Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians

“ 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? ”

“ Her repertoire is large; her playing is free from affectation; her tone powerful, her style at once vigorous, tasteful and refined; and she interprets with fidelity the spirit of each master whose works she produces. The impression she leaves is that of a true musician, gifted with an extraordinary memory and with intellectual powers above the average. ”

“ We do not say that this is the highest class of his songs. The highest class of poetry, and of music illustrating and enforcing poetry, must always deal with human joys and sorrows, in their most individual form, with the soul loving or longing, in contact with another soul, or with its Maker ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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! ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ For when we come to the music we find everything that was wanting elsewhere. There we have fluency, depth acuteness and variety of expression, unbounded imagination, the happiest thoughts, never-tiring energy, and a sympathetic tenderness beyond belief. And these were the result of natural gifts and of the incessant practice to which they forced him; for it seems certain that of education in music—meaning by education the severe course of training in the mechanical portions of their art to which Mozart and Mendelssohn were subjected—he had little or nothing. ”

“ On the other side of the line, in both cases, orchestra and chamber, are a vast number of works full of beauty, interest, and life; breathing youth in every bar, absolute Schubert in many movements or passages, but not completely saturated with him, not of sufficiently independent power to assert their rank with the others, or to compensate for the diffuseness and repetition which remained characteristics of their author to the last, but which in the later works are hidden or atoned for by the astonishing force, beauty, romance, and personality inherent in the contents of the 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. ”

“ On the other hand, we have seen that a more moderate party, numbering among its ranks some young Composers of acknowledged merit, is neither prepared to sacrifice dramatic truth to musical symmetry, nor musical symmetry to dramatic truth: but is determined to use Melody, Harmony, and Form, as means of enforcing Expression, Action, and the varied demands of scenic propriety not as hindrances to them ”

“ 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? ”

“ To each one he is not only a great musician, not only a great enchanter, but a dear personal friend. If in his 'second state sublime' he can know this, we may feel sure that it is a full compensation to his affectionate spirit for the many wrongs and disappointments that he endured while on earth.
The very wide field over which Schubert ranged in poetry has been more than once alluded to in the foregoing. ”

“ 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 ”

“ It was the immediate or proximate cause of the 'Grand Duo'—that splendid work in which, with Beethoven in his eye, Schubert was never more himself—and the Divertissement à la hongroise; as well as the beautiful and intensely personal String Quartet in A minor, which has been not wrongly said to be the most characteristic work of any composer; ultimately also of the D minor and G major Quartets, the String Quintet in C, and the three last Sonatas, in all of which the Hungarian element is strongly perceptible—all the more strongly because we hardly detect it at all in the songs and vocal works. ”

“ He is distinguished as a ballad singer, for which his clear and distinct enunciation of the words eminently qualify him, and for his skill in 'speaking' recitative. He is moreover an excellent musician. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ In early stages of musical art vocal music must have been almost exclusively in the form of recitative, which in some cases was evidently brought to a very high pitch of expressive perfection, and no doubt merged into melody at times, much as prose in passages of strong feeling occasionally merges into poetry. ”

“ But just such a use of the intellectual powers as serves the purposes of true art, ensuring perfect accuracy in all respects, no liberties being taken with the text, even when playing from memory, and above all securing an interpretation of the composer's work which is at once intelligible to the listener—this certainly forms an essential element of her playing, and it is worth while insisting on this, since the absence of that strict accuracy and perspicuity is too often mistaken for evidence of deep emotional intention. ”

“ Schubert elected to enter his father's school, and after the necessary study for a few months at the Normal School of St. Anna, did so, and actually remained there for three years as teacher of the lowest class. The duties were odious, but he discharged them with strict regularity, and not with greater severity than might reasonably be expected from the irritable temperament of a musician condemned to such drudgery. The picture of Pegasus thus in vile harness, and the absence of any remark on the anomaly, throws a curious light on the beginnings of a great composer. ”

“ 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. ”

“ He was, as Liszt so finely [216] said, 'le musicien le plus poète que jamais'—the most poetical musician that ever was; and the main characteristics of his music will always be its vivid personality, fullness, and poetry. In the case of other great composers, the mechanical skill and ingenuity, the very ease and absence of effort with which many of their effects are produced, or their pieces constructed, is a great element in the pleasure produced by their music. Not so with Schubert. ”

“ The modern instrumentalist, and unfortunately in many cases the modern composer, avows his contempt for singing. But as surely as singing—that is, the Italian School of singing—is allowed to die out, its decease will react upon instrumental music. Instrumental music gets its legato and the more subtle parts of its art of phrasing from the singer; while the singer owes his precision and more musicianly qualities to the instrumentalist. ”

“ 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 ”

“ But what he wanted in power is almost made up, in regard to the artistic enjoyment to be derived from his works, in individuality and in finish. He is in a special degree a musician's composer. His excellences, in addition to the real and genuine feeling for beauty and expression which pervades his music, belong to that interesting and delicate type of art which illustrates in a special degree the fitness of means to an end, the relation between the feeling expressed and the manner and medium of expressing it ”