Grove's dictionary of music and musicians

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294. 1820 SCHUBERT 1820
mentality of Mr. Thayer, it was unearthed in
1861. These have been published,' but no
trace of the third act has yet been found, and
the work was not performed till long after the
composer's death—viz. in 1863.
On June 14 the ' Zwillingsbriider ' or 'Zwillinge'
was produced at the Kamthnerthor
theatre. It is a comic operetta (' Poase '), with
spoken dialogue, in one act, containing an overture
and ten numbers, and turns on the plot that
has done duty many times before, the confusion
between two twin-brothers, who were both acted
by Vogl. The overture was encored on the first
night, and Vogl's two songs were much applauded,
but the piece was virtually a fiasco,
and was withdrawn after six representations.
Schubert took so little interest in its production
that, like Mendelssohn at the ' Wedding of
Camacho,' lie did not even stay in the house,
and Vogl had to appear instead of him in front*
of the curtain. The libretto, though overburdened
with characters, is sadly deficient in
proportion, and contains very little action.
Schubert's music, on the other hand, is light,
fresh, and melodious, pointed, unusually compact,
and interesting throughout. In the
concerted numbers there is evidence of great
dramatic power. To condemn it, as the critics
of the day do, as wanting in melody, and
constantly striving after originality, is to contradict
Schubert's most marked characteristics,
and is contrary to the facts. There is possibly
more justice in the complaint that the accompaniments
were too loud, though that is
certainly not the fault in his masses, his only
other published works with orchestral accompaniments
anterior to this date. The work
has been published in vocal score by Peters
(1872).
On August 19 the ' Zauberharfe ' was produced
at the Theatre an-der-Wien. It consists
chiefly of chorus and melodrama, with only a
few solo passages. There is a fine overture
(in 0), original, characteristic, and full of
beauty, which was published before 1828 as
op. 26, under the name of 'Eosamunde,' to
which it seems to have no claim. ^ The piece
was occasionally brought forward till the winter,
and was then dropped. These three vocal
works appear so far to have whetted Schubert's
appetite that in the autumn he attacked the
more important libretto of ' Sakontala, ' a regular
opera in three acts, by P. H. Neumann,
founded on the Indian drama of that name.
He sketched two acts, and there it remains ; the
MS. is in Herr Dumba's possession. Another
important and very beautiful piece is the 23rd
Psalm,^ set for two sopranos and two altos with
PF. accompaniment, at the instigation of the
1 In 1866, by Spina.
2 The overture played to tlie 'Bosamunde' musio Is in D minor, and
waa afterwardfl publiehed as ' Alfonso & Estrella.' There is, perhaps,
3nother]n existence. Bee the letterto Ton Moaet quoted farther on,
t To Moses Mendelssohn's translation.
sisters Frbhlioh,- and dated at the beginning
'23 Dec. 1820' — perhaps with a view to some
private concerts given, now or later, at the old
hall ot. the Musikverein. Another is the
'Gesang der Geister iiber den Wassern' of
Goethe (op. 167). This fine and mystical poem
had a strong attraction for Schubert. He set
it for four equal voices in 1817 ; then he reset
it for four tenors and four basses with two violas,
two violoncellos, and bass, in Deo. 1820 ; and
lastly revised this in Feb. 1821. It was first produced
on March 7, 1821, and found no favour,
to Schubert's disgust. It was again performed
on March 30, before a more receptive audience,
with a far better result. It was revived at
Vienna in 1858 by Herbeck, and in England
was performed with success on March 22, 1881,
under the direction of Mr. Prout. It is
enormously diflScult, and, though perfectly in
character with the poem, will probably never
be attractive to a mixed audience. Another
work of 1820 were some antiphons (op. 113)
for Palm Sunday (March 26), composed for
Ferdinand, who had been recently appointed
Choirmaster at the Altlerchenfelder Church, and
found the duties rather too much for him. They
are written with black chalk, on coarse grey
wrapping paper ; and the tradition is that they
and two motets were written in great haste,
just in time for the service. On Easter Sunday
Franz attended and conducted the mass for his
brother.
The Fantasia in C for PF. solo (op. 15), containing
Variations on Schubert's own ' Wanderer,
is probably a work of this year. It was wTitten
for von Liebenberg, a PF. player, to whom Schubert
dedicated it. This fine piece was brought
into vogue by Liszt's arrangement of it for PF.
and orchestra as a concerto ; but it is doubtful
if it is improved by the process. Schubert never
could play it ; he always stuck fast in the last
movement ; and on one occasion jumped up and
cried Let ' the devil himself play it ! ' Another
piece is an Allegi'o for strings in C minor, dated
Dec. 1820, the first movement of a quartet, of
which there exist besides forty-one bars of the
Andante, in Ab. The Allegro is of first-rate
quality, and Schubert in every bar. It was
published in 1868 by Senff. The MS. was
in Johannes Brahms's fine coUqotion of autographs.
The song^ of 1820, seventeen in all, though
not so numerous as those of previous years, are
very fine. They contain Der JUngling auf
'
dem Hugel' (op. 8, No. 1), 'Der Schiffer,'
'Liebeslauschen,' three grand songs to Mayrhofer's
words, OrestaufTam-is,' '
' Der entsiihnte
Orest,' and ' Freiwilliges Versinken,' and four
Italian Canti, written for Frl. von Eomer, who
afterwards married Schubert's iriend Spaun, and
since published with one which was probably
written under Salieri's eye as early as 1813.
The most remarkable of all is Im Walde ' '
or