintet, trio), his best stand tall even when compared with those of Beethoven and Mozart.
The German poet Goethe once said: ”Until you have seen the Sistine Chapel, you can have no adequate conception of what man is capable of accomplishing”. Paraphrasing Goethe, “Until you have listened to Schubert, you can have no appreciation that a human being in a short life could create an amazing amount of beautiful and reflective music”.
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