Franz Schubert

Franz Seraphicus Peter Schubert is a founder of Romantics and one of the four great pillars of Classicism – along with Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven. Although he only lived for thirty-one years, he produced a large number of masterpieces during his short but prolific career.
Today people recognize Schubert’s greatness, but he was unknown and poor for whole life. In total, he composed over six hundred secular vocal works, seven complete symphonies, sacred music, operas, incidental music and a large body of chamber and piano music (Biography). Franz Schubert was born on January 31, 1797, in Himmelpfortgrund, a small suburb of Vienna in Austria. He was the Fourth surviving son of his family. Nine of fourteen children in his family died in
He had to leave the Stadtkonvikt and became an assistant teacher at his father’s school. Schubert had little patience for this job, but it seemed the only way for him to do. He taught students during the day and composed prolifically at night. He continued to take the private lesson from Salieri for three years. By 1814, the young composer had written plenty of piano pieces and had produced string quartets, a symphony, and a three-act opera. He also set plenty of prominent eighteenth-century poets to music, like Erlkönig which was written by Goethe (Documentary). In 1818, Schubert was tired of teaching, he left the school and threw himself into the composition. He devoted in composition and expected his efforts had paid off. However, he began to gain more popularity in the press, and the first public performance of an overture took place in February 1818. Anton Diabelli, a publisher, hesitantly printed some of his works and paid him a pittance. Music publishers, meanwhile, didn’t want to take a risk on a young composer like Schubert, whose music was not considered traditional. Later in 1822, Schubert was short of money, and his health was failing. He afraid that he was near death, even so, he still insisted on producing. His output during this time included “Wanderer Fantasy” for piano, “Die Schöne Müllerin” and “Fierrabras”. However, none of these brought him the deserved fortune. In 1823, Schubert was elected as an honorary member to the Musikverein of Graz. Though this brought no financial reward and was an inconsequential appointment, Schubert relished its slight recognition and composed his famous “Unfinished Symphony” for thanks. No one else could be able to continue to work on this after Schubert died. 1825, he deserved what he should get for his day-to-day efforts, his condition became better. During that summer, he composed “Songs from Sir Walter Scott”, which include the famous song “Ellens Dritter