Romantic Period Composer



Romantic Period Composer

Introduction

Romantic period

This era brought about noticeable changes in the field of music and for musicians. Romantic music is the period that came after the classical period, from 1820 to the year 1910. As other types of music, it is not necessary that all romantic music be from this era, as some composers lived outside this period and wrote romantic music. However, some composers were from the very beginning a part of the romantic period, one such example being Franz Schubert.

Franz Schubert (1797-1828)

Schubert was very talented in terms of music, and was from the Australia descent. He was the twelfth child of Franz Theodor Florian Schubert and Elisabeth Katharina Vietz. Franz Schubert was taught to play the instruments by his family, his father teaching him the violin and brother the piano while the choir master at the church training his voice. Eventually he was sent to a private school in Vienna that was for music students at the age of eleven where he sang soprano in a choir and played in the school orchestra the second violin. There he wrote a composition so brilliant it was immediately noticed by Antonio Salieri, the institute's director who hailed this talented young boy as a genius along with his professor of harmony (Ewen, 2007).

He grew up appreciating the music of composers such as Mozart and Beethoven. When Schubert's voice changed, he left school to become a teacher at his father's school where he worked for three years. He was miserable with his job and started composing at night.  Due to feeling unfulfilled, he left his teaching position and started composing full time. The summer of 1818, Franz Schubert taught the Esterhazy family as a private teacher and after leaving that job; he was left to live a lifestyle of a bohemian, composing and spending time with his friends who were his support system. Two years later, he was hired by two opera houses to compose operas for them, which is when he wrote Zwillingsbruden and Zauberharfe, both of which were criticized and not enjoyed. This lead to him failing to receive a contract as nobody wanted to risk hiring such unpopular composer who produced unconventional music. He managed to publish his own work with the help of friends though that's was unrewarding leading him to struggle for sustenance.

Schubert, Frank's Work

Schubert was eighteen when he wrote the song Der Erlkonig that was not considered a masterpiece at the time it was composed as the public of that time was critical of the difference in the accompaniment and felt that it sounded strange. Today however it is considered to be one of the greatest compositions (Kreissle von Hellborn & Wilberforce, 1866).

Other popular works of the composer include Die Forelle and Ave Maria. In 1815, Schubert had written one hundred and forty four compositions and altogether composed over six hundred. He had once said that he finishes one composition, only so he can begin with ...