2-' I 



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many ai twenty *oag* were issued in eight months, 

 bat unfortunately no permanent pecuniar}' benefit 

 WM secured to the computer. In 1822 Schubert 

 completed his opera AljuHM and Ktlrrllii, the 

 libretto of which wan furnished by Scholar. It 

 wm rohsjirsnd at Crui/. Inn was not brought to 

 performance daring the com|>oer's lifetime. Liszt 

 produced it at Weimar in ls.">4 ; but it iliil not 

 meet with anv real u. -.. umil March 1881, when 

 with a new libretto ami considerable curtailment 

 it wa produceil m I'ltilsruhc. To IS-'- In-long also 

 the two movement* of tin* unfinished symphony in 

 B minor, in which for the first time in his orcnes- 

 "tral writings Schubert displays a complete individii- 

 ality. Hi< first acquaintance with Weber anil hU 

 formal introduction to Beethoven are also note- 

 wni tliy among the event* of tliia year. 



During INi't S-hiiln-rt devoted much attention to 

 dramatic music, writing with great rapidity the 

 three-act opera of fitnihrat ; but to himself 'these 

 labours resulted only in intense disappointment 

 and depression, although we owe to his efforts in 

 tliit direction the beautiful Rosamunde music, the 

 orchestral parts of which were discovered at Vienna 

 in IH67 by Sir (leorge Grove in a cupboard where 

 they had 'remained untouched for forty-four years. 

 A second long stay with the Esterhazys at Zelesz 

 restored Schubert from his state of extreme dejec- 

 tion, the visit lieing marked bv the einii]Hisilion of 

 many imjMirtant works, including some pianoforte 

 dueU written for his two pupils, the (laughters of 

 < 'onnt Esterhazy. Of these the best known is prob- 

 ably the Divertiuement <i la Hongroisr. inspired 

 l>y Hungarian airs which Schubert heard ming by 

 a servant as he passed the door of the kitchen. 

 The summer of 1825 was devoted to a pleasant 

 tour with Vogl, the two friends delighting every one 

 with t heir performance of Schubert's new songs' from 

 Walter Scott's Lady of the Lake, to which he 

 referred when he wrote 'The way in which Vo^l 

 sings and I accompany, so that for the moment 

 we appear to be one, is something quit)* new and 

 unexpected to these good people.' And yet the 

 seven songs which proved so successful were sold 

 on his return to Vienna for the paltry sum of 20 ! 



The coni|Misitioiis of 1828 included a quartett in 

 I> minor and the pianoforte sonata in ' ;. usually 

 known a the Fantasia. One of Schubert's happiest 

 inspirations, the song Hark ! Hark! tin- ///,-, came 

 suddenly upon him as he sat in a IMHT garden one 

 Sunday afternoon in July; his other ShakeK|>variaii 

 -"iiK. Wko it Sylvia? and the 'drinking song ' in 

 A nli, mi and Cleopatra, lieing also attributable to 

 tin- .Lite. In the autumn he missed a probable 

 appointment as director of the music at the Court 

 of Vienna through his refusal to alter 

 certain pieces which he had composed as a test of 

 hi* fitness for the post Some months later 

 S. hiiliert's wings were brought under the notice 

 of lleethoven. They were put into his hands 

 during hi* last illness by his devoted attendant 

 S-hindler. who had SchiiU-rt's welfare much at 

 heart. The |-nisal of t hem was a revelation to 

 him. and drew from him the exclamation : 'Truly 

 ilwrt has the divine lire !' A recurrence of his 

 malady prevented his acquaintance with SoliulM.it s 

 other works, hut he often spoke of him and fore- 

 told the Rtir which he was destined to make in the 

 JMbMl world. During these days Schubert twice 

 M-itwI the man whom of all others he admired, 

 ami. when the end had come, was one of the torch- 

 DMtfern at Beethoven's funeral. 



