Grove's dictionary of music and musicians

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300 1823 SCHUBERT 1823
desire to utter what was in him, no doubt help
to explain the anomaly, but an anomaly it wiU
always remain. It is absolutely distressing to
think of such extraordinary ability, and such
still more extraordinary powers of work, being
so cruelly thrown away, and of the sickening
disappointment which these repeated failures
must have entailed on so simple and sensitive a
heart as his. Fortunately for us the strains in
which he vents his griefs are as beautiful and endearing
as those in which he celebrates his joys.
His work this summer was not, however, to
be all disappointment. If the theatre turned
a deaf ear to his strains there were always his
beloved songs to confide in, and they never
deceived him. Of the Song in Schubert's hands
we may say what Wordsworth so well says of
the Sonnet :
With this key
Shakespeare unlocked his heart ; the melody
Of this small lute gave ease to Petrarch's wound.
and when a damp
Fell round the path of Milton, in his hand
The thing became a trumpet, whence he blew
Soul-animating strains, alas too few 1
—^with the notable difference that it was given
to Schubert to gather up and express, in his one
person and his one art, all the various moods
and passions which Wordsworth has divided
amongst so many mighty poets.
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. We have already described
the incident through which Schubert made acquaintance
with the Mullerlieder > of Wilhelm
Miiller, twenty of which he selected for the
beautiful series so widely known as the ' Schbne
Miillerin.' We haveseentheenduringimpatience
with which he attacked a book when it took
his fancy, and the eagerness with which he
began upon this particular one. We know that
the Mullerlieder were all composed this year ;
that some of them were written in hospital
that Ko. 15 is dated ' October' ; that a considerable
interval elapsed between the second and
third Act of ' Fierrabras '— probably the best
part of July and August. Putting these facts
together it seems to follow that the call on Eand-
1 The Mullerlieder, twenty-three in number, with Prologue and
Epilogue in addition, are contained in the 1st vol. of the Gcdichte
aiu den hinierlcuaenen Papieren einea reitenden Waldhornisten
(Pooma found among the papei-e of a travelling French-hom-player),
which were first published at Dessau, 1821. Schubert has omitted
the Prologue and Epilogue, and three poems— 'Das MUhlenleben'
after 'Der Neugierige'; 'Brater Schmerz, letzter Scherz,' after
'Elferaucht und Stolz' ; and 'BlUmleln VerglBBmein' after 'Die
bOae Farbe.'
hartinger (see oMte, p. 24) and the composition
of the first numbers of the Sohone Miillerin
'
took place in May, before he became immersed
in ' Fierrabras.' Then came the first two Acts
of that opera ; then his illness, and his sojourn
in the hospital, and more songs ; then the third
Act of the opera ; and lastly the completion of
the Lieder.
Be this as it may, there was no lack of occupation
for Schubert after he had put ' Fierrabras'
out of hand. Weber arrived in Vienna late in
September 1823, and on Oct. 3 began the rehearsals
of Euryanthe ' ; and for a month the musical
'
world of Austria was in a ferment. After the
first performance, on Oct. 25, Weber and Schubert
came somewhat into collision. Schubert,
with characteristic frankness, asserted that the
new work wanted the geniality and grace of
'
Der Freischiitz,' that its merit lay mainly in its
harmony, 2 and that he was prepared to prove
that the score did not contain a single original
melody. Weber had been much tried by the
rehearsals, by the growing conviction that big
work was too long, and by the imperfect success
of the performance ; and with a combination of
ignorance and insolence which does him no credit
replied, Let ' the fool learn something himself
before he criticises me.' Schubert's answer to
this was to go off to Weber with the score of
'
Alfonso und Estrella.' When they had looked
through this, Weber returned to Schubert's criticisms
on 'Euryanthe,' and finding that the
honest Franz stuck to his point, was absurd
enough to lose his temper, and say, in the
obvious belief that the score before him was
Schubert's first attempt, ' I tell you the first
puppies and the first operas are always drowned.'
Franz, it is unnecessary to say, bore no malice,
even for so galling a speech, and it is due to
Weber to state that he took some pains later to
have the work adopted at the Dresden theatre.^
Schubert did not yet know the fate which
awaited ' Fierrabras ; '
all wsis at present couleur
de rose ; and the fascination of the theatre, the
desire innate in all musicians, even one so
self-contained as Schubert, to address a large
public, sharpened not improbably by the chance
recently enjoyed by the stranger, was too strong
to be resisted, and he again, for the third time
in ten months, turned towards the stage. This
time the temptation came in the shape of
'Rosamunde, Princess of Cyprus,' a play of
ultraroraantio character, by Madame von Chezy,
authoress of Euryanthe," a '
librettist whose lot
seems to have been to drag down the musicians
connected with her. The book of Rosamunde'
'
must have been at least as inefficient as that
with which Weber had been struggling, to cause
the failure of such magnificent and interesting
music as Schubert made for it. The drama has
disappeared, but Kreissle gives the plot,* and
2 See MendelPEOhn'B opinion in 2*7*6 Mendelseohn Family, i. 23f?,
> IC.ir. p. 246 (i. 249) note. < Ibid. p. 28S (i. 288), etc.