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Le Marche
—  Region of Italy  —
Flag Coat of arms
Anthem: Inno delle Marche
Country	Italy
Capital	Ancona
Government
• President	Gian Mario Spacca (PD)
Area
• Total	9,366 km2 (3,616 sq mi)
Population (1 January 2011)
• Total	1,565,000
• Density	170/km2 (430/sq mi)
Time zone	CET (UTC+1)
• Summer (DST)	CEST (UTC+2)
GDP/ Nominal	€ 41.7[1] billion (2010)
GDP per capita	€ 26,500[2] (2008)
NUTS Region	ITE
Website	www.regione.marche.it

Marche (pronounced [ˈmarke]) is one of the 20 regions of Italy. The name of the region derives from the plural name of marca, originally referring to the medieval March of Ancona and nearby marches of Camerino and Fermo. In English, this region is also known as The Marches.^[3][4][5]

The region is located in the Central area of the country, bordered by Emilia-Romagna and the republic of San Marino to the north, Tuscany to the north-west, Umbria to the west, Abruzzo and Lazio to the south and the Adriatic Sea to the east. Except for river valleys and the often very narrow coastal strip, the land is hilly. In the nineteenth century, a railway from Bologna to Brindisi ran along the coastline of the entire territory. Inland, the mountainous nature of the region, even today, allows little travel north and south, except by rough roads over the passes.

Geography[link]

A view of Monte Conero.

Le Marche extends over an area of 9,694 km² of the central Adriatic slope between Emilia-Romagna to the north, Tuscany and Umbria to the west, and Lazio and Abruzzo to the south, the entire eastern boundary being formed by the Adriatic. Most of the region is mountainous or hilly, the main features being the Apennine chain along the internal boundary and an extensive system of hills descending towards the Adriatic. With the sole exception of Monte Vettore, 2,476 m high, the mountains do not exceed 2,400 m. The hilly area covers two-thirds of the region and is interrupted by wide gullies with numerous – albeit short – rivers and by alluvial plains perpendicular to the principal chain. The parallel mountain chains contain deep river gorges, the best known being those of the Furlo, the Rossa and the Frasassi.

The coastal area is 173 km long and is relatively flat and straight except for the hilly area between Gabicce and Pesaro in the north, and the eastern slopes of Monte Conero near Ancona.

History[link]

Marche was known in ancient times as the Picenum territory. The coastal area was occupied by the Senones, a tribe of Gauls. It was conquered by the Romans after the Battle of Sentinum in 295 BC. The Romans founded numerous colonies in the areas, connecting them to Rome by the Via Flaminia and the Via Salaria. Ascoli was a seat of Italic resistance during the Social War (91–88 BC).

The Renaissance town of Urbino.

After the fall of the Western Roman Empire, the region was invaded by the Goths. After the Gothic War, it was part of the Byzantine Exarchate of Ravenna (Ancona, Fano, Pesaro, Rimini, and Senigallia forming the so-called Pentapolis). After the fall of the Exarchate it was briefly in the possession of the Lombards, but was conquered by Charlemagne in the late eighth century. In the ninth to eleventh centuries the marches of Camerino, Fermo and Ancona were created, hence the modern name.

Marche was nominally part of the Papal States, but most of the territory was under local lords, while the major cities ruled themselves as free communes. In the twelfth century, the commune of Ancona resisted both the imperial authority of Frederick Barbarossa and the Republic of Venice, and was a maritime republic on its own. An attempt to restore Papal suzerainty by Gil de Albornoz in the fourteenth century was short-lived.

During the Renaissance, the region was fought over by rival aristocratic families, such as the Malatesta of Rimini, Pesaro, Fano and the house of Montefeltro of Urbino. The last independent entity, the Duchy of Urbino, was dissolved in 1631, and from then on, Marche was firmly part of the Papal States except during the Napoleonic period. This saw the short lived Republic of Ancona, in 1797–98, the merging of the region with the Roman Republic, in 1798–99 and with the Kingdom of Italy from 1808 to 1813, and the short occupation by Joachim Murat in 1815. After Napoleon's defeat, Marche returned to Papal rule until 4 November 1860, when it was annexed to the unified Kingdom of Italy by a plebiscite.

After the referendum of 2006, 7 municipalities of Montefeltro were detached from the Province of Pesaro and Urbino to join the one of Rimini (Emilia-Romagna) on 15 August 2009.^[6][7] The municipalities are Casteldelci, Maiolo, Novafeltria, Pennabilli, San Leo, Sant'Agata Feltria and Talamello.

Economy and Agriculture[link]

Indesit Headquarters in Fabriano, Province of Ancona. The home appliance sector represents the core of the regional industry.

Prior to the 1980's, Marche was considered a rather poor region, although economically stable in some sectors, thanks particularly to its agricultural output and to the contribution of traditional crafts.^[8]

Today the contribution of agriculture to the economy of the region is less significant and the gross value generated by this sector remains slightly above the national average. Marche has never suffered from the extremes of fragmented land ownership or ' latifondo'. Greatly diffused in the past, the sharecropping never produced an extreme land fragmentation. The main products are cereals, vegetables, animal products and grapes. Olives are also produced and managed by various harvesters. In spite of the marine impoverishment, the sea has always furnished a plentiful supply of fish, the main fishing centres being Ancona, San Benedetto del Tronto, Fano and Civitanova Marche.^[8]

Since the 1980's the economy of the region has been radically transformed, without however repudiating its rural past. Many of the small craft workshops scattered throughout the rural settlements have modernised and become small businesses, some of which have become major brands known all over the world (Indesit, Tod's, Guzzini, Teuco). This evolution led to the emergence of 'specialised' industrial areas, which are still profitable: footwear and leather goods in a large area straddling the provinces of Macerata and Fermo; furniture in the Pesaro area in particular; household appliances and textile industry in the province of Ancona, in which the main engineering companies are also to be found (including ship building, petrochemicals and paper, as well as consumer durables). The region continues to draw tourists, whose increasing numbers have been attracted by the rich and broadly distributed heritage of history and monuments, as well as by the traditional seaside resorts.^[8]

