Franz Schubert

During his short life Schubert produced a huge amount and variety of music. This biography paints a picture of him and his world, exploring family background, education and musical upbringing, his manic-depression, the effect of his lifestyle on his music, and the circumstances of his death. Franz Schubert (1797-1828) was born in Vienna of immigrant parents. During his short life, brought to an end by syphilis at the age of 31, he produced an astonishing amount of music. Symphonies, chamber music, opera, church music, and songs (more than 600 of them) poured forth in profusion. His `Trout' Quintet, his `Unfinished' Symphony, the three last piano sonatas, and above all his song cycles Die Schöne Müllerin and Winterreise have come to be universally regarded as belonging to the very greatest works of music. Who was the man who composed this amazing succession of masterpieces, so many of which were either entirely ignored or regarded as failures during his lifetime? In her new biography, Elizabeth McKay paints a vivid portrait of Schubert and his world. She explores his family background, his education and musical upbringing, his friendships, and his brushes and flirtations with the repressive authorities of Church and State. She discusses his experience of the arts, literature and theatre, and his relations with the professional and amateur musical world of his day. Schubert's manic-depressive temperament became of increasing significance in his life, and Elizabeth McKay shows how it was partly responsible for his social inadequacies, professional ineptitude, and idiosyncrasies in his music. She examines Schubert's uneven physical decline after he contracted syphilis, traces its effects on his music, his hedonism, and sensuality, and investigates the cause and circumstances of his death at the age of thirty-one.

Clarity of outline, conciseness, and formal beauty are excellent things in musical works, but an exquisite fancy, a noble imagination, and a lofty poetic spirit are of infinitely greater account; and no one ever possessed these inestimable gifts in richer profusion than Franz Schubert. This new edition of Henry Frost’s 1892 biography of Franz Schubert has been edited and revised. The original references to pieces by Opus number have been replaced with the more commonly used D numbers. Many illustrations of places and people have been added throughout the text, and a complete catalog of Schubert’s works has been included. “With faith man steps forth into the world. Faith is far ahead of understanding and knowledge; for to understand anything, I must first of all believe something. Faith is the higher basis on which weak understanding rears its first columns of proof; reason is nothing but faith analysed.” – Franz Schubert