In Ivj; Srhulmrt was elected a menilx-r of the 

 reprwenteUve body of the Musical Society of 

 \ ii-iina. an honour which he greatly appreciated, 

 while his pr.~|M-,-t w ,. r( . further liriglitened by 

 advanUgMHiH nmposals from foreign publishers, 

 the best pomihle proof of his growing reputation. 



He was thus spurred on to surpass his former 

 achievements in the composition of his noblest 

 i. lion v (No. 9 in C), begun in March 1828, and 

 ii possibM more characteristic of him tlmn the 

 curlier one in IS minor. His rate of production 

 during this his last year was truly prodigious, for 

 besides the symphony he wrote his Alass in E flat, 

 the oratorio Miriam's War-sung, th string ijnintett 

 in C, and three pianoforte sonatas. He also com- 

 posed several son^s. the woids of which his friend 

 S.liindler had found among ltectlio\ens |iapers. 

 Oneof these, Die Tatibe*jxt*l . is dated ( ictoU-r 1828, 

 nnd is probably the last piece written by Schubert. 

 He gave his lirst and, as it proved, hi.- only concert 

 in the hall of the Musik-Yerein at Vienna on the 

 evening of March 26. The venture was extremely 

 successful, so that for the time being the needy 

 composer was placed beyond want, although he 

 had to abandon his usual summer excursion on 

 account of his poverty, which must indeed have 

 IT. -11 extreme, since he was driven to dispose of 

 some of his finest songs for a few pence apiece. 



At the end of August he took up his aliode with 

 hU brother Ferdinand in a new house in the suburb 

 of Netie Wieden, but the change seems to have 

 hod a bad effect upon his already weak state of 

 health. He recovered sufliciently to join some 

 friends in a short walking tour ; hut his illness 

 soon returned, bringing with it complete loss of 

 appetite. Yet he was as active as ever, lioth in 

 body and in mind. He walked much, and talked 

 of his plans for a proposed new opera, Graf von 

 Gleichen. He was able to go to hear Beethoven '- 

 quartett in C sharp minor, which greatly moved 

 him, and to attend the lirst performance of a 

 Requiem composed by Ferdinand Schulert. At 

 the same time a study of Handel's scores caused 

 him to reflect upon his own deficiencies in counter- 

 point, and to determine to remedy them hy a course 

 of lessons with Sechter, the best-known authority 

 on the subject. The dates of the lessons were 

 fixed and the text-book chosen. But Schubert's 

 time for work was now over. On November 11 he 

 wrote to Schober telling him that for eleven da.i- 

 he had taken neither food nor drink, and asking 

 for some of Cooper's novels to read. A few da\ s 

 later he liecame delirious and was found to IK- 

 suffering from an attack of typhus fever, to which 

 he succumbed on Wednesday, November 19, 1828, 

 in the thirty-second year of his age. In accord- 

 ance with Ins latest wish his remains were buried 

 near Beethoven's grave in the cemetery of Wife- 

 rung ; they were reinterred in the central cemetery 

 of Vienna on September 23, 1888. 



Among composers Schubert is remarkable for 

 the apparently ceaseless impulse to compose which 

 possessed him ; and, as a consequence, for the 

 vast and, considering the shortness of his life, 

 almost incredible quantity of music with which he 

 has enriched the world. He is still more re- 

 nowned for the absolute spontaneity of his writ- 

 ings and for the poetic spirit with which he has 

 imbued them. But his special and peculiar emi- 

 nence lies in the department of song-writing, in 

 which he reached the highest limit of excellence, 

 the earliest of his lyrical productions affording 

 perfectly mature examples of artistic musical form 

 applied to song. In other branches of coni|>osi- 

 tion tin- deficiencies of his theoretical training are 

 often evident, but here his instincts were never at 

 fault. There were occasions when the torrent of 

 inspiration rushed upon him with irresistible force. 

 At such times the recitation or perusal of a poem 

 seemed to touch some hidden spring in him, and in 

 a few momenta he had wedded it to music in such 

 perfect accord with the words that the finest 

 poems of the greatest poets were by this means 

 not so much enhanced as transcended. His usual 