Demographics[link]

The population density in the region is below the national average. In 2008, it was 161.5 inhabitants per km2, compared to the national figure of 198.8. It is highest in the province of Ancona (244.6 inhabitants per km2), and lowest in the province of Macerata (116.1 inhabitants per km2). Between 1952 and 1967 the population of the region decreased by 1.7% as a result of a negative migration balance, well above the national average, with a rate varying between 4.9 and 10.0 per 1000 inhabitants.The Average fund of this region is worth about a few million or maybe higher In the same period the natural balance of the population was positive, but lower than the national average and insufficient to counterbalance the net emigration. The population continued to decline until 1971, but in 1968 began growing again.^[9] In 2008, the Italian national institute of statistics (ISTAT) estimated that 115,299 foreign-born immigrants live in Marche, 7.4% of total regional population.

Government and politics[link]

Marche forms, along with Emilia-Romagna, Tuscany and Umbria, the Italian "Red Quadrilateral", a strongly left-wing area. In the April 2006 elections, the people of Marche gave 55% of their votes to Romano Prodi.

Administrative divisions[link]

The region is divided into five provinces (the official data for the fifth province (Fermo), instituted in 2009, will be available only with the 2011 census, here its figures are still included in those of the province of Ascoli Piceno):

Ancona

Ascoli Piceno

Fermo

Macerata

Pesaro e Urbino

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Marche

• Official Website of the Marche Regional Council

v t e Marche Provinces and places Ancona Ascoli Piceno Fermo Macerata Pesaro e Urbino History Ager Gallicus Duchy of Spoleto March of Ancona Republic of Ancona Politics Elections in Marche List of Presidents of Marche Culture Language Music

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Giovanni Allevi
Background information
Birth name	Giovanni Allevi
Born	(1969-04-09) April 9, 1969 (age 43)
Origin	Ascoli Piceno, Italy
Genres	Easy-listening
Occupations	Soloist Composer
Instruments	Piano
Years active	1997–present
Website	[6]

Giovanni Allevi (born in Ascoli Piceno, April 9, 1969) is an Italian pianist and composer.

Biography[link]

Education[link]

Allevi attained a "first-class diploma" both in piano at the "F. Morlacchi"'s conservatoire in Perugia and in composition at the "G. Verdi" academy of music in Milan. He graduated cum laude in Philosophy with a thesis entitled "Il vuoto nella Fisica contemporanea" (The Void in Contemporary Physics) and he attended the Accademia Internazionale di Alto Perfezionamento in Arezzo, under maestro Carlo Alberto Neri.

In 1991 he did military service in the Banda Nazionale of the Italian Army. The master of the band noticed his piano talent and decided to put the piano soloist in his "inventory." He played the Rhapsody in Blue by George Gershwin and the Warsaw Concerto by Richard Addinsell in his capacity as piano soloist of the Banda during a tour in numerous Italian theatres. At the end of his military service Allevi started presenting in concert a repertory formed exclusively of his own compositions for pianoforte while at the same time attending courses of "Bio-music and music therapy" by professor Mario Corradini, in which he enhanced his awareness of music's great power of "setting minds free" and its ability to evoke memories, images and emotions.

In 1996 he set to music the tragedy The Trojan Women by Euripides, performed on the occasion of the International Festival of the Ancient Drama in Siracusa. It won a special prize for the "best scene musics."

In 1997 he won the international selections for young concertists at the San Filippo Theatre in Turin.

Encountering Saturnino and Jovanotti[link]

Thanks to Saturnino, Giovanni Allevi matures the idea of moving to Milan and to gather into one CD his own piano production; this work is picked up by Lorenzo Cherubini, stage name Jovanotti, who in 1997, under his label Soleluna and together with Universal Italia, decides to publish Allevi's first album, by the title of 13 Dita (13 Fingers) and produced by Saturnino. He also provided the music at the opening ceremony of the 2009 World Aquatics Championships in Rome.

As a result of Allevi's encounter with Saturnino and Jovanotti, he faces the large audiences of modern rock concerts: Allevi opens, with his piano alone, Jovanotti's concerts during the tour L'Albero, executing a few tracks from 13 Dita.

In 1998, again with Saturnino as the producer, Allevi creates the soundtrack for the short film Venceremos, awarded at the Sundance Film Festival, a film festival that takes place annually in the state of Utah, in the United States.

Non-piano work[link]

Giovanni Allevi has written some non-piano works, in addition to his piano compositions, which are mostly unpublished. The most important are:

• Inno delle Marche (Hymn of the Marche region) - Orchestral work for the Marche Italian region, commissioned in occasion of a youths meeting promoted by the Italian Churc in Loreto (2007).^[1]
• Angelo Ribelle (Rebel Angel) - Suite for string orchestra, written in five movements. The premiere was executed by the Virtuosi Italiani orchestra on the 9 March 2007, at the Teatro nuovo in Verona, under the conduction of Allevi. It was published in his 2008 album Evolution.
• 300 Anelli (300 Rings) - Work for piano and orchestra (strings, winds and harp) composed in two movements (the first without the piano). The premiere was executed on the 4 August 2007 for the "I suoni delle Dolomiti" season, by the Virtuosi Italiani orchestra with Allevi on the piano and conductor. It was published in Evolution.
• Foglie di Beslan (Beslan's leaves) - Work for piano and symphony orchestra written to commemorate the Beslan massacre. The premiere was executed on the 29 April 2005 at the Metropolitan theatre in Palermo, by Allevi himself at the piano with the Orchestra sinfonica Siciliana directed by Daniel Kawka. It was published as first track of the album Evolution.
• Sparpagghiò - Musical comedy for orchestra (22 players) and choir, under the direction of Gianni Lattanzi. The first execution was held on the 9 February 2001 at the Ventidio Basso theatre in Ascoli Piceno. The orchestra was directed by Allevi himself.

