THE SCHUBERT CENTENNIAL.
A Schubert celebration was held in Vienna on the hundredth anniversary of the great composer's birth, which occurred on January 31st.
Concerts of Schubert music were given, and an exhibition of his manuscripts and letters.
An old battered piano which he had used was also shown. This is the only article which belonged to him that is known to exist, as he died in extreme poverty. It seems sad that his genius was not properly appreciated until after his death, and that he who was to give so much to the world of music should have been denied all but the barest necessities.
We publish an account of his life, written especially for The Great Round World.
Franz Schubert.
Eighteen hundred and ninety-seven is the centennial year of Franz Schubert, the great composer, who was born in Vienna on the 31st of January, 1797. He was of humble lineage. His father, who also bore the name of Franz, was the son of a peasant, who studied in Vienna, and became assistant to his brother, a schoolmaster. He married Elizabeth Vitz, who had been in service as a cook in Vienna. Franz Peter Schubert was the thirteenth of a family of fourteen children, nine of whom died in infancy. His love of music was apparent when he was very young. A relative often took him to visit a pianoforte warehouse, and there, and on an old worn-out piano at home, the child studied his first exercises without a master. At the age of seven he had a teacher, Michael Holzer, who used to cry out, "When I wish to teach him anything, he always knows it already." When he was eleven years old he was employed as a solo singer and violin player in a church. A little later his father succeeded in getting him a position in the Emperor's Chapel, and he thus became a pupil in a music school, which was called the "Convict."
It seems that the boys at the Convict endured many privations. The practice-room was unbearably cold in winter, and the young students were allowed to go without food for eight hours and a half, between a "poor dinner and a wretched supper." When he was about fifteen, Franz wrote to his brother, explaining his position, his hungry longing for a roll or an apple, and concluded in these words: "I rely on the teaching of the Apostle Matthew, who says, 'Let him that hath two coats give one to the poor.' Meanwhile I trust you will listen to the voice which unceasingly appeals to you to remember your loving, hoping, poverty-stricken—and once again I repeat poverty-stricken—brother Franz."
His earliest composition for the piano is dated April, 1810. It was his habit to date all his pieces. In March, 1811, he composed a long vocal piece, "Hagar's Lament over Her Dying Son." His boy friends at the Convict were devoted to him, and were eager to play, sing, or copy any of his compositions. One of them, Josef Spaun, who was several years older than Schubert, and better off, helped him to procure all the music paper he needed.
His first mass, in F, was composed and performed in 1814. It is said to be the most remarkable first mass ever produced, excepting Beethoven's in C. In 1815, when he was only eighteen years old, he composed the music for more than a hundred songs. The fine song, the "Erl King," was written in this year, and many of his boyish songs are among his finest productions. When he died in 1828, he left more than 1,100 compositions, the greater number of which had not then been published.
In his lifetime, some of his songs were sold for a few pence, and he lived in poverty nearly all his days. Yet publishers have grown rich by the sale of his compositions, and his work is a delight to the world. The house in which he was born is marked by a marble tablet, and costly memorials have been raised in his honor. Some words that he spoke in the delirium of his last illness made his brother Ferdinand believe that he wished to be buried near Beethoven. This wish was fulfilled, and his grave lies near that of the great musician, for whom from his early boyhood he always had a profound reverence and admiration.