43 
SCHUBERT AS A SONG-WRITER. 
(Illustrated by Selections). 
By Rev. F. GORDON MEE. December 14 th, 1915. 
Franz Peter Schubert was born in Vienna three years 
before the close of the eighteenth century and though he 
lived only thirty one years he well earned the title, accorded 
to him by Mr. W. H. Hadow, of “ the greatest song-writer 
that ever lived.” 
His home was humble and unromantic but one that was 
religious in tone and where education and music were taken 
seriously. At the age of five Franz was taught to play the 
violin and piano and by the time he was eleven had become 
an Imperial chorister, an appointment which carried with it 
a good musical education and, in Schubert’s case, laid the 
solid foundation of his life-work. It was at the age of thir- 
teen that he first began seriously to compose and thence- 
forward overtures, pianoforte pieces, quartettes, vocal and 
church music came freely from his pen. Two years later he 
composed his first complete orchestral symphony which was 
soon followed by his Mass in F. The public success and 
commendation which attended the production of this mass 
seems to have given new ardour to Schubert’s mind for from 
this time an extraordinary impulse to compose seems to 
have possessed him more entirely and more powerfully than 
in the case of any other composer known to history. In his 
eighteenth year he completed seven operatic works, two 
symphonies, two quartettes, two sonatas, two masses and 
considerably over one hundred songs. Though this quantity 
is large, the perfection of his workmanship is strongly 
marked and some of his finest songs date from this period. 
Examples of his many-sided genius may be seen in his musical 
interpretations of the solemn stillness of nature in ‘‘ Sea 
Calm,” of the sweetness and joy of home-life in “ The 
Cradle-song,” and of the gay fancies and sharp sorrows of 
youthful love in “ Hedgeroses.” Schubert could also find 
scope for his talents in the narrow limits of a hymn-tune as 
for example, in his spirited setting to the hymn “ Stand 
up, stand up for Jesus,” known as “Fairfrid.” 