The concert at the Senate[link]

On December 21, 2008 Allevi directed "I virtuosi Italiani" symphony orchestra at the Christmas concert at Senate House. The audience included the likes of Giorgio Napolitano, the president of the Republic, and other high-ranking State officers. Along with two pieces by Giacomo Puccini, five compositions by Allevi himself were played. The concert was broadcast live on RAI1, the main national television channel, establishing his fame and success in the national music scene.

Criticism[link]

The concert at the Senate hall inspired a strong debate on Allevi's actual talent: the celebrated violinist Uto Ughi strongly criticized the artist in an article that appeared on the newspaper La Stampa. Ughi clearly felt "offended as a musician" and declared "Allevi's success is the triumph of relativism".^[2]

Allevi retorted later in the same newspaper, accusing Ughi of "defending the caste", adding: "my music speaks to people's hearts but its technical and rhythmical virtuosity requires highly-talented performers". He noted that "in music it has always been difficult for new ideas to gain a hold, but later on they became the rule to follow".^[3]

Allevi is often accused of being simply a mass media phenomenon, nothing but the "result of a marketing strategy", as Piero Maranghi, director of Classica, a television channel fully dedicated to classical music, said.^[4] Marcello Filotei, journalist at the Osservatore Romano notes that "Allevi is the stereotyped representation of the composer, as anybody not familiar with concert halls expects him to be".^[5] Allevi is also criticized for his conceit (he defines his music as a "visionary project" for "establishing the basis for a new cultured contemporary music").^[6]

Other musicians plead Allevi's cause, recalling that "his success gave a new birth to piano, and encouraged many young to take piano lessons. In this debates I see only envy" as the pianist Nazzareno Carusi said to Panorama.^[7]

Italian piano player Loredana Brigandi' has also been a highly outspoken critic of the artist.

Books[link]

La Musica in Testa - His first book that has been published on March 5, 2008. It's a diary which collects his thoughts, his experiences and the ancdotes until his success.

Discography[link]

Studio albums/CD[link]

• 13 Dita (1997)
• Composizioni (2003)
• No concept (2005)
• Joy (2006)
• Evolution (June 13, 2008)
• Alien (September 28, 2010)

Live[link]

• Allevilive (2007)

Concerts/DVD[link]

• Joy tour 2007 (2007)
• Allevi & All Star Orchestra Arena di Verona (2009)

Musical editions[link]

• No Concept, piano score, Carisch, Milano 2006, ISBN 978-88-507-0959-5
• Joy, piano score, Carisch, Milano 2007, ISBN 978-88-507-1143-7
• Pianoforte a quattro mani, four-hands piano score, Carisch, Milano 2008, ISBN 978-88-507-1276-2 (it contains the transcription of the following pieces for the four-hands piano: Back to life, Come sei veramente, Vento d'Europa, Jazzmatic)

References[link]

External links[link]

	Arts portal
	music portal

• Official site (Italian and English versions available)
• Official weblog (in Italian)
• Official FanClub (in Italian)

1875 oil painting by Wilhelm August Rieder, after his own 1825 watercolor portrait

Franz Peter Schubert (German pronunciation: [ˈfʁants ˈʃuːbɛɐ̯t]; 31 January 1797 – 19 November 1828) was an Austrian composer.

Although he died at the age of 31, Schubert was a prolific composer, having written some 600 Lieder, nine symphonies (including the famous "Unfinished Symphony"), liturgical music, operas, some incidental music, and a large body of chamber and solo piano music. Appreciation of Schubert's music during his lifetime was limited, but interest in his work increased significantly in the decades following his death. Franz Liszt, Robert Schumann, Johannes Brahms and Felix Mendelssohn, among others, discovered and championed his works in the 19th century. Today, Schubert is seen as one of the leading exponents of the early Romantic era in music and he remains one of the most frequently performed composers.

Biography[link]

Early life and education[link]

Schubert was born in Himmelpfortgrund (now a part of Alsergrund), Vienna, on 31 January 1797. His father, Franz Theodor Schubert, the son of a Moravian peasant, was a parish schoolmaster; his mother, Elisabeth Vietz, was the daughter of a Silesian master locksmith, and had also been a housemaid for a Viennese family prior to her marriage. Of Franz Theodor's fourteen children (one illegitimate child was born in 1783),^[1] nine died in infancy; five survived. Their father was a well-known teacher, and his school in Lichtental, a part of Vienna's 9th district, was well attended.^[2] He was not a musician of fame or with formal training, but he taught his son some elements of music.^[3]

The house in which Schubert was born, today Nussdorfer Strasse 54, in the 9th district of Vienna.

At the age of five, Schubert began receiving regular instruction from his father and a year later was enrolled at his father's school. His formal musical education also started around the same time. His father continued to teach him the basics of the violin,^[3] and his brother Ignaz gave him piano lessons.^[4] At the age of seven, Schubert began receiving lessons from Michael Holzer, the local church organist and choirmaster. Holzer's lessons seem to have mainly consisted of conversations and expressions of admiration^[5] and the boy gained more from his acquaintance with a friendly joiner's apprentice who used to take him to a neighboring pianoforte warehouse where he had the opportunity to practice on better instruments.^[6] He also played the viola in the family string quartet, with brothers Ferdinand and Ignaz on violin and his father on the cello. Schubert wrote many of his early string quartets for this ensemble.^[7]

Schubert first came to the attention of Antonio Salieri, then Vienna's leading musical authority, in 1804, when his vocal talent was recognized.^[7] In October 1808, he became a pupil at the Stadtkonvikt (Imperial seminary) through a choir scholarship. At the Stadtkonvikt, Schubert was introduced to the overtures and symphonies of Mozart.^[8] His exposure to these pieces and various lighter compositions, combined with his occasional visits to the opera set the foundation for his greater musical knowledge.^[9] One important musical influence came from the songs of Johann Rudolf Zumsteeg, who was an important Lied composer of the time, which, his friend Joseph von Spaun reported, he "wanted to modernize".^[10] Schubert's friendship with Spaun began at the Stadtkonvikt and endured through his lifetime. In those early days, the more well-to-do Spaun furnished the impoverished Schubert with manuscript paper.^[9]

