Grove's dictionary of music and musicians

1816— SCHUBERT -1817 289
throughout the world, wherever the German
laugnage is understood, by these truly divine
inspirations, these utterances of a musical dairvoyance
! How many would haveoomprehended,
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 ? Kumberless examples may
be named, but I will only mention " The Erl
King," "Gretchen," "Schwager Kronos," the
Mignon and Harper's songs, Schiller's " Sehnsucht,"
"Der Pilgrim, "smd "DieBiirgschaft."'
This extract shows how justly Vogl estimated
Schubert, and how, at that early date, his discernment
enabled him to pass a judgment which
even now it would be difficult to excel. The
word clairvoyance, too, shows that he thoroughly
entered into Schubert's great characteristic. 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. And this
inmiediate communication with the origin of
music really seems to have happened to him.
Ko sketches, no delay, no anxious period of
preparation, no revision, appear to have been
necessary. He had but to read the poem, to
surrender himself to the torrent, and to put
down what was given him to say, as it rushed
through his mind. This was the true ' inspiration
of dictation, ' as much so as in the utterance
of any Hebrew prophet or seer. We have seen
one instance in the case of the 'Erl King.' The
poem of the Wanderer attracted him in the same
way, and the song was completed in one evening.
In a third case, that of Goethe's 'Eastlose
Liebe, ' the paroxysm of inspiration was so fierce
that Schubert never forgot it, but reticent as he
often was, talked of it years afterwards.' It
would seem that the results did not always fix
themselves in the composer's memory as permanently
as if they had been the effect of longer
and more painful elaboration. Vogl tells an
anecdote about this which is very much to the
point.^ On one occasion he received from
Schubert some new songs, but being otherwise
occupied could not try them over at the moment.
When he was able to do so he was particularly
pleased with one of them, but as it was too high
for his voice, he had it copied in a lower key.
About a fortnight afterwards they were again
making music together, and Vogl placed the
transposed song before Schubert on the desk of
the piano. Schubert tried it through, liked it,
1 Eauemfeld, W.Z.E. B lu Kreiule, p. 119 (L 123).
VOL. IV
and said, in his Vienna dialect, ' I say ! the
song's not so bad ; whose is it?' so completely,
in a fortnight, had it vanished from his mind !
Sir Walter Scott attributed a song of his own to
Byron ; but this was in 1828, after his mind
had begun to fail.'
1817 was comparatively an idle year. Its
great musical event was the arrival of Eossini's
'
music in Vienna. L' Inganno felice was ' produced
at the Hoftheater, Nov. 26, 1816, and
'Tancredi,'Dec. 17 ;
'
L' Italiana in Algeri, ' Feb.
1, 1817; and ' Giro in Babilonia, ' June 18 ; and
the enthusiasm of the Viennese—like that of
all to whom these fresh and animated strains
were brought— knew no bounds. Schubert
admired Rossini's melody and spirit, but rather
made fun of his orchestral music, and a. story
is told—not impossibly apocryphal''— of his
having written an overture in imitation of
Rossini, before supper, after returning from
' Tancredi.' At any rate he has left two ' Overtures
in the Italian style ' in D and C, dated
Sept.^ and Nov. 1817 respectively, which were
much played at the time. Schubert made fourhand
PF. arrangements of both, and that in C
has been since published in score and parts as
op. 170, and has been played at the Crystal
Palace (Dec. 1, 1866, etc.) and elsewhere. Its
caricature of Eossini's salient points, including
of course the inevitable crescendo, is obvious
enough ; but nothing could transform Schubert
into an Italian, and the overture has individual
and characteristic beauties which are
immediately recognisable. The influence of
Rossini wjis no mere passing fancy, but may be
traced in the Sixth Symphony, mentioned below,
and in music of his later life—in the two
Marches (op. 121), the Finale to the Quartet
in G (op. 161), and elsewhere.
A third Overture in D belongs to 1817, and,
though still in MS., has also been played at
the Crystal Palace (Feb. 6, 1869, etc.). It is
in two movements Adagio, and All", giusto,
and the former is almost a draft of the analogous
movement in the overture known as
'Eosamunde' (op. 26), though really the
' Zauberharfe. ' There the resemblance ceases.
What led Schubert to the pianoforte this
year in so marked a manner is not known, but
his devotion to it is obvious, for no fewer than
six sonatas belong to this period, viz. three
with opus numbers— op. 122, in E|y ; op. 147,"
in B (August) ; op. 164, in A minor,' and three
others, in F, Al>, and E minor (June).
Schubert's Sixth Symphony, in C,* completed
in February 1818, appears to have been begun
in the preceding October. It is the first one
3 Lockhart'a Life of Scott, vii, 129.
4 K.B. 129 (i. 133).
s Kreissle an-ja May. September is Nottebohm's date : but tbere
is another Overture in D, and it seems doubtful wbich of the two
is dated May, and which September,
6 Autograph in possession of Brahms.
7 Published, by Spina as '7th Sonata.'
B Adagio and Allegro in C ; Andante in F ; Scherzo in C, and
Trio in E major ; Finale in C.