As one of the first major figures of Romantic era music, I
want to discuss Franz Schubert as a markedly Romantic artistic figure.
Some of the characteristics he shared with Romanticism
include his short life, and his death from illness. Ah the Romantic era, when
the best artists died young and everyone had consumption.
I’m going to go a little off-track here, and talk about the
artistic counterpart of music: poetry.
Poetry and music have long shared an important relationship.
The reciprocal nature of the two art forms throughout history bring light to
one another, and together they reveal societal attitudes and beliefs of a given
era. And this is my justification for taking you down the road of the Romantic
poets. Bear with me.
In the literary world, there is a generally recognized big
six of the Romantic canon in England: William Blake, William Wordsworth, Samuel
Taylor Coleridge, John Keats, Percy Bysshe Shelley and Lord Byron (the namesake
of my gorgeous new puppy). The first three compose the first generation
Romantics, and the last three the second generation. What’s interesting about
the second generation is that none of the three of them lived to see 30.
Shelley died in a boating accident (though there is much
discussion and conspiracy theory around the “accidental” nature of his death)
less than a month before his 30th birthday. Byron died from illness
while fighting in the civil war in Greece at 25. And young Keats died of
tuberculosis at 25 in Rome. Actually, the entire second generation of Romantic
poets was survived by the entire first generation, who all lived to ripe old
ages, and much like a peach, some of them (ahem, Wordsworth) softened with their ripeness.
Alright, I need to put this Schubert thing on hold for a
second, and you need to hear THE BEST story about Lord Byron. He was a little
out there to say the least. He had a pet Newfoundland dog named Boatswain whom
he adored and who was the subject of one of Byron's most well-known poems, Epitaph to a Dog. When he went to Cambridge
University he was prohibited from keeping his dog with him in his chambers. So what
did Byron do? He brought a bear to campus to live in his room with him. Yes, an
actual bear. He even suggested that he would apply for a college fellowship for
the animal, and was often seen walking his tame bear around town.
Anyway!
Like these young poets, Schubert also died young and of
illness, though he did live past 30 (just to 31 though). It was believed for a
long time that he died of typhoid. But now it is almost conclusively recognized
that he suffered from syphilis.
Evidence for this claim includes the symptoms of mercury
poisoning. Mercury was often used to treat syphilis, though clearly it was not
a very effective treatment for Schubert.
Like Lord Byron, this composer found that the medical
treatments of the day were of no help to his cause. When Byron was sick and
suffering in Greece, he was prescribed bloodletting. This actually weakened him
and helped the disease progress further and faster.
But while Schubert was alive, he created some wonderful
masterpieces. He wrote around 600 lieder (or art songs) and nine symphonies,
some operas, a large body of chamber and solo piano music just to name some of
his accomplishments.
Much like Keats, Schubert wasted no time while he was alive.
Both artists created a massive and well-developed mature body of work, considering how
young they both were when they died.
You can hear Schubert’s Symphony No. 8, or as it is more
commonly known, the mysterious and beautiful “Unfinished Symphony,” performed
by the Kingston Symphony this season on October 27th at St. George’s
Cathedral in Cathedral Architecture.
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