Meanwhile, his genius began to show in his compositions. Schubert was occasionally permitted to lead the Stadtkonvikt's orchestra, and Salieri decided to begin training him privately in musical composition and theory in these years.^[11] It was the first germ of that amateur orchestra for which, in later years, many of his compositions were written. During the remainder of his stay at the Stadtkonvikt he wrote a good deal of chamber music, several songs, some miscellaneous pieces for the pianoforte and, among his more ambitious efforts, a Kyrie (D. 31) and Salve Regina (D. 27), an octet for wind instruments (D. 72/72a, said to commemorate the 1812 death of his mother),^[12] a cantata for guitar and male voices (D. 110, in honor of his father's birthday in 1813), and his first symphony (D. 82).^[13]

	Mass No. 2 in G, D. 167 Kyrie Gloria Credo Sanctus Benedictus Agnus Dei Performance by the MIT Concert Choir
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Teacher at his father's school[link]

At the end of 1813, he left the Stadtkonvikt, and returned home for studies at the Normalhauptschule to train as a teacher. In 1814, he entered his father's school as teacher of the youngest students. For over two years, the young man endured the drudgery of the work, which he performed with very indifferent success.^[14] There were, however, other interests to compensate. He continued to receive private lessons in composition from Salieri, who did more for Schubert’s musical training than any of his other teachers. Salieri and Schubert would part ways in 1817.^[11]

In 1814, Schubert met a young soprano named Therese Grob, the daughter of a local silk manufacturer. Several of his songs (Salve Regina and Tantum Ergo) were composed for her voice, and she also performed in the premiere of his first Mass (D. 105) in September^[15] 1814.^[14] Schubert intended to marry Grob, but was hindered by the harsh marriage consent law of 1815,^[16] which required the ability to show the means to support a family.^[17] In November 1816, after failing to gain a position at Laibach, Schubert sent Grob's brother Heinrich a collection of songs, which were retained by her family into the 20th century.^[18][18][18]

One of Schubert's most prolific years was 1815. He composed over 20,000 bars of music, more than half of which was for orchestra, including nine church works, a symphony, and about 140 Lieder.^[19] In that year, he was also introduced to Anselm Hüttenbrenner and Franz von Schober, who would become his lifelong friends. Another friend, Johann Mayrhofer, was introduced to him by Spaun in 1814.^[20] Maynard Solomon suggested that Schubert was erotically attracted to men,^[21] a thesis that has, at times, been heatedly debated.^[22] Musicologist and Schubert expert Rita Steblin claimed that he was "chasing women".^[23]

Supported by friends[link]

Significant changes happened in 1816. Schober, a student of good family and some means, invited Schubert to room with him at his mother's house. The proposal was particularly opportune, for Schubert had just made the unsuccessful application for the post of Kapellmeister at Laibach, and he had also decided not to resume teaching duties at his father's school. By the end of the year, he became a guest in Schober's lodgings. For a time, he attempted to increase the household resources by giving music lessons, but they were soon abandoned, and he devoted himself to composition. "I compose every morning, and when one piece is done, I begin another."^[24] During this year, he focused on orchestral and choral works, although he also continued to write Lieder.^[25] Much of this work was unpublished, but manuscripts and copies circulated among friends and admirers.^[26]

Schubert and Vogl

In early 1817, Schober introduced Schubert to Johann Michael Vogl, a prominent baritone twenty years Schubert's senior. Vogl, for whom Schubert went on to write a great many songs, became one of Schubert's main proponents in Viennese musical circles. He also met Joseph Hüttenbrenner (brother to Anselm), who also played a role in promoting Schubert's music.^[27] These, and an increasing circle of friends and musicians, became responsible for promoting, collecting, and, after his death, preserving, his work.^[28]

In late 1817, Schubert's father gained a new position at a school in Rossau (not far from Lichtental). Schubert rejoined his father and reluctantly took up teaching duties there. In early 1818, he was rejected for membership in the prestigious Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde, something that might have furthered his musical career.^[29] However, he began to gain more notice in the press, and the first public performance of a secular work, an overture performed in February 1818, received praise from the press in Vienna and abroad.^[30]

Schubert spent the summer of 1818 as music teacher to the family of Count Johann Karl Esterházy at their château in Zseliz (then in Hungary, now in Slovakia). His duties were relatively light (teaching piano and singing to the two daughters, Marie and Karoline), and the pay was relatively good. As a result, he happily continued to compose during this time. It may have been at this time that he wrote one of his now world-famous compositions, the Marche militaire No. 1 in D major. Marie and Karoline both being his piano students, and the original score of "Marche Militaire" being a piano duet, lend credence to this view. On his return from Zseliz, he took up residence with his friend Mayrhofer.^[29] The respite at Zseliz led to a succession of compositions for piano duet.^[31]

During the early 1820s, Schubert was part of a close-knit circle of artists and students who had social gatherings together that became known as "Schubertiaden". The tight circle of friends with which Schubert surrounded himself was dealt a blow in early 1820. Schubert and four of his friends were arrested by the Austrian police, who (in the aftermath of the French Revolution and Napoleonic Wars) were on their guard against revolutionary activities and suspicious of any gathering of youth or students. One of Schubert's friends, Johann Senn, was put on trial, imprisoned for over a year, and then permanently forbidden to enter Vienna. The other four, including Schubert, were "severely reprimanded", in part for "inveighing against [officials] with insulting and opprobrious language".^[32] While Schubert never saw Senn again, he did set some of his poems, "Selige Welt" and "Schwanengesang", to music. The incident may have played a role in a falling-out with Mayrhofer, with whom he was living at the time.^[33]

He was nicknamed "Schwämmerl" by his friends, which Gibbs describes as translating to "Tubby" or "Little Mushroom". "Schwammerl" is Austrian (and other) dialect for mushroom; the umlaut makes it a diminutive.

