Schubert, Franz Peter 1797-1828
Austrian composer

Schubert was born in Vienna, the son of a schoolmaster who gave him early instruction in the violin and piano. At the age of 11 he entered the Stadtkonvikt, a choristers' school attached to the court chapel. He played in the orchestra there, and wrote his first symphony (in D) for it (1813). In 1814 he became assistant master at his father's school; he continued to write music, among which were two fine early songs, the beautiful Gretchen am Spinnrade ('Gretchen at the Spinning Wheel') from Goethe's Faust, and the powerful and sinister Erlk�nig. In 1815 Schubert poured out a flood of over 100 songs, including eight written on a single day, as well as other works.

From 1817 he gave up schoolteaching, to which he was not temperamentally suited, and lived a precarious existence in Vienna, earning a living by giving lessons. His friends at this time included the operatic baritone J Michael Vogl, and amateur artists and poets, of whom the poet Johann Mayrhofer was the closest. With these friends he was to found the new Viennese entertainment, the 'Schubertiads', private and public accompanied recitals of his songs, which made the group of men known throughout Vienna.

In 1818 the first public performance of Schubert's secular music included the overtures written in the style of Rossini, whom Schubert greatly admired. In 1818, and again in 1824, he stayed at Zseliz as the tutor of Count Esterh�zy's three daughters; there he heard Hungarian folk and gypsy music. The 'Trout' quintet for piano and strings in A major (named after its set of variations on a theme from his song, Die Forelle), was written after a walking tour with Vogl in 1819. Schubert's veneration of Beethoven made him visit the coffee house that the older composer frequented, but he was too awestruck ever to approach him, except when Beethoven was sick, when he sent him his compositions - in 1822 a set of variations for a piano duet dedicated to Beethoven, and in 1827 a collection of his songs, which the dying Beethoven greatly admired.

In 1822 he composed the Unfinished Symphony (No 8), and the Wanderer Fantasy for piano (based on a theme from his song, Der Wanderer); about this time he began to be troubled by ill health, possibly syphilis. The song cycle Die sch�ne M�llerin ('Fair Maid of the Mill') and the incidental music to Rosamunde were written in 1823, the string quartets in A minor and D minor (including variations on a theme from his song Der Tod und das M�dchen, 'Death and the Maiden') and the octet in F for wind and strings in 1824. In 1825 he sent Goethe a number of settings of his poems, but they were returned without acknowledgement.

In the last three years of his life Schubert wrote the Winterreise ('Winter Journey') song cycle and a posthumously published group of songs (not a cycle as such), Schwanengesang ('Swan Song'), the string quartet in G major, the string quintet in C, piano trios in B flat and E flat, the moments musicaux for piano, three piano sonatas, the fantasy in F minor for four hands, and a mass. The symphony in C major, formerly dated to 1828, is now thought to have been written three years earlier. He died on 19 November 1828 and was buried as near as possible to Beethoven's grave; later both composers were exhumed and reburied in the Central Cemetery in Vienna.

Other works include six masses, the unfinished oratorio Lazarus (1820), and the operas Alfonso und Estrella (1821-22) and Fierabras (1823). Schubert's music, even when it is overtly happy, is affected by a deep sadness that becomes almost unbearably poignant in his last works, especially the chamber and instrumental music and the songs. His contribution to the creation of the Lied is alone of monumental proportions, and the romantic pathos of his poor existence and short life contrasts with the beauty and profound originality of his musical achievement.

Bibliography: Documentary material can be found in O E Deutsch, Schubert: A Documentary Biography (translated by E Blom, 1946); a standard biography is A Einstein, Schubert (Eng trans 1951). See also E N McKay, Schubert: A Biography (1996); J Reed, Schubert (1987); and J Reed, Schubert: The Final Years (1972), which gives a detailed account of the last two years. Schubert's works were catalogued by O E Deutsch (Eng edn, 1951; revised German edn, 1978) and are usually cited from this catalogue with the prefix 'D'.