![]() ![]() Over several years he gathered an intensely loyal group of associates who enjoyed his music and did what they could to support the young composer and promote his music. Schubert was not completely devoid of supporters though. The lack of significant publication and performance meant that his income was rather meagre. Many of his orchestra compositions were never performed publicly, and only his chamber music and songs were able to be performed in smaller social gatherings. Although a skilled pianist and violinist, he was neither a virtuoso performer nor a flamboyant conductor who could promote his own work on the public stage. Physically Schubert was short and plump and short-sighted, and everything we know about him suggests that he was a quiet and private man. One of his brief teaching positions was to provide tuition to the daughters of Count Esterhazy in Hungary, for whose house Haydn had previously worked on a permanent basis. When his voice broke he himself became a teacher and during this period he started to compose in earnest, eventually giving up teaching altogether so that he could devote even more time to his art. He joined the Imperial Court Chapel Choir as a boy soprano where he received further tuition, one of his teachers being the same Salieri who had been accused at one stage of poisoning Mozart (see the film "Amadeus" for more about this myth). His father and a local teacher taught him music but his ability quickly exceed their standard. ![]() His writings suggested a man who was driven to spend his time composing, and he relied instead on the feedback and support of a small circle of friends and admirers.įranz Schubert belonged to a large family headed by his schoolmaster father. During his short lifetime the lack of widespread public awareness didn't seem to bother Schubert. Some of his works were then published and performed for the first time, and gradually his talents became widely recognised. In many ways it was not until after his death that others started to recognise his genius. While Beethoven was comparatively well-known and well funded, and working towards a major revolution in musical expression, Schubert was younger, less well-known, under-funded and his innovations in musical expression were not so well recognised at the time. They were contemporaries in the same city of Vienna at the time of significant change in the development and shape of music. In some ways the work of Franz Schubert has always been overshadowed by the dominating presence of Beethoven. Franz Schubert (1797-1828) - classical composer ![]()
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