George Grove

“ But they never obtrude themselves or become prominent. They are all merged and absorbed in the gaiety, pathos and personal interest of the music itself, and of the man who is uttering through it his griefs and joys, his hopes and fears, in so direct and touching a manner as no composer ever did before or since, and with no thought of an audience, of fame, or success, or any other external thing. No one who listens to it can doubt that Schubert wrote for himself alone. His music is the simple utterance of the feelings with which his mind is full. ”

“ Now, all men know that the earth of the plain of Damascus is that out of which our first father Adam was created, and that in all the world there is not so fine or so productive a soil; but of all that plain Darâya is the richest. The grapes grow there to this day in great abundance, for though thousands and tens of thousands eat of them, there is never any lack. But the vines will flourish nowhere else, as many can affirm who have planted them elsewhere. And this is the story of the grapes of Darâya, which will grow nowhere but in their own soil. ”

“ We are accustomed to think of Beethoven's end as solitary and his death as miserable, but what was his last illness compared to Schubert's? Officious friends, like Pasqualati, sending him wine and delicacies; worshipping musicians, like Hummel and Hiller, coming to his deathbed as if to a shrine; his faithful attendants, Schindler, Hüttenbrenner and Breuning waiting on his every wish; the sense of a long life of honour and renown ”

“ The Mass in G, too, though composed for a very limited orchestra, and not without tokens of hurry, is a masterpiece. The dramatic works contain many beautiful movements, and are full of striking things, but the librettos are so bad, that in their present condition they can never be put on the stage. The symphonies, though not original, are not without original points; and are so sustained throughout, so full of fresh melody and interesting harmony, and so extraordinarily scored considering their date, that in these respects a man of double Schubert's age might be proud to claim them. ”

“ How could a sot—how could any one who even lived freely, and woke with a heavy head or a disordered stomach—have worked as he worked, and have composed nearly 1000 such works as his in 18 years, or have performed the feats of rapidity that Schubert did in the way of opera, symphony, quartet, song, which we have enumerated? No sot could write six of the 'Winterreise' songs—perfect, enduring works of art—in one morning, and that no singular feat! ”

“ He seems to have been hardly able—at any rate he did not care—to discriminate between the magnificent songs of Goethe, Schiller, and Mayrhofer, the feeble domesticities of Kosegarten and Hölty, and the turgid couplets of the authors of his librettos. All came alike to his omnivorous appetite. But the fact is that, apart from his music, Schubert's life was little or nothing, and that is its most peculiar and most interesting fact. Music and music alone was to him all in all. ”

“ The beautiful Serenade in the Schwanengesang, again, combines an incessant rhythmical accompaniment with ritornels (longer than those in the last case) , both uniting with the lovely melody in a song of surpassing beauty. In the 'Liebesbothschaft,' the rhythm is not so strongly marked, but the ritornels are longer and more frequent, and form a charming feature in that exquisite love-poem. Schubert's passion for rhythm comes out as strongly in many of the songs as it does in his marches and scherzos. ”

“ Beethoven was well read, a politician, thought much, and talked eagerly on many subjects. Mozart and Mendelssohn both drew; travelling was a part of their lives; they were men of the world, and Mendelssohn was master of many accomplishments. Schumann too, though a Saxon of Saxons, had travelled much, and while a most prolific composer, was a practised literary man. But Schubert has nothing of the kind to show. He not only never travelled out of Austria, but he never proposed it, and it is difficult to conceive of his doing so. To picture or work of art he very rarely refers. ”

“ In hearing Schubert's compositions it is often as if one were brought more immediately and closely into contact with music itself than is the case in the works of others; as if in his pieces the stream from the great heavenly reservoir were dashing over us, or flowing through us, more directly, with less admixture of any medium or channel, than it does in those of any other writer even of Beethoven himself. ”

“ No one has ever combined wind instruments as these are combined. To quote Schumann once more—they talk and intertalk like human beings. It is no artful concealment of art. The artist vanishes altogether, and the loving, simple, human friend remains. It were well to be dumb in articulate speech with such a power of utterance at command! If anything were wanting to convince us of the absolute inspiration of such music as this it would be the fact that Schubert never can have heard either of the two Symphonies which we have just been citing.—But to return to the orchestra. ”

“ In that wonderful song, which fortunately is so well known that no attempt at describing it is necessary, the personal feelings and the surroundings are so blended—the fear, the faith, the rapture, the storm, the swaying of the house, are so given, that for the time the hearer becomes the Young Nun herself. Even the convent bell, which in other hands might be a burlesque, is an instrument of the greatest beauty. ”

“ All are worth knowing, though all are by no means of equal excellence.
I end my imperfect sketch of the life and works of this wonderful musician, by recalling the fact that Schubert's songs, regarded as a department of music, are absolutely and entirely his own. Songs there were before him, those of Schulz for instance, and of Zumsteeg, which he so greatly admired, and of Haydn and Mozart—touching, beautiful expressions of simple thought and feeling. But the Song, as we know it in his hands; full of dramatic fire, poetry, and pathos ”

