Grove's dictionary of music and musicians

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316 1828 SCHUBERT '1828
He discussed it also with Bauemfeld during brenner, are all said to have visited him ;
but
the next few days, and spoke of the brilliant
style in which he intended to score it. About
this time Carl Holz, Beethoven's old friend, at
Schubert's urgent request, took him to hear
the great master's C% minor Quartet, still a
novelty in Vienna. It agitated him extremely.
'
He got (says Holz) into such a state of excitement
and enthusiasm that we were all afraid
for him.'i On Nov. 3, the morrow of All was able to sit up a little for a few days longer,
Souls' day, he walked early in the morning to and thus to correct the proofs of the second part
Hernals—then a village, now a thickly built of the ' Winterreise, ' probably the last occupation
Q£||hose inspired and busy fingers. He
suburb outside the Giirtelstrasse—to hear his
brother's Latin Requiem in the church there. app^^^o have had no pain, only increasing
He thought it simple, and at the same time w^nniesa, want of sleep, and great depression.
effective, and on the whole was much pleased I?or fellow ! no wonder he was depressed
with it. After the service he walked for three everything was against him, his weakness, his
hours, and on reaching home complained of poverty, the dreary house, the long lonely hours,
great weariness.
the cheerless future—all concentrated and embodied
in the hopeless images of Miiller's poems,
^^
Shortly before this time the scores ofil^ndel's
oratorios had come into his hands—not impos- and the sad gloomy strains in which he has
of the set of Arnold's edition given to clothed them for ever and ever—the
Bime ' Letzte
ven before his death, and sold in hia sale Hoffnung,' the 'Krahe,' the 'Wegweiser,' the
2 florins ; and the study of them had 'Wirthshaus,' the 'Nebensonnen,' the ' Leiermann'—all
breathing of solitude, broken hopes,
t home to him his deficiencies in the
nent of counterpoint. '
I see now, ' said illusions, strange omens, poverty, death, the
he 2 to the Frohlichs, how much '
I have still to grave ! As he went through the pages, they
learn ; but I amgoing to work hard with Seohter, must have seemed like pictures of his own life
and make up for lost time '—Sechter ;
being the and such passages as the following, from the
recognised authority of the day on counterpoint. 'Wegweiser' (or Signpost), can hardly have failed
So much was he bent on this, that on the day to strike the dying man as aimed at himself :
after his walk to Hernals, i.e. on Nov. 4, notwithstanding
his weakness, he went into Vienna
Unverriickt vor meinem Blick,
Einen Weiser seh' ich stehen,
Eine Sirasse muss ich gehen^
and, with another musician named Lanz, called
Die TLOch Iceiner gvtig zurUck.
on Seohter, to consult him on the matter, and
Alas ! he was indeed going the road which
they actually decided on Marpurg as the textbook,
and on the number and dates of the
no one e'er retraces ! On Sunday the 16th the
doctors had a consultation
lessons. 3 ; they predicted a
But he never began the course.
nervous fever, but had still hopes of their patient.
During the next few days he grew weaker and On the afternoon of Monday, Bauemfeld saw
weaker ; and when the doctor was called in, it
him
was too late. About the 1 1th he wrote a note *
for the last time. He was in very bad
spirits, and complained of great weakness, and
to Sohober—doubtless his last letter.
of heat in his head, but his mind was still clear,
Dear Schobeb,
and there was no sign of wandering ; he spoke
I am ill. I have eaten and drunk nothing for eleven
days, and am so tired and shaky that I can only get
of his earnest wish for a good opera-book. Later
from the bed to the chair, and back. Rinna is attending in the day, however, when the doctor arrived,
me. If I taste anything, I bring it up again directly.
he was quite delirious,
In this distressing condition, be so kind as to help me
and typhus had unmistakably
broken out. The next day, Tuesday,
to some reading. Of Cooper's I have read the Last of
the Mohicans, the Spy, the Pilot, and the Pioneers. If he was very restless throughout, trying continually
to get out of bed, and constantly fancying
you have anything else of his, I entreat you to leave it
with Fran von Bogner at the Ooffee house. My brother,
who is conacientiousness itself, will bring it to me in the himself in a strange room. That evening he
most conscientious way. Or anything else. Your friend,
called Ferdinand on to the bed, made him put
SCHUBEBT.
his ear close to his mouth, and whispered
What answer Schober made to this appeal is not mysteriously, What
known. He is said to have had ' are they doing with me ?
a daily report
of Schubert's condition from the doctor, but
there is no mention of his having called. Spaun,
Randhartinger,* Bauemfeld, and Josef Hiitten-
1 Quoted by Kohl, Jleethoven, liL 964. Holz eays it was the lAst
music that poor Schubert heard. Ferdinand claims the same for
his Bequlem. At any rate both were very near the end.
3 Krelsale's Sketch, p. 162.
3 S.ff. p. 461 (ii. 138), expressly on Bechter's authority.
4 diven by Sanemfeld, In JHe Preue, April 21, 1869.
B FrSuIeln Gelsler-Schubert informs me that Ferdinand's wife
(stlU living, 1882) maintains that Randhai-tlnger was the only one
who visited blm during his illness ; but It is difficult to resist the
—!
in those days there was great dread of infection,
his new residence was out of the way, and
dangerous illness was such a novelty with Schubert
that his friends may be excused for not
thinking the case so grave as it was. After a
few days Rinna himself fell ill, and his place
was filled by a staff-surgeon named Behring.
On the 14th Schubert took to his bed.^ He
' Dear Franz, ' was the reply, they ' are doing
all they can to get you well again, and the
doctor assures us you will soon be right, only
you must do your best to stay in bed.' He returned
to the idea in his wandering—
' I implore
you to put me in my own room, and not to leave
me in this corner under the earth ; don't I
statements of Bauemfeld (Preue, April S
Informants, p. 462 (il. 140).
« Ferdinand, lu the y.Z.M. p. 143.
, 1869) and of Kreleale's