Franz Schubert - The Man And His Circle

IT should be made clear at the outset that this is not a book on the music of Schubert, nor an attempt to deal with his music in a technical or analytical form. It is an endeavour to portray the man Franz Schubert in the light of recent research—the man who left the world a rich heritage of considerably more than a thousand works of extreme brilliance, and who received in return £575 as the sum total of his life’s earnings.

The story of great musicians is replete with tragedy. But it is doubtful if Schubert realized the measure of his tragedy, unless in his closing days. It is doubtful if ever he starved. His poverty was a continual plague which yet permitted him to live. Only the passage of a hundred years has revealed the depth of his tragedy.

This little man, only 5 ft. 1 in. in height, had no tongue that gave expression to his personality. He was hindered by shyness so extreme that he withdrew to a corner when an admiring public gave adulation to the singer and forgot the maker of the song. But in Schubert lay a personality so forceful and magical that it drew about him one of the most brilliant circles in musical history.