Franz Peter Schubert (1797 – 1828) was an Austrian
composer of the late Classical and early Romantic eras.
Despite his short life, Schubert left behind a vast
oeuvre, including more than 600 secular vocal works
(mainly lieder), seven complete symphonies, sacred
music, operas, incidental music, and a large body of
piano and chamber music. His major works include the
art song "Erlkönig", the Piano Trout Quintet in A
major, the unfinished Symphony No. 8 in B minor, the
"Great" Symphony No. 9 in ...(+)
Franz Peter Schubert (1797 – 1828) was an Austrian
composer of the late Classical and early Romantic eras.
Despite his short life, Schubert left behind a vast
oeuvre, including more than 600 secular vocal works
(mainly lieder), seven complete symphonies, sacred
music, operas, incidental music, and a large body of
piano and chamber music. His major works include the
art song "Erlkönig", the Piano Trout Quintet in A
major, the unfinished Symphony No. 8 in B minor, the
"Great" Symphony No. 9 in C major, a String Quintet,
the three last piano sonatas, the opera Fierrabras, the
incidental music to the play Rosamunde, and the song
cycles Die schöne Müllerin and Winterreise. He was
remarkably prolific, writing over 1,500 works in his
short career. His compositional style progressed
rapidly throughout his short life. The largest number
of his compositions are songs for solo voice and piano
(roughly 630). Schubert also composed a considerable
number of secular works for two or more voices, namely
part songs, choruses and cantatas. He completed eight
orchestral overtures and seven complete symphonies, in
addition to fragments of six others. While he composed
no concertos, he did write three concertante works for
violin and orchestra. Schubert wrote a large body of
music for solo piano, including eleven incontrovertibly
completed sonatas and at least eleven more in varying
states of completion, numerous miscellaneous works and
many short dances, in addition to producing a large set
of works for piano four hands. He also wrote over fifty
chamber works, including some fragmentary works.
Schubert's sacred output includes seven masses, one
oratorio and one requiem, among other mass movements
and numerous smaller compositions. He completed only
eleven of his twenty stage works.
"Selige Welt" (Blessed world D743) and "Schwanengesang"
(Swan song D957)are the only two Schubert songs to
poems by his schoolmate Senn. Neither is longer than a
page but each is a perfect musical entity. Senn was a
goodlooking firebrand who from his school years on was
always getting into trouble with the authorities (on
one occasion in 1820 with Schubert as part of the
gang). He had a burning hatred for injustice and his
writings were constantly subjected to heavy censorship.
He had something of a military career and outlived
Schubert by nearly thirty years. Selige Welt recalls
Mut from Winterreise in its compact energy and shape,
and certainly seems to be a musical portrait of the
poet whom Schubert regarded as something of a hero. The
piano doubles the vocal lilne which gives an aura of
exceptional determination to this song. The words have
a type of existential quality. Schubert's friends and
contemporaries are often maligned for writing obscure
and confused verse but there are times when the
strangeness of their works appears genuinely
expressionist. The Viennese hot-house was to produce
the poetry of Georg Trakl for example, and the same
stifling society gave birth to the odd works of Senn
and Mayrhofer which often seem like presentiments of
the literary experiments of nearly a century later.
Certainly, disgust with modern civilisation is a theme
which unites Trakl and Mayrhofer and one cannot help
wondering if Schubert's friends would have been more
prized as poets if they had been contemporaries of
Schoenberg.
Source: Wikipedia
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franz_Schubert)
Although originally composed for Voice and Piano, I
created this Interpretation of "Selige Welt" (Blessed
world D.743 Op.23 No. 2) for Flute & Strings (2
Violins, Viola & Cello).
SHEET MUSIC