Franz Schubert - a Programatic Composer
“Franz Schubert was a programmatic composer”. Discuss this statement with reference to two pieces studied and refer to three of the concepts of music in your answer.
Composers of the Romantic Period were attracted to programme music – music that provides a story, idea or scene. Franz Schubert, one of the earliest 19th Century composers, was very much so, a programmatic composer. In a short lifespan of 31 years, Franz Peter Schubert composed 600 lieder, (plural for ‘lied’, the German word for ‘song’, pronounced ‘leed’); 9 symphonies; operas; liturgical music; a large amount of chamber music, including 15 string quartets; copious piano duets and 22 solo piano sonatas. Schubert was an Austrian composer born in Vienna on 31st January 1797 and died there on 19 November 1828. Schubert grew up in a poor family but a very musical one. His father was a schoolmaster, and he taught his young son to play the violin, and then Franz’s older brother gave him piano lessons. At the age of nine he began to study with a local organists, Michael Holzer, and two years later was accepted as a chorister in the Court Chapel of Vienna. He then moved on to conducting and writing for his school orchestra, a perfect way of learning how to be a composer. He then studied to become a teacher but later decided to devote himself to composing music. Schubert 's lieder were often performed in gatherings in front of his friends, called ‘Schubertaids’, who supported him all throughout his short career as a composer, one of whom was the famous singer J. M. Vogl.
Majority of Schubert’s compositions are named programmatic music as the pieces express an extra-musical idea, narrative or pictorial image by a piece of literature added to a piece of instrumental music and how his music responds to the German words. Schubert wrote his lieder compositions to be sung by one voice, accompanied by the fortepiano, where the piano has an equal role to the voice. Two of Schubert’s works that provide evidence
Composers of the Romantic Period were attracted to programme music – music that provides a story, idea or scene. Franz Schubert, one of the earliest 19th Century composers, was very much so, a programmatic composer. In a short lifespan of 31 years, Franz Peter Schubert composed 600 lieder, (plural for ‘lied’, the German word for ‘song’, pronounced ‘leed’); 9 symphonies; operas; liturgical music; a large amount of chamber music, including 15 string quartets; copious piano duets and 22 solo piano sonatas. Schubert was an Austrian composer born in Vienna on 31st January 1797 and died there on 19 November 1828. Schubert grew up in a poor family but a very musical one. His father was a schoolmaster, and he taught his young son to play the violin, and then Franz’s older brother gave him piano lessons. At the age of nine he began to study with a local organists, Michael Holzer, and two years later was accepted as a chorister in the Court Chapel of Vienna. He then moved on to conducting and writing for his school orchestra, a perfect way of learning how to be a composer. He then studied to become a teacher but later decided to devote himself to composing music. Schubert 's lieder were often performed in gatherings in front of his friends, called ‘Schubertaids’, who supported him all throughout his short career as a composer, one of whom was the famous singer J. M. Vogl.
Majority of Schubert’s compositions are named programmatic music as the pieces express an extra-musical idea, narrative or pictorial image by a piece of literature added to a piece of instrumental music and how his music responds to the German words. Schubert wrote his lieder compositions to be sung by one voice, accompanied by the fortepiano, where the piano has an equal role to the voice. Two of Schubert’s works that provide evidence
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