The Wanderer Fantasy D. 760 I. Allegro con fuoco II. Adagio III. Presto IV. Allegro Performed by Daniel Blanch. Courtesy of Musopen

Musical maturity[link]

The compositions of 1819 and 1820 show a marked advance in development and maturity of style.^[34] The unfinished oratorio "Lazarus" (D. 689) was begun in February; later followed, amid a number of smaller works, by the 23rd Psalm (D. 706), the Gesang der Geister (D. 705/714), the Quartettsatz in C minor (D. 703), and the "Wanderer Fantasy" for piano (D. 760). Of most notable interest is the staging in 1820 of two of Schubert's operas: Die Zwillingsbrüder (D. 647) appeared at the Theater am Kärntnertor on 14 June, and Die Zauberharfe (D. 644) appeared at the Theater an der Wien on 21 August.^[35] Hitherto, his larger compositions (apart from his masses) had been restricted to the amateur orchestra at the Gundelhof, a society which grew out of the quartet-parties at his home. Now he began to assume a more prominent position, addressing a wider public.^[35] Publishers, however, remained distant, with Anton Diabelli hesitantly agreeing to print some of his works on commission.^[36] The first seven opus numbers (all songs) appeared on these terms; then the commission ceased, and he began to receive the meager pittances which were all that the great publishing houses ever paid him. The situation improved somewhat in March 1821 when Vogl sang "Der Erlkönig" at a concert that was extremely well received.^[37] That month, Schubert composed a variation on a waltz by Anton Diabelli (D. 718), being one of the fifty composers who contributed to Vaterländischer Künstlerverein.

	Piano sonata in B♭, D. 960 (composed in 1828) 1. Molto moderato 2. Andante sostenuto 3. Scherzo. Allegro vivace con delicatezza 4. Allegro, ma non troppo Performed by Randolph Hokanson
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The production of the two operas turned Schubert's attention more firmly than ever in the direction of the stage, where, for a variety of reasons, he was almost completely unsuccessful. All in all, he produced seventeen stage works, each of them failures which were quickly forgotten. In 1822, Alfonso und Estrella was refused, partly owing to its libretto.^[38] Fierrabras (D. 796) was rejected in the fall of 1823, but this was largely due to the popularity of Rossini and the Italian operatic style, and the failure of Carl Maria von Weber's Euryanthe.^[39] Die Verschworenen (The Conspirators, D. 787) was prohibited by the censor (apparently on the grounds of its title),^[40] and Rosamunde (D. 797) was withdrawn after two nights, owing to the poor quality of the play for which Schubert had written incidental music. Of these works, the two former are written on a scale which would make their performances exceedingly difficult (Fierrabras, for instance, contains over 1,000 pages of manuscript score), but Die Verschworenen is a bright attractive comedy, and Rosamunde contains some of the most charming music that Schubert ever composed. In 1822, he made the acquaintance of both Weber and Beethoven, but little came of it in either case. Beethoven is said to have acknowledged the younger man's gifts on a few occasions, but some of this is likely legend and in any case he could not have known the real scope of Schubert's music – especially not the instrumental works – as so little of it was printed or performed in the composer's lifetime. On his deathbed, Beethoven is said to have looked into some of the younger man's works and exclaimed, "Truly, the spark of divine genius resides in this Schubert!"^[41] but what would have come of it if he had recovered we can never know.

Schubert in 1825 (watercolor by Wilhelm August Rieder)

In the autumn of 1822, Schubert embarked suddenly on a work which more decisively than almost any other in those years showed his maturing personal vision, the "Unfinished Symphony" in B minor. The reason he left it unfinished after two movements and sketches some way into a third remains an enigma, and it is also remarkable that he did not mention it to any of his friends even though, as Brian Newbould notes, he must have felt thrilled by what he was achieving.

Last years and masterworks[link]

In 1823 Schubert, in addition to Fierrabras, also wrote his first song cycle, Die schöne Müllerin (D. 795), setting poems by Wilhelm Müller.^[42] This series, together with the later cycle "Winterreise" (D. 911, also setting texts of Müller in 1827) is widely considered one of the pinnacles of Lieder.^{[citation needed]} He also composed the song Du bist die Ruh ("You are stillness/peace") D. 776 during this year. Also in that year, symptoms of syphilis first appeared.^[43]

In the spring of 1824 he wrote the Octet in F (D. 803), "A Sketch for a Grand Symphony"; and in the summer went back to Zseliz. There he became attracted to Hungarian musical idiom, and wrote the Divertissement à la hongroise (D. 818) for piano duet and the String Quartet in A minor (D. 804).

It has been said that he held a hopeless passion for his pupil, the Countess Karoline Eszterházy, but the only work he dedicated to her was his Fantasie in F minor (D. 940) for piano duet.^[44] His friend Bauernfeld penned the following verse, which appears to reference Schubert's unrequited sentiments:

In love with a Countess of youthful grace,
—A pupil of Galt's; in desperate case
Young Schubert surrenders himself to another,
And fain would avoid such affectionate pother^[45]

Despite his preoccupation with the stage, and later with his official duties, he found time during these years for a significant amount of composition. He completed the Mass in A flat (fr) (D. 678) and, in 1822, began the "Unfinished Symphony" (Symphony No. 8 in B minor, D. 759). Why the symphony was "unfinished" has been debated endlessly without resolution. In 1824, he wrote the variations for flute and piano on "Trockne Blumen", from the cycle Die schöne Müllerin, and several string quartets. He also wrote the Arpeggione Sonata (D. 821), at a time when there was a minor craze over that instrument.^[46]

Ellens dritter Gesang (Ave Maria), D. 839 Performed by Dorothea Fayne (voice) and Uwe Streibel (piano)

