The Life of Schubert

by Christopher H. Gibbs

Overview

Franz Schubert's tragically short life was lived in one of Europe's most richly musical cities: a Vienna that worshipped Beethoven and where Rossini and Paganini drew crowds. Christopher Gibbs considers how and what Schubert composed, taking a fresh look at this misunderstood composer, particularly the unfolding of his professional career, his relationship to Beethoven, the growth of his reputation and public image and his darker side of drinking, depression and sexual ambiguity. This searching and sympathetic biography questions the customary sentimental clichés and the recent revisionist views concerning this elusive genius.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780521594264
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	04/20/2000
Series:	Musical Lives
Pages:	226
Product dimensions:	5.98(w) x 9.02(h) x 0.63(d)

Table of Contents

Prologue: Schubert yesterday; 1. Representing Schubert: 'A life devoted to art'; 2. Young Schubert: 'The master in the boy'; 3. Ingenious Schubert: 'The price of song'; 4. Popular Schubert: 'The turning point'; 5. Dark Schubert: 'A black-winged demon of sorrow and melancholy'; 6. Poor Schubert: 'Miserable reality'; 7. Late Schubert: 'Who shall stand beside Beethoven?'; 8. Immortal Schubert: 'Composing invisibly'; Epilogue: Schubert today; Notes; Further reading.

Editorial Reviews

"...timely and valuable." "Mr. Gibbs, with his solid grounding and balanced view, packs a great deal into a small space and supplies a corrective still sorely needed." —New York Times, June 19, 2000

"One of the best concise depictions of the man Schubert." Alan Hirsh, Booklist

"A well researched, warmly written, and refreshing new look at the Austrian composer." Timothy J. McGee, Library Journal

"This slender volume, crammed with good research, should be the paradigm for the contemporary biography." —Kirkus Review, Apr. 1, 2000

"Gibbs, with his solid grounding and balanced view, packs a great deal into a small space and supplies a corrective still sorely needed..." James R. Oestreich, International Herald Tribune

"...excellent, compact, and readable biography....it better presents a wide range of issues in more informal, yet compelling, language. Recommended for all academic and public collections." Choice

"Christopher H. Gibbs's slim volume, "The Life of Schubert," in Cambridge University Press's series Musical Lives, is therefore timely and valuable. Though terse, it brings all those matters up to date in an eminently readable manner." Books of the Times

From the Publisher

...the latest book in Cambridge's excellent series of short, non-specialist Musical Lives...[an] intelligent treatment...
—Times Literary Supplement

April Dammann

paper: 0-521-59512-6 A splendid and admirably concise biography of a tragically short-lived genius. The first biography of Franz Schubert (1797-1828) did not appear until nearly 40 years after his death, `an inconceivable lapse of time for any other leading nineteenth-century composer,` notes critic and academic Gibbs (Music/SUNY Buffalo). In the interim, all kinds of myths arose about Schubert, many persisting to this day—the gist of them being that Schubert, dismissed by the Viennese cultural elite, lived a lonely life of wrenching poverty and died in obscurity. Gibbs, in quiet but elegantly persuasive prose, refutes these notions with convincing evidence to the contrary, consisting largely of contemporary music reviews as well as letters by Schubert's many friends. Most of these friends were well placed in Viennese society and vigorously championed his music, often effectively. Because of their efforts, by the time of Schubert's early demise, he was quite well known and respected in musical circles and was posed for a brilliant career. Gibbs quotes critics of respected musical journals holding up Schubert's late large works (i.e., string quartets and piano sonatas) against those of the recently deceased Beethoven. He also clears up the much discussed mystery of the lost `Gastein` Symphony by arguing that it was never lost at all, but is one and the same as the Ninth ("Great") Symphony. Gibbs also gives strong evidence that Schubert, irrespective of earlier biographers' accounts, was acutely aware of his gifts and aggressively promoted his own cause until unexpectedly cut down, probably a result of his health being damaged by an earlier bout with syphilis. Gibbsalsodeals with claims made in the last decade by musicologist Maynard Solomon and others concerning Schubert's homosexuality: he does not deny it but notes that the evidence for the speculation is extremely skimpy. The meager basis of the rumors (gushing pronouncements of love in letters to and from his male friends) is, in Gibbs's view, simply a misunderstanding of the 19th-century European male's expression of friendship. This slender volume, crammed with good research, should be the paradigm for the contemporary biography.

Kirkus Reviews