During his brief lifetime of 1797-1828, Franz Peter Schubert composed a remarkable body of works, including more than 600 songs (including the song cycles Winterreise, Die Schöne Müllerin and Schwanengesang), nine symphonies, masterful chamber works (including the ever-popular Trout Quintet), as well as piano works (including the Impromptus, so often played today). His was a unique voice, tinged with both the joy of living and with sadness. Classical Archives is pleased to introduce you to this immortal composer and let him explain his life to you in his own words.
Dear friends,
I am Franz Peter Schubert, born in 1797 in Vienna — the son of a humble schoolmaster. Music entered my life as naturally as breathing. I sang in the Imperial Chapel Choir as a boy, but it was the piano, the violin, and above all the art of composition that became my true companions.
I began to write music almost as soon as I learned to read it. By the time I was a young man, melodies seemed to visit me daily, so insistently that I sometimes felt more like their scribe than their creator.
I studied composition with Antonio Salieri. He taught me discipline and urged me to respect the union of music and poetry. Whatever my natural gift, his guidance gave structure to my inspiration.
Though my family was not wealthy, they supported me in my calling. And perhaps even more important were my friends. They were my companions, my audience, my champions. We gathered in homes and taverns for what came to be called Schubertiades — evenings of song, conversation, laughter, and poetry. To share music in such company was to know joy, and it gave me courage when public recognition was scarce.
I wrote more than six hundred lieder — each one a marriage of poetry and melody; many inspired by poets like Goethe and Müller. In them I tried to capture life’s fleeting emotions — hope, sorrow, tenderness, and longing. You may know Erlkönig, or Ave Maria — a prayer that has outlived me, or Die Forelle, the little trout darting in a brook, that later gave life to my beloved quintet.
But I also composed symphonies that sought to capture grandeur, piano sonatas, chamber music — pieces born as much from friendship as from solitude. I did not seek to dazzle; I sought to speak honestly, tenderly, sometimes with joy, sometimes with sorrow.
I was fortunate, near the end of my life, to meet Beethoven — the great master whom I revered above all. Though he was already gravely ill, he asked to see some of my scores, and I am told he spoke kindly of my work. At his deathbed, one of the last names on his lips was mine. That thought sustained me, even as my own time drew short.
My life was not long — only 31 years — nor was it crowned with fame while I lived. I struggled with illness and with poverty. I often wondered if my music would be heard beyond the circle of friends who cherished it. Yet after my passing, others — Schumann, Mendelssohn, Brahms — discovered my manuscripts and brought them to light. They became the friends of my music, as my companions had been the friends of my life.
If I could leave you with one thought, it is this: in every fleeting melody I set down, I tried to preserve something eternal — the warmth of friendship, the beauty of poetry, the truth of human feeling. If you hear that in my work, then I am content, for my brief life has reached into yours.
A Selection of Works by Franz Peter Schubert Available for Listening on Classical Archives
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Orchestral Works
- Symphony No.1 in D, D.82
- Symphony No.2 in Bb, D.125
- Symphony No.3 in D, D.200
- Symphony No.4 in C-, D.417 (‘Tragic’)
- Symphony No.5 in Bb, D.485
- Symphony No.6 in C, D.589 (‘Little C Major’)
- Symphony No.8 in B-, D.759 (‘Unfinished’)
- Symphony No.9 in C, D.944 (‘Great’)
- Overture in C (‘In the Italian Style’), D.591, Op.posth.170
Chamber Works
- String Quartet in C-, D.703 (‘Quartett-Satz’)
- String Quartet No.13 in A-, D. 804, Op.29 (‘Rosamunde’)
- String Quartet No.14 in D-, D.810 (‘Death and the Maiden’)
- Piano Quintet in A, D.667, Op.posth.114 (‘The Trout’)
Piano Works
- Piano Sonata No.13 in A, D.664, Op.120
- Piano Sonata No.14 in A-, D.784, Op.posth.143
- Piano Sonata No.21 in Bb, D.960
- 6 Moments musicaux, D.780, Op.94
- 4 Impromptus, D.899, Op.90
- 4 Impromptus, D.935, Op.posth.142
Song Cycles
Please note that hundreds of individual Schubert songs are available for listening on Classical Archives. To explore them, visit his Composer’s Page on Classical Archives.
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