The setbacks of previous years were compensated for by the prosperity and happiness of 1825. Publication had been moving more rapidly; the stress of poverty was for a time lightened; and in the summer he had a pleasant holiday in Upper Austria, where he was welcomed with enthusiasm. It was during this tour that he produced his "Songs from Sir Walter Scott". This cycle contains Ellens dritter Gesang (D. 839), a setting of Adam Storck's German translation of Scott's hymn from The Lady of the Lake, which is widely, though mistakenly, referred to as "Schubert's Ave Maria". It opens with the greeting Ave Maria, which recurs in the refrain; the entire Scott/Storck text in Schubert's song is frequently substituted with the complete Latin text of the traditional Ave Maria prayer.^[47] In 1825, Schubert also wrote the Piano Sonata in A minor (Op. 42, D. 845), and began the "Great" C major Symphony (Symphony No. 9, D. 944), which was completed the following year.^[48]

Schubert in 1827 (oil on canvas, by Anton Depauly)

From 1826 to 1828, Schubert resided continuously in Vienna, except for a brief visit to Graz in 1827. The history of his life during these three years was comparatively uninteresting, and is little more than a record of his compositions. In 1826, he dedicated a symphony (D. 944, that later came to be known as the "Great") to the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde and received an honorarium in return.^[49] In the spring of 1828, he gave, for the first and only time in his career, a public concert of his own works, which was very well received.^[50] The compositions themselves are a sufficient biography. The String Quartet in D minor (D. 810), with the variations on "Death and the Maiden", was written during the winter of 1825–1826, and first played on 25 January 1826. Later in the year came the String Quartet in G major, (D. 887, Op. 161), the "Rondeau brillant" for piano and violin (D. 895, Op. 70), and the Piano Sonata in G (D. 894, Op. 78) (first published under the title "Fantasia in G"). To these should be added the three Shakespearian songs, of which "Hark! Hark! the Lark" (D. 889) and "An Sylvia" (D. 891) were allegedly written on the same day, the former at a tavern where he broke his afternoon's walk, the latter on his return to his lodging in the evening.^[51]

In 1827, Schubert wrote the song cycle Winterreise (D. 911), a colossal peak in art song ("remarkable" was the way it was described at the Schubertiades), the Fantasia for piano and violin in C (D. 934), the Impromptus for piano, and the two piano trios (the first in B flat (D. 898), and the second in E flat, D. 929);^[52] in 1828 the Mirjams Siegesgesang (Song of Miriam, D. 942) on a text by Franz Grillparzer, the Mass in E-flat (D. 950), the Tantum Ergo (D. 962) in the same key, the String Quintet in C (D. 956), the second Benedictus to the Mass in C, the last three piano sonatas, and the collection of songs published posthumously as Schwanengesang ("Swan-song", D. 957).^[53] This collection, while not a true song cycle, retains a unity of style amongst the individual songs, touching depths of tragedy and of the morbidly supernatural which had rarely been plumbed by any composer in the century preceding it. Six of these are set to words by Heinrich Heine, whose Buch der Lieder appeared in the autumn. The Symphony No. 9 (D. 944) is dated 1828, but Schubert scholars believe that this symphony was largely written in 1825–1826 (being referred to while he was on holiday at Gastein in 1825 – that work, once considered lost, now is generally seen as an early stage of his C major symphony) and was revised for prospective performance in 1828. This huge, Beethovenian work was declared "unplayable" by a Viennese orchestra.^[54] This was a fairly unusual practice for Schubert, for whom publication, let alone performance, was rarely contemplated for most of his larger-scale works during his lifetime. In the last weeks of his life, he began to sketch three movements for a new Symphony in D (D. 936A).^[55]

Impromptu in B♭ D. 935 No. 3 This Impromptu is a theme and variations based on a theme from Rosamunde. Performed by Randolph Hokanson.

The works of his last two years reveal a composer increasingly meditating on the darker side of the human psyche and human relationships, and with a deeper sense of spiritual awareness and conception of the 'beyond'. He reaches extraordinary depths in several chillingly dark songs of this period, especially in the larger cycles. For example, the song Der Doppelgänger reaching an extraordinary climax, conveying madness at the realization of rejection and imminent death – a stark and visionary picture in sound and words that had been prefigured a year before by "Der Leiermann" (The Hurdy-Gurdy Man) at the end of Winterreise – and yet the composer is able to touch repose and communion with the infinite in the almost timeless ebb and flow of the String Quintet and his last three piano sonatas, moving between joyful, vibrant poetry and remote introspection. Even in large-scale works he was sometimes using increasingly sparse textures; Newbould compares his writing in the fragmentary Tenth Symphony (D. 936A), probably the work of his very last two months with Mahler's use of folksong-like harmonics and bare soundscapes.^[56] Schubert expressed the wish, were he to survive his final illness, to further develop his knowledge of harmony and counterpoint, and had actually made appointments for lessons with the counterpoint master Simon Sechter.^[57]

Final illness and death[link]

Franz Schubert's first tomb at Währing

In the midst of this creative activity, his health deteriorated. The cause of his death was officially diagnosed as typhoid fever, though other theories have been proposed, including the tertiary stage of syphilis.^[58] By the late 1820s, Schubert's health was failing and he confided to some friends that he feared that he was near death.^{[59][page needed]} In the late summer of 1828, the composer saw court physician Ernst Rinna, who may have confirmed Schubert's suspicions that he was ill beyond cure and likely to die soon.^{[60][page needed]} Some of his symptoms matched those of mercury poisoning (mercury was then a common treatment for syphilis, again suggesting that Schubert suffered from it).^[61] At the beginning of November, he again fell ill, experiencing headaches, fever, swollen joints, and vomiting. He was generally unable to retain solid food and his condition worsened. Schubert died in Vienna, at age 31, on 19 November 1828, at the apartment of his brother Ferdinand. The last musical work he had wished to hear was Beethoven's String Quartet No. 14 in C sharp minor, Op. 131; his friend, violinist Karl Holz, who was present at the gathering, 5 days before Schubert's death, commented: "The King of Harmony has sent the King of Song a friendly bidding to the crossing".^[62] It was next to Beethoven, whom he had admired all his life, that Schubert was buried by his own request, in the village cemetery of Währing.^[63]

In 1872, a memorial to Franz Schubert was erected in Vienna's Stadtpark.^[63] In 1888, both Schubert's and Beethoven's graves were moved to the Zentralfriedhof, where they can now be found next to those of Johann Strauss II and Johannes Brahms.^[64] The cemetery in Währing was converted into a park in 1925, called the Schubert Park, and his former grave site was marked by a bust.

