Franz Schubert

The average eighteen year-old has a myriad of issues on his mind, including how to party as much as possible, enjoy the college experience, make it to his 8 o’clock class occasionally, and maintain a GPA that will keep his parents as bay. If he successfully has achieves the perfect mixture of good times and equally good grades his freshman year, he will feel as though he has accomplished something great. However, during his eighteenth year, Franz Schubert composed nearly 150 lieder in addition to a number of symphonies and Masses. Not only was Schubert’s astonishing rate of composition above average for an eighteen year old, but few other composers of his time, or any other time period for that matter, could boast of being as prolific as this talented young composer. Although he wrote so many lieder in his short lifetime, Schubert only gained any recognition or profit from a select few, the most illustrious of those being Erlkönig, his most broadly recognized lied, which he composed during the height of his exceptionally fruitful eighteenth year. If Schubert’s life had not been so tragically brief, one can only imagine how many more compositions he could have gone on to create; however, although he may not have had the time to compose as many works as he could have in a longer lifespan, works like Erlkönig, which artfully epitomizes a work of poetry into music, show that he had plenty of time to create music that has had a lasting impact on music.

Although Schubert did not show advanced musical prowess as early as Mozart, his apparent affinity for music led his parents to choose to nurture his musical abilities from an early age. Born in Vienna in 1797 to school teacher Franz Theodor Florian and Elisabeth Vietz, Schubert was ne...

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...red in the other members of the First Viennese School. It shows that during his brief life he was able to master not only quantity in his music, but also quality. Although he did not live long, during his lifetime Schubert set an example through his lieder and other works that many composers would be inspired by for years to come.

Works Cited

Wright, Craig M.. "Romantic Music: The Art Song." Listening to music. 7th ed. Boston, MA: Schirmer/Cengage Learning, 2014. 241. Print.

Robert Winter, et al. "Schubert, Franz." Grove Music Online. Oxford Music Online. Oxford University Press. Web. 8 Dec. 2013. .

Norbert Böker-Heil, et al. "Lied." Grove Music Online. Oxford Music Online. Oxford University Press. Web. 8 Dec. 2013. .