An 'Unfinished' Reputation

...Though previous authors, notably Gerald Abraham, have advanced this possibility, no one has come close to proving it, Newbould included...

...Composing a song is a reactive task, composing an instrumental piece a proactive one...

...Similarly, Newbould declares that Schubert decided "at the end of 1823" to use the sketched but abandoned finale of the "Unfinished" Symphony "as a number in his incidental music for Rosamunde, whereupon he took out the piano draft and scored it...

...Since 1989, for instance, the composer's sexuality has been a topic of heated debate...

...In that sense the instrumental project taxes creativity the more, whether it's an undertaking large or small...

...Though the above criticisms may indicate otherwise, I want to reiterate my suggestion at the outset that on the whole this book is a good and useful contribution to the literature on Schubert...

...Questions of that kind abound...

...Like McKay, Newbould does a very good job of bringing Schubert's biography into the 1990s...

...After wondering why Schubert enjoyed earlier success as a song composer than as an instrumental one, he comes up with the following: "First, the relative nature of the two kinds of musical product must be considered...

...A List of Works, a Glossary, a Select Bibliography, and an Index of Works are also provided...

...Then there are instances where a stimulating comment begs for amplification: While treating the first movement of the 1828 C Minor Piano Sonata, Newbould says a certain passage "has been likened to passages in late Beethoven," yet he gives us no hint as to who made the comparison, nor does he tell us whether he agrees with it...

...Later Newbould states that by 1823 the composer Carl Maria von Weber and Schubert were "good friends," but this was not the case...

...did Schubert create the seed for a symphony...

...Unlike those three, however, Schubert is cherished by the public for only a small portion of his output—namely, a sampling of his 600 art songs, a few short piano pieces, the "Trout" Quintet, and the "Unfinished" Symphony...

...Thus while discussing the slow movement of the Sonata in E Major, D.157, he asks: "In distilling this simplified version...

...Stylistic flaws also mar Schubert...

...a theme shared by the Fifth Symphony and the opera Dei Teufels Lustschloss), and in showing the way different genres (say, string quartet and symphony) relate to each other...

...The glossary, and the occasional explications of basic musical procedures within the text, leave no doubt that Newbould's Schubert is intended for the general public...

...The author wisely eschews taking a stand on these conflicting views...

...One, Elizabeth Norman McKay's Franz Schubert: A Biography, was actually issued in 1996 in anticipation of the celebration...

...Walpurga" instead of "Walburga" [Litschauer] in the notes and the bibliography—to cite only a few...

...And errors creep in: a missing "is" on p. 119...

...A new edition of the thematic catalogue of his works came out that year, as did facsimile editions and a spate of monographs and journal articles...

...Reviewed by L. Michael Griffel Professor of music, Hunter College and the Graduate Center, City University of New York Franz Schubert (1797-1828), produced the quintessential Viennese music of the Classical and early Romantic era, and is one of a handful of composers whose greatness can be compared with that of X S. Bach, Mozart and Beethoven...

...Regrettably, Newbould has not been served well by his editor...

...That is recklessly off the mark and will offend, I suspect, both composers of songs and of instrumental works...

...This volume, arranged roughly chronologically, takes up virtually Schubert's entire output and tips in the related periods of the life as it moves along...

...except" for "expect" on p. 189...

...Leopold" instead of "Josef" [Kupelwieser] on p. 205...

...The last two chapters are devoted, respectively, to Schubert's compositional technique and to a history of his reception from 1828 to the present...

...Yet in a life cut short at the age of 31 he penned more than a thousand works, including seven other symphonies, 15 string quartets, a string quintet, an octet for strings and winds, two piano trios, a wealth of music for the piano (sonatas, impromptus, moments musicaux, four-hand pieces), six Masses, and nine performable operas...

...Ultimately, Newbould demonstrates that Schubert devoted his full passion, intelligence and artistry to each of his compositions, and persuasively makes the case that we as listeners must enlarge our knowledge of his music before we can understand and j udge him...

...To help mark the 200th anniversary of his birth this year, two new full-length English-language studies (both of British origin) have been published...

...1 in F Major or the Piano Sonata in F Minor, D.625, and too little to many of the masterpieces, such as the Octet in F Major, the song Aufenthalt, or the six moments musicaux...

...In other words, we need to acquaint ourselves with more of his works—the Mass movements, partsongs, chamber pieces, piano sonatas, dances, compositions for four hands at one piano—to form a just opinion of Schubert's musical legacy...

...All too often thoughts, statements and arguments in the biographical chapters are repeated in the music chapters...

...Newbould writes about Schubert's music with objectivity, tremendous concern and love...

...His main focus until now is reflected in the title of his 1992 book, Schubert and the Symphony, with special attention paid to works in the genre that were not finished...

...The real Schubert, though, was an obsessive, full-time composer who struggled against an unsupportive father, severe competition from the likes of Beethoven and Rossini, and incurable syphilis contracted when he was 25 years old...

...Indeed, the author, who is also a conductor and composer, has "completed" and performed some of them...

...Once Schubert began to be better understood, research into his life and work increased steadily and it has remained very active...

...To scholars, on the other hand, most of these examinations will seem somewhat superficial, even if they are often quite interesting...

...Beyond that it argues convincingly that Schubert ranks among the greatest and most influential composers of all time...

...The man himself was often trivialized, as in the silly 1920s operetta (called Blossom Time in this country) that portrayed him as amerry, lovelorn fellow jotting down tunes on the backs of menus...

...Newbould seems too much the professor in the classroom here, rather than the author of a definitive study...

...The use of umlauts and accent marks on foreign words is erratic...

...Forthe longest time, Schubert's instrumental pieces were belittled because they were not sufficiently similar to Beethoven's...

...Nevertheless, Newbould is remarkably helpful in detailing how Schubert planted the seeds of Romanticism in music and influenced composers like Brahms, Dvorak and Bruckner...

...It is not the sort of volume one is apt to pick up and read cover to cover, but it is a concise and appealing biography and offers a good collection of program notes for a sizable number of its subject's compositions...

...One of them is Newbould's habit of raising provocative ideas in the guise of questions...

...Unfortunately, in his effort to take up a great many works he devotes too much space to lesser pieces, for example, the Mass No...

...Elsewhere he rightly states, "It is an interesting exercise to count the immortal song composers who have also excelled as instrumental composers," but he does not elaborate...

...The two had very little contact with each other and never became friends...

...It will serve well those who want a head start on listening to Schubert in concert or on a recording...

...A professor of music at the University of Hull, Newbould is one of the scholars whose interest in Schubert dates to the '70s...

...But he agrees, as does practically everybody else today, that Schubert died of complications from syphilis...

...Modern musicologists first became hooked on Schubert as the 150th anniversary of his death approached in 1978...

...Newbould is insightful, too, in finding specific musical relationships among various works (e.g...

...I, for one, do not like them and would have wanted the author to tell me what he thought, not to ask me to judge for myself...

...Exquisite analytical commentary on such songs as Der Zwerg, Täuschung, Die Stadt, and Fülle der Liebe, and on such instrumental pieces as the scherzo from the magnificent String Quintet in C Major further enrich the book...

...While it is fairly accessible, readers not well-versed in music will find the analysis of particular compositions difficult to follow...

...Another problem is Newbould's presenting a number of debatable assertions as facts...

...The second, Brian Newbould's recently released book, is primarily a discussion of Schubert's music framed and intersected by wonderful chapters dealing with his life...

...He has been presented by different scholars as a heterosexual, homosexual, bisexual, and pederast...

...Did he consciously plunder his unfinished sonata for the starting point of his Seventh Symphony in E, D.729...