Composers
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Schubert's Ave Maria |
It is the miracle of Franz Schubert -- despite almost continuous near-poverty, the drabness and struggle of his daily life, the lack of true recognition in his own time, and the poor health that prematurely ended his life at age thirty-one -- that he graced the world with a body of works of astounding proportions and lasting value. These include sixteen works for the theater, eight symphonies (including his best-loved "Unfinished"), fifteen string quartets, twenty-one additional chamber works, volumes of pieces for piano solo and piano four-hands, numerous works for chorus, and -- probably his greatest single contribution to the literature -- HUNDREDS of songs that are still sung on the world's concert stages. |
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It is said that Schubert composed anywhere and everywhere, even taking the habit of sleeping with his glasses on should he awake with a sudden inspiration! Although his favorite working hours were from dawn till noon, it was midnight when the twenty-two-year-old composer set down the first version of his famous song "The Trout" ("Die Forelle"), sleepily pouring ink over the page instead of the sand customarily used for blotting! (That ink-blotted manuscript is still preserved.) |
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Considering the fanatical speed of his writing (was he responding to an inner sense of an early death?), it is all the more astounding that so many works were of the highest quality. One of these is Schubert's "Ave Maria." This simple, moving piece, so universally known and loved, was written about 1825 (the composer was twenty-eight years old) as part of a setting of songs from Walter Scott's "Lady of the Lake." According to Schubert, his first audience of friends was surprised at the deeply devotional character of the "Ave Maria": "I think the reason for this is that I never force myself into devotion or compose hymns or prayers unless I am truly overpowered by the feeling; that alone is true devotion." |
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Three years after he wrote "Ave Maria", on November 19, 1828, Franz Schubert died of typhus and was buried in Wahring Cemetery, Vienna, near the grave of his beloved Beethoven. Beethoven had passed on but one year earlier.
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Ronald Herder