The Life of Franz Schubert

The 1869 English translation of the first full-length biography of the celebrated composer, incorporating reminiscences of his contemporaries.

Heinrich Kreissle von Hellborn (Author), Arthur D. Coleridge (Edited and translated by), George Grove (Appendix by)

9781108077965, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 2 October 2014

338 pages, 1 b/w illus.
21.6 x 14 x 1.9 cm, 0.43 kg

The astonishing creative genius of Franz Schubert (1797–1828) produced an extraordinary quantity of music: song cycles, symphonies, piano and chamber works – all now recognised as masterpieces. Such acclaim did not exist in the years immediately after his death, and it was only later, when the rediscovery of Schubert's music (led by George Grove) was gathering pace, that this work, the first full-length biography of the composer, appeared in 1865. Written by Heinrich Kreissle von Hellborn (1812–69), a Viennese lawyer and member of the city's Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde, the work incorporates reminiscences of Schubert's friends as collected by Ferdinand Luib for his prospective biography. This 1869 English translation by Arthur Duke Coleridge, founder of the Bach Choir, contains an appendix by Grove on Schubert's symphonies and his rediscovery in Vienna of several manuscripts as well as the partbooks for Rosamunde. Volume 1 charts Schubert's life up to the composition of Rosamunde in 1823.

Preface
1. Schubert' family
2. Schubert leaves the convict
3. Ballads
4. 'Jubilee cantata'
5. Johann Michael Vogel
6. Schubert as music-teacher
7. Rossini-worship at Vienna
8. The musical drama Die Zwillingsbrüder
9. Schubert's circumstances
10. Schubert and von Schober in Ochsenburg
11. The drama Rosamunde.

Subject Areas: Classical music [c 1750 to c 1830 AVGC4]