Page:A Dictionary of Music and Musicians vol 3.djvu/337

SCHUBERT. was given, on the recommendation of Salieri, to a certain Jacob Schaufl. Schubert found compensation, however, in the friendship of Franz von Schober, a young man of good birth and some small means, who had met with his songs at the house of the Spauns at Linz, and had ever since longed to make his personal acquaintance. Coming to Vienna to enter the University, apparently soon after the Laibach rebuff, he called on Schubert, found him in his father's house, overwhelmed with his school duties, and with apparently no time for music. There, however, were the piles of manuscript—operas, masses, symphonies, songs, heaped up around the young schoolmaster composer, and Schober saw at once that some step must be taken to put an end to this cruel anomaly, and give Schubert time to devote himself wholly to the Art of which he was so full. Schober proposed that his new friend should live with him; Franz's father—possibly not oversatisfied with his son's performances as a teacher of the alphabet to infants—consented to the plan, and the two young men (Schober was some four months Franz's junior) went off to keep house together at Schober's lodgings in the Landkrongasse. A trace of this change is found on two MS. songs in the Musik Verein at Vienna, 'Leiden der Trennung' and 'Lebenslied,' inscribed 'In Herr v. Schober's lodging,' and dated Nov. 1816. Schubert began to give a few lessons, but soon threw them up, and the household must have been maintained at Schober's expense, since there was obviously as yet no sale for Schubert's compositions. He had good friends, as Beethoven had had at the same age, though not so high in rank—Hofrath von Kiesewetter, Matthäus von Collin, Graf Moritz Dietrichstein, Hofrath Hammer von Purgstall, Pyrker, afterwards Patriarch of Venice and Archbishop of Erlau, Frau Caroline Pichler—all ready and anxious to help him had they had the opportunity. But Schubert never gave them the opportunity. He was a true Viennese, born in the lowest ranks, without either the art or the taste for 'imposing' on the aristocracy (Beethoven's favourite phrase) that Beethoven had; loving the society of his own class, shrinking from praise or notice of any kind, and with an absolute detestation of teaching or any other stated duties.

But to know him was to love and value him. Three little events, which slightly diversify the course of this year, are of moment as showing the position which Schubert took amongst his acquaintances. The first was the 50th anniversary of Salieri's arrival in Vienna, which he had entered as a boy on June 16, 1766. [See [[../Salieri, Antonio#218|, iii. 218b.] On Sunday, June 16, 1816, the old Italian was invested with the Imperial gold medal and chain of honour, in the presence of the whole body of Court-musicians; and in the evening a concert took place at his own house, in which, surrounded by his pupils, Weigl, Assmayer, Anna Fröhlich, Schubert, and many others, both male and female, he snuffed up the incense of his worshippers, and listened to compositions in his honour by his scholars past and present. Among these were pieces sent by Hummel and Moscheles, and a short cantata, both words and music by Schubert.

Eight days afterwards, on July 24, there was another festivity in honour of the birthday of a certain Herr Heinrich Watteroth, a distinguished official person, for which Schubert had been employed to write a cantata on the subject of Prometheus, words by Philipp Dräxler, another official person. The cantata has disappeared; but from a description of it by Leopold Sonnleithner, communicated to 'Zellner's Blätter für Theater,' etc. (no. 19), and reprinted separately, it seems to have been written for two solo voices, soprano (Gäa), and bass (Prometheus), chorus, and orchestra, and to have contained a duet in recitative, two choruses for mixed and one for male voices (the disciples of Prometheus). This last is described as having been in the form of a slow march, with original and interesting treatment. The performance took place in the garden of Watteroth's house in the Erdberg suburb of Vienna. As all the persons concerned in the festivity were people of some consideration, and as the music was very well received, it may have been an important introduction for the young composer. A congratulatory poem by von Schlechta, addressed to Schubert, appeared a day or two later in the 'Theaterzeitung.' Schubert had already, in the previous year, set a song of Schlechta's—'Auf einem Kirchhof' (Lief. 49, no. 2), and he promptly acknowledged the compliment by adopting one of more moment from Schlechta's 'Diego Manzanares,' 'Wo irrst du durch einsame Schatten?' (40 Lieder, no. 25), his setting of which is dated July 30, 1816. Schubert evidently was fond of his cantata. It was performed at Innspruck by Gansbacher, and at Vienna by Sonnleithner in 1819. Schubert wished to give it at the Augarten in 1820, and had sent it somewhere for performance at the time of his death. He was paid 100 florins, Vienna currency (or £4) for it, and he notes in his journal that it was the first time he had composed for money.

The third event was the composition of a cantata on a larger scale than either of the others. It was addressed to Dr. Joseph Spendou, in his character of Founder and Principal of the Schoolmasters' Widows' Fund, and contained 8 numbers, with solos for two sopranos and bass, a quartet and choruses, all with orchestral accompaniment. Whether it was performed or not is uncertain,