Page:A Dictionary of Music and Musicians vol 3.djvu/363

SCHUBERT. Vienna. The parts were copied, and some rehearsals held; but both length and difficulty were against it, and it was soon withdrawn, on Schubert's own advice, in favour of his earlier Symphony, No. 6, also in C. Neither the one nor the other was performed till after his death.

March also saw the birth of the interesting Oratorio 'Miriam's Song of Victory,' to Grillparzer's words. It is written, as so many of Schubert's choral pieces are, for a simple pianoforte accompaniment; but this was merely to suit the means at his disposal, and is an instance of his practical sagacity. It is unfortunate, however, since the oratorio has become a favourite, that we have no other orchestral accompaniment than that afterwards adapted by Lachner, which is greatly wanting in character, and in the picturesque elements so native to Schubert. A song to Rellstab's words, 'Auf dem Strom' (op. 119), for soprano, with obbligato horn and PF. accompaniment, written for Lewy, a Dresden horn-player, belongs to this month, and was indeed first heard at Schubert's own concert, on the 16th, and afterwards repeated at a concert of Lewy's, on April 20, Schubert himself playing the accompaniment each time.

To April no compositions can be ascribed, unless it be the Quintet in C for strings (op. 163), which bears only the date '1828.' This is now universally accepted not only as Schubert's finest piece of chamber music, but as one of the very finest of its class. The two cellos alone [App. p.786 "for alone read in themselves"] give it distinction; it has all the poetry and romance of the G major Quartet, without the extravagant length which will always stand in the way of that noble production; while the Adagio is so solemn and yet so beautiful in its tone, so entrancing in its melodies, and so incessant in its interest, and the Trio of the Scherzo, both from itself and its place in the movement, is so eminently dramatic, that it is difficult to speak of either too highly.

In May we have a grand battle-piece, the 'Hymn to the Holy Ghost,' for 8 male voices, written for the Concert Spirituel of Vienna, at first with PF., in October scored by the composer for a wind band, and in 1847 published as op. 154. Also a 'Characteristic Allegro' for the PF. 4 hands, virtually the first movement of a Sonata—issued some years later with the title 'Lebensstürme' (op. 144); an Allegro vivace and Allegretto, in E♭ minor and major, for PF. solo, published in 1868 as 1st and 2nd of '3 Clavierstücke'; and a song 'Widerschein' (Lf. 15, 1).

In June, probably at the request of the publisher, he wrote a 4-hand Rondo for PF. in A, since issued as 'Grand Rondeau, op. 107'; and began his sixth Mass, that in E♭. In this month he paid a visit to Baden—Beethoven's Baden; since a fugue for 4 hands in E minor is marked as written there in 'June 1828.' In the midst of all this work a letter from Mosewius of Breslau, a prominent Prussian musician, full of sympathy and admiration, must have been doubly gratifying as coming from North Germany.

In July he wrote the 92nd Psalm in Hebrew for the synagogue at Vienna, of which Sulzer was precentor. In August, notwithstanding his declaration on completing his last Symphony, we find him (under circumstances already described) composing 7 songs of Rellstab's, and 6 of Heine's, afterwards issued as 'Schwanengesang.'

He opened September with a trifle in the shape of a short chorus, with accompaniment of wind band, for the consecration of a bell in the church of the Alservorstadt. A few days after, the memory of Hummel's visit in the spring of 1827 seems to have come upon him like a lion, and he wrote off 3 fine PF. solo sonatas, with the view of dedicating them to that master. These pieces, though very unequal and in parts extraordinarily diffuse, are yet highly characteristic of Schubert. They contain some of his finest and most original music, and also his most affecting (e.g. Andantino, Scherzo and Trio of the A minor Sonata); and if full of disappointment and wrath, and the gathering gloom of these last few weeks of his life, they are also saturated with that nameless personal charm that is at once so strong and so indescribable. The third of the three, that in B♭, dated Sept. 26, has perhaps more of grace and finish than the other two, and has now, from the playing of Mme. Schumann, Mr. Charles Halle, and others, become a great favourite. The sonatas were not published till a year after Hummel's death, and were then dedicated by Diabelli-Spina to Robert Schumann, who acknowledges the dedication by a genial though hardly adequate article in his 'Ges. Schriften,' ii. 239. The second part of the Winterreise was put into Haslinger's hands for engraving before the end of this month.

In October, prompted by some occasion which has eluded record, he wrote a new 'Benedictus' to his early Mass in C, a chorus of great beauty and originality in A minor, of which a competent critic has said that 'its only fault consists in its immeasurable superiority to the rest of the Mass.' For some other occasion, which has also vanished, he wrote accompaniments for 13 wind instruments to his grand 'Hymn to the Holy Ghost'; a long scena or song for soprano—probably his old admirer, Anna Milder—with pianoforte and obligato clarinet (op. 129); and a song called 'Die Taubenpost' ('The carrier pigeon') to Seidl's words. The succession of these pieces is not known. It is always assumed that the Taubenpost, which now closes the Schwanengesang, was the last. Whichever of them was the last, was the last piece he ever wrote.

The negotiations with Probst and Schott, and also with Brüggemann of Halberstadt, a