Music[link]

Franz Schubert memorial by Karl Kundmann in Vienna's Stadtpark

Schubert wrote almost 1000 works in a remarkably short career. The largest number of these are songs (over 600). He wrote seven complete symphonies, as well as the two movements of the "Unfinished" Symphony, a complete sketch (with partial orchestration) of a ninth, and arguable fragments of a tenth. There is a large body of music for solo piano, including 21 complete sonatas and many short dances, and a relatively large set of works for piano duet. There are nearly 30 chamber works, including some fragmentary works. His choral output includes six masses.^[65] He completed only half of his eighteen operatic projects,^[66] and composed no concertos.

Style and reception[link]

In July 1947 the twentieth-century composer Ernst Krenek discussed Schubert's style, abashedly admitting that he at first "shared the wide-spread opinion that Schubert was a lucky inventor of pleasing tunes ... lacking the dramatic power and searching intelligence which distinguished such 'real' masters as Bach or Beethoven". Krenek wrote that he reached a completely different assessment after close study of Schubert's songs at the urging of friend and fellow composer Eduard Erdmann. Krenek pointed to the piano sonatas as giving "ample evidence that [Schubert] was much more than an easy-going tune-smith who did not know, and did not care, about the craft of composition." Each sonata then in print, according to Krenek, exhibited "a great wealth of technical finesse" and revealed Schubert as "far from satisfied with pouring his charming ideas into conventional molds; on the contrary he was a thinking artist with a keen appetite for experimentation."^[67]

That "appetite for experimentation" manifests itself repeatedly in Schubert's output in a wide variety of forms and genres, including opera, liturgical music, chamber and solo piano music, and symphonic works. Perhaps most familiarly, his adventurousness manifests itself as a notably original sense of modulation, as in the second movement of the String Quintet, where he modulates from C major, through E major, to reach the tonic key of C♯ major.^[68] It also appears in unusual choices of instrumentation, as in the Arpeggione Sonata or the unconventional scoring of the Trout Quintet.

The Arpeggione Sonata, D. 821 I. Allegro Moderato 2. Adagio and 3. Allegretto Performed by Hans Goldstein (cello) and Clinton Adams (piano)

While he was clearly influenced by the Classical sonata forms of Beethoven and Mozart (his early works, among them notably the 5th Symphony, are particularly Mozartean), his formal structures and his developments tend to give the impression more of melodic development than of harmonic drama.^[69] This combination of Classical form and long-breathed Romantic melody sometimes lends them a discursive style: his 9th Symphony was described by Robert Schumann as running to "heavenly lengths".^[70] His harmonic innovations include movements in which the first section ends in the key of the subdominant rather than the dominant (as in the last movement of the Trout Quintet). Schubert's practice here was a forerunner of the common Romantic technique of relaxing, rather than raising, tension in the middle of a movement, with final resolution postponed to the very end.^{[citation needed]}

It was in the genre of the Lied, however, that Schubert made his most indelible mark. Leon Plantinga remarks, "In his more than six hundred Lieder he explored and expanded the potentialities of the genre as no composer before him."^[71] Prior to Schubert's influence, Lieder tended toward a strophic, syllabic treatment of text, evoking the folksong qualities burgeoned by the stirrings of Romantic nationalism.^[72] Among Schubert's treatments of the poetry of Goethe, his settings of Gretchen am Spinnrade and Der Erlkönig are particularly striking for their dramatic content, forward-looking uses of harmony, and their use of eloquent pictorial keyboard figurations, such as the depiction of the spinning wheel and treadle in the piano in Gretchen and the furious and ceaseless gallop in Erlkönig.^[73] He has composed music using the poems of a myriad of poets, with Goethe, Mayrhofer and Schiller being the top three most frequent, and others like Heinrich Heine, Friedrich Rückert and Joseph Freiherr von Eichendorff among many others. Also of particular note are his two song cycles on the poems of Wilhelm Müller, Die schöne Müllerin and Winterreise, which helped to establish the genre and its potential for musical, poetic, and almost operatic dramatic narrative. His last song cycle published in 1828 before his death, Schwanengesang, is also an innovative contribution to German lieder literature, as it features poems by different poets, namely Ludwig Rellstab, Heinrich Heine and Johann Gabriel Seidl. The Theaterzeitung, writing about Winterreise at the time, commented that it was a work that "none can sing or hear without being deeply moved".^[74] Antonín Dvořák wrote in 1894 that Schubert, whom he considered one of the truly great composers, was clearly influential on shorter works, especially Lieder and shorter piano works: "The tendency of the romantic school has been toward short forms, and although Weber helped to show the way, to Schubert belongs the chief credit of originating the short models of piano forte pieces which the romantic school has preferably cultivated. [...] Schubert created a new epoch with the Lied. [...] All other songwriters have followed in his footsteps."^[75]

Schubert's compositional style progressed rapidly throughout his short life.^[76] The loss of potential masterpieces caused by his early death at age 31 was perhaps best expressed in the epitaph on his large tombstone written by the poet Franz Grillparzer, "Here music has buried a treasure, but even fairer hopes."^[77]

Schubert's chamber music continues to be popular. In a poll of classical music listeners announced in October 2008, the ABC in Australia found that Schubert's chamber works dominated the field, with the Trout Quintet coming first, followed by two of his other works.^[78]

The New York Times music critic, Anthony Tommasini, who ranked Schubert as the fourth greatest composer, wrote, "Four? Schubert. You have to love the guy, who died at 31, ill, impoverished and neglected except by a circle of friends who were in awe of his genius. For his hundreds of songs alone – including the haunting cycle “Winterreise,” which will never release its tenacious hold on singers and audiences – Schubert is central to our concert life.... Schubert’s first few symphonies may be works in progress. But the “Unfinished” and especially the Ninth Symphony are astonishing. The Ninth paves the way for Bruckner and prefigures Mahler.".^[79]

