Franz Schubert (1797 - 1828) Octets, D. 803 and D. 72 Franz Schubert was born in 1797, the son of a Vienna schoolmaster, and had his education as a...
Franz Schubert (1797 - 1828)
Octets, D. 803 and D. 72
Franz Schubert was born in 1797, the son of a Vienna schoolmaster, and had
his education as a chorister of the Imperial Chapel at the Staatskonvikt. At
school and at home he had an active musical life, both as a player and as a
composer, and when his voice broke and he was offered the means to continue his
academic education, he decided, instead, to train as a teacher, thus being able
to devote more time to music. By the age of eighteen he had joined his father in
the schoolroom, while continuing to compose and to study with the old court
composer Antonio Salieri. In 1816 he moved away from home, sharing rooms with a
friend and the following years found him generally in the company of friends,
with an occasional resumption of teaching, an advocation for which he had no
great talent, at least in the classroom.
Schubert's brief career continued in Vienna, and while there were occasional
commissions and some of his works were published, there was never the
opportunity of the kind of distinguished patronage that Beethoven had had and
still enjoyed, nor the possibility of an official position in the musical
establishment of the city. It was February 1828 before Schubert was able to have
a concert devoted to his work, an event that proved both successful and
profitable, but by the autumn his health had weakened, the consequence of a
venereal infection contracted six years earlier. He died on 19th November.
As a composer Schubert was both precocious and prolific. Over the years he
wrote some five hundred songs and a quantity of piano and chamber music, with
larger scale works for the theatre and for orchestra, although he never had a
professional orchestra regularly available to him, as Haydn had had by the
nature of his employment as a princely Kapellmeister, or as Beethoven had had
through the good offices of his rich patrons.
Schubert's Octet in F major, D. 803, was commissioned by Count
Ferdinand Troyer, the steward of Beethoven's royal pupil and patron, the
Archduke Rudolph, now Archbishop of Olmutz. The count was a competent amateur
clarinettist and suggested that Schubert should write a companion piece to
Beethoven's Septet, a model that he followed in the number of movements and in
instrumentation, except for the addition of a second violin. Schubert's work is
scored for string quintet, including a double bass, clarinet, bassoon and French
horn, and was written in February and March 1824. It was first performed at the
Count's residence, with the first violin part played by Ignaz Schuppanzigh, the
leading violinist in Vienna, who was responsible for a second and public
performance of the work in 1827. The first of the six movements of the work
starts with a slow introduction, leading to a strongly rhythmic Allegro. The
clarinet is entrusted with the principal theme of the second, slow movement,
accompanied at first by the strings. The following movement, marked Allegro
vivace, is in the mood of a scherzo, with a contrasting Trio, built on a walking
cello foundation. The fourth movement, a theme and seven variations, is based on
a love duet from Schubert's opera Die Freunde von Salamanka, Gelagert unter'm
hellen Dach der Baume. The first variation of the C major theme is in
triplet semiquavers, a rhythm used in the string accompaniment of the following
variation. The second violin provides an even faster accompanying figure for the
next variation, followed by a syncopated treatment of the material and an
excursion into C minor, against the climbing plucked notes of cello and double
bass. An F minor variation allows delicate interweaving of pans before the
original key is re-established in conclusion. The fifth movement, a Minuet with
an inspired folk-dance of a Trio, leads to a last movement with a slow
introduction followed by a bright Allegro, its course momentarily interrupted
before the coda by the return, in a form of enhanced drama, of the material of
the introduction.
The Minuet and Finale are the only movements of the Wind Octet, D. 83,
to survive in complete form. The work was written in August 1813 for Schubert's
school friends and scored for two oboes, two clarinets, two French horns and two
bassoons. The Minuet, in traditional form, has two contrasting Trios. The
Finale, after a brief introduction, embarks on a rhythmic figure that assumes
considerable importance as the movement proceeds. Schubert added a jocular note
to the score, describing himself as Imperial Chinese Director of Music at the
Court of Nanking.