“ The world has not yet recovered from its astonishment as, one after another, the stores accumulated in those dusky heaps of music paper (valued at 8s. 6d.) were made public, each so astonishingly fresh, copious, and different from the last. As songs, masses, part-songs, operas, chamber-music of all sorts and all dimensions—pianoforte-sonatas, impromptus and fantasias, duets, trios, quartets, quintet, octet, issued from the press or were heard in manuscript; as each season brought its new symphony, overture, entr'acte, or ballet-music, people began to be staggered by the amount. ”

“ Then an intelligent and well-informed foreign musician could visit the Austrian capital and live in its musical circles, without so much as hearing Schubert's name. [230] Now memorials are erected to him in the most public places of Vienna, institutions are proud to bear his name, his works go through countless editions, and publishers grow rich upon the proceeds even of single songs, while faces brighten and soften, and hands are clasped, as we drink in the gay and pathetic accents of his music. ”

“ Voice and piano became as nothing; the music seemed to want no material help, but the melodies appealed to the ear as a vision does to the eye.' Not only did the boy think it the deepest musical impression he had ever received, but the tears coursed down the cheeks even of the veteran Hummel. Either then or a few evenings afterwards, Hummel showed his appreciation by extemporising on Schubert's 'Blinde Knabe,' which Vogl had just sung—to Franz's delight. ”

“ Had but a portion of the pains been spent on the musical education of Schubert that was lavished on that of Mozart or of Mendelssohn, we can hardly doubt that even his transcendent ability would have been enhanced by it, that he would have gained that control over the prodigious spontaneity of his genius which is his only want, and have risen to the very highest level in all departments of composition, as he did in song-writing. ”

“ Time has so altered the public sense of his merits that it is all but impossible to place oneself in the forlorn condition in which he must have resigned himself to his departure, and to realise the darkness of the valley of the shadow of death through which his simple sincere guileless soul passed to its last rest, and to the joyful resurrection and glorious renown which have since attended it. ”

“ Coming to Vienna to enter the University, apparently soon after the Laibach rebuff, he called on Schubert, found him in his father's house, overwhelmed with his school duties, and with apparently no time for music. There, however, were the piles of manuscript—operas, masses, symphonies, songs, heaped up around the young schoolmaster composer, and Schober saw at once that some step must be taken to put an end to this cruel anomaly, and give Schubert time to devote himself wholly to the Art of which he was so full. Schober proposed that his new friend should live with him ”

“ He left, as we have said, no letters to speak of, no journal; there is no record of his ever having poured out his soul in confidence, as Beethoven did in the 'Will,' in the three mysterious letters to some unknown Beloved, or in his conversations with Bettina. He made no impression even on his closest friends beyond that of natural kindness, goodness, truth, and reserve. His life is all summed up in his music. No memoir of Schubert can ever be satisfactory, because no relation can be established between his life and his music ”

“ And now, in the midst of the overwhelming tumult and absorption which inevitably accompany the production of so large a work of imagination as a three-act opera, brought into being at so extraordinarily rapid a pace, he was to stop, and to indite a set of songs, which though not of greater worth than many others of his, are yet so intelligible, so expressive, address themselves to such universal feelings, and form so attractive a whole, that they have certainly become more popular, and are more widely and permanently beloved, than any similar production by any other composer. ”

“ To the Committee of the Austrian Musical Society.—Convinced of the noble desire of the Society to give its best support to every effort in the cause of art, I venture, as a native artist, to dedicate this my Symphony to the Society, and most respectfully to recommend myself to its protection. With the highest esteem, Your obedt.
Franz Schubert. ”

“ The journey home was a triumphal progress, and by the 27th they were back in Vienna. Schubert then wrote the second part of the 'Winterreise' (nos. 13–24) , completing that immortal work. The shadows lie much darker on the second than on the first part, and the 'Wegweiser,' 'Das Wirthshaus,' 'Die Krahe,' 'Die Nebensonnen,' and 'Der Leiermann,' are unsurpassed for melancholy among all the songs. Even in the extraordinary and picturesque energy of 'Die Post' there is a deep vein of sadness. Schubert here only followed faithfully, as he always does, the character of the words. ”

“ How many would have comprehended, probably for the first time, the meaning of such expressions as 'speech and poetry in music,' 'words in harmony,' 'ideas clothed in music,' etc., and would have learnt that the finest poems of our greatest poets may be enhanced and even transcended when translated into musical language? ”

“ There is no breadth, there is no grandeur, there is no dignity in either; clearness, and contrast, and beautiful finish are always apparent, but the orchestra, though loud, is never massive and sonorous, and the music, though always correct, is never serious or imposing.' Is it possible for criticism to be more hopelessly wrong? ”

“ As an artist, Madame Schumann's place is indubitably in the first rank of living pianists; indeed she may perhaps be considered to stand higher than any of her contemporaries, if not as regards the possession of natural or acquired gifts, yet in the use she makes of them. Her playing is characterised by an entire absence of personal display, a keen perception of the composer's meaning, and an unfailing power of setting it forth in perfectly intelligible form. ”