Posthumous history of Schubert's music[link]

Interior of museum at Schubert's birthplace, Vienna, 1914

Some of his smaller pieces were printed shortly after his death, but the manuscripts of many of the longer works, whose existence was not widely known, remained hidden in cabinets and file boxes of Schubert's family, friends, and publishers.^[80] Even some of Schubert's friends were unaware of the full scope of what he wrote, and for many years he was primarily recognized as the "prince of song", although there was recognition of some of his larger-scale efforts.^[81] In 1838 Robert Schumann, on a visit to Vienna, found the dusty manuscript of the C major symphony (the "Great", D. 944) and took it back to Leipzig, where it was performed by Felix Mendelssohn and celebrated in the Neue Zeitschrift. The most important step towards the recovery of the neglected works was the journey to Vienna which Sir George Grove (widely known for the Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians) and Arthur Sullivan made in the autumn of 1867. The travellers rescued from oblivion seven symphonies, the Rosamunde incidental music, some of the Masses and operas, some of the chamber works, and a vast quantity of miscellaneous pieces and songs.^[80] This led to more widespread public interest in Schubert's work.^[82]

Posthumous lithograph by Joseph Kriehuber

From the 1830s through the 1870s, Franz Liszt transcribed and arranged a number of Schubert's works, particularly the songs. Liszt, who was a significant force in spreading Schubert's work after his death, said Schubert was "the most poetic musician who ever lived."^[83] Schubert's symphonies were of particular interest to Antonín Dvořák, with Hector Berlioz and Anton Bruckner acknowledging the influence of the "Great" Symphony.^[84]

In 1897, the publisher Breitkopf & Härtel released a critical edition of Schubert's works, under the general editing of Johannes Brahms, enabling a wider dissemination of his music. In the 20th century, composers such as Benjamin Britten, Richard Strauss, and George Crumb either championed or paid homage to Schubert in their work. Britten, an accomplished pianist, accompanied many of Schubert's Lieder and performed many piano solo and duet works.^[84]

Numbering of symphonies[link]

Confusion arose quite early over the numbering of Schubert's symphonies, in particular the "Great" C Major Symphony. George Grove, who rediscovered many of Schubert's symphonies, assigned the following numbering after his 1867 visit to Vienna:

• Number 7: E major D. 729 (completely sketched but not completely scored by Schubert, with multiple historic and modern completions)
• Number 8: B minor Unfinished D. 759
• Number 9: C major Great D. 944.

Breitkopf & Härtel, when preparing the 1897 complete works publication, originally planned to publish only complete works (which would have given the Great number 7), with "fragments", including the Unfinished and the D. 729 sketch, receiving no number at all. When Johannes Brahms became general editor of that project, he assigned the following numbers:^[85]

• Number 7: C major Great
• Number 8: B minor Unfinished
• no number: E major D. 729.

	Examples of Works for violin and piano Rondeau brillant, D. 895, Op. 70 Fantasia in C major, D. 934 Performed by Denes Zsigmondy (violin) and Annaliese Nissen(piano)
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Some of the disagreement continued into the 20th century. George Grove in his 1908 Dictionary of Music and Musicians, assigned the Great as number 10, and the Unfinished as number 9. (It is unclear from his article which symphonies, fragmentary or otherwise, are numbers 7 and 8.)^[86] However, the Unfinished is now generally referred to as number 8 in the English-speaking world, with the Great at number 9. Number 10 is generally acknowledged to be the D. 936a fragment, for which a completion by Brian Newbould exists. The 1978 revision to the Deutsch catalog leaves D. 729 without a number (in spite of numerous completions), and assigns number 7 to the Unfinished and number 8 to the Great.^[87] As a consequence, generally available scores for the later symphonies may be published using conflicting numbers.^[88]

Grove and Sullivan also suggested that there may have been a "lost" symphony. Immediately before Schubert's death, his friend Eduard von Bauernfeld recorded the existence of an additional symphony, dated 1828 (although this does not necessarily indicate the year of composition) named the "Letzte" or "Last" symphony. Brian Newbould^[55] believes that the "Last" symphony refers to a sketch in D major (D. 936A), identified by Ernst Hilmar in 1977, and which was realised by Newbould as the Tenth Symphony. The fragment was bound with other symphony fragments (D. 615 and D. 708a) that Schubert had apparently intended to combine.^[55]

Commemorations[link]

In 1897, the 100th anniversary of Schubert's birth was marked in the musical world by festivals and performances dedicated to his music. In Vienna, there were ten days of concerts, and the Emperor Franz Joseph gave a speech recognizing Schubert as the creator of the art song, and one of Austria's favorite sons.^[89][90] Karlsruhe saw the first production of his opera Fierrabras.^[91]

In 1928, Schubert week was held in Europe and the United States to mark the centenary of the composer's death. Works by Schubert were performed in churches, in concert halls, and on radio stations. A competition, with top prize money of $10,000 and sponsorship by the Columbia Phonograph Company, was held for "original symphonic works presented as an apotheosis of the lyrical genius of Schubert, and dedicated to his memory".^[92] The winning entry was Kurt Atterberg's sixth symphony.^[92]

In 1977, the German electronic band Kraftwerk recorded a tribute song called "Franz Schubert", which can be found on the album Trans-Europe Express.^[93]

Schubert has featured as a character in a number of films including The Great Awakening (1941) and Franz Schubert (1953).

Catalogue[link]

Since relatively few of Schubert's works were published in his lifetime, only a small number of them have opus numbers assigned, and, even in those cases, the sequence of the numbers does not give a good indication of the order of composition. In 1951, musicologist Otto Erich Deutsch published a "thematic catalogue" of Schubert's works that lists his compositions numerically by their composition date.

• Catalogue by Deutsch number: D 1 to 500 – D 501 to 998
• List of compositions by Franz Schubert – by musical genre
• Wikipedia articles about Schubert's compositions

Notes[link]