Franz Peter Schubert (1797-1828)
Austria

In his 31-year lifetime, Schubert sang in the Imperial Court, worked as a teacher, and composed over 600 Lieden along with 9 symphonies, several operas, piano sonatas, and works of choral and chamber music before dying of syphilis in 1828. Upon death, Schubert asked to be buried beside Beethoven, whom he admired very much as a composer. Nevertheless, Schubert possessed his own amazing talent; by the age of 17, he had already composed several piano pieces and string quartets, a symphony, and a three-act opera. In addition he had a truly unique style. He assisted in establishing the German Lied, and was influenced most by Goethe, Schiller, Heine, Sir Walter Scott among others in the construction of his songs. Despite election to the Vienna Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde, a public concert in 1828, and limited publication, Schubert's music was not very greatly appreciated by his contemporaries. However, he is greatly admired today for his Lieden and the quality of his music.

Works
Lied
- Erlkönig (1815)
- Heidenröslein (1815)
- Die schöne Müllerin ("The Beautiful Mill Maiden," 1823)
- Winterreise ("Winter Journey," 1827)
- Gretchen am Spinnrade ("Gretchen and the Spinning Wheel," 1814)
- Die Forelle ("The Trout," 1817)
- Schwanengesang ("Swan Song," 1828)
Piano
- Fantasia in C "Wanderer" (1822)
Symphonies
- Symphony No. 8 ("Unfinished," 1822)
- Symphony No. 9 in C major ("The Great," 1825)
Chamber Music
- The "Trout" Quintet (1818)
- Die Zwillingsbrüder
- Die Zauberharfe
- Quartet in D minor ("Death and the Maiden," 1817)
- Octet in F (1824)
- String Quartet in C (1828)
Opera
- Alfonso und Estrella, Fierabras, Lazarus

Additional Information
Franz Peter Schubert: Master of Song
http://classicalmus.hispeed.com/articles/schubert.html
Hearts Ease: Franz Schubert
http://www.hearts-ease.org/cgi-bin/conservatory_index.cgi?ID=43
The Schubert Institute
http://www.siuk.org.uk/

Sources:

The Classical Music Pages. Ed. Matt Boynick. Feb. 1996. <http://w3.rz-berlin.mpg.de/cmp/classmus.html>

Sony Classical. Sony Music Entertainment. 2001. <http://www.essentialsofmusic.com/eras/romhist.html>

Longyear, Ray M. Nineteenth-Century Romanticism in Music. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice Hall, 1988.

Rosen, Charles. The Romantic Generation. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1995.