ETUDE
October 1938
volume LVI
number 10
page 694

Franz Schubert, Guitarist

By George C. Krick

THE LIFE OF FRANZ SCHUBERT has been the subject of many historians and it is not the object of this article to restate what is already known to most music lovers throughout the world, about the struggles and triumphs of this veritable genius, creator of the immortal “Symphony in B minor,” and peer amongst the writers of song. Only in rare instances, however, do we find references to his intense interest in the guitar, the instrument he loved, and played with great skill.

Schubert was born January 31, 1797 in Vienna, and died in that city November 19 1828, the period which is often referred to as the golden era of the guitar. Sor and Aguado, the great Spanish guitarists were concertizing in European cities and the Italian virtuoso Mauro Giuliani was creating a furore in Vienna with his astonishing guitar performances. Together with J. N. Hummel and later Ignaz Moscheles, Giuliani performed original concertos for guitar and piano. Hummel wrote a number of serenades for piano, guitar, violin and violoncello and these were performed by Hummel, Giuliani, the violinist Mayseder and the violoncellist Merk. Frequently this quartet appeared at the musical soirees given at the royal castle Schoenbrun. No home in Vienna was considered complete without a guitar and most musicians of that period devoted some of their time to the study of this instrument. These were the years when the “family orchestra” flourished and in the evenings after the day’s work was done and friends gathered together, the “making of music” was the all absorbing interest; and in these groups the guitar played quite a prominent part. Numerous compositions published during this period were written for small combinations of instruments, trios, quartettes, quintettes and most of them included a part for guitar.

In this guitaristic atmosphere Franz Schubert was born and received a thorough musical foundation from his father and older brother on piano, violin and guitar. Even as a boy he began setting poems to music and singing them to the accompaniment of his guitar. When sixteen years of age he composed in honor of his father’s birthday a cantata for three male voices with guitar accompaniment. It was Theodore Koerner, the poet and liedersinger, who induced Schubert to devote more time to the serious study of the guitar and from all accounts he must have acquired a technic bordering on virtuosity in a comparatively short time.

In straitened circumstances during most of his life, frequently changing his lodgings, often deprived of the use of a piano, Schubert found solace in his guitar and it became his constant companion. Most of the accompaniments for his songs were conceived on the guitar and only later were they transcribed for piano. Quite a number of his early songs and many appearing during the years 1822-23-24 were originally published with guitar accompaniments. Amongst these are the well known Ungeduld, Das Wandern, Heiden Roeslein, Lied der Mignon, Morgengruss, Wiegenlied, Geist der Liebe, for four male voices and guitar, Op. 11, No. 3 and many others.

The greatest contribution Franz Schubert made to the literature of the guitar is undoubtedly his “Quartet for Flute, Guitar, Viola and Violoncello.” The original manuscript of this composition was accidentally discovered in the attic of a country home belonging to Karl and Marianne Feyerer in “Zell am See,” in 1918 and published in 1926 by the “Drei Masken Verlag” in Munich. According to George Kinsky, the music historian, a great uncle of Feyerer, Ignaz Rosner, was a friend of Schubert. He was an excellent flutist and violoncellist and a fairly talented composer of songs. There were also Friedrich Stenzl, a government official, who played viola in the orchestra of the “Friends of Music,” and a sister of Stenzl, who was a clever guitarist. It is supposed that the quartet was dedicated to this lady, who later became the wife of Rosner and this no doubt accounts for the manuscript coming into possession of the Feyerer family. The published version includes a facsimile of the first page of the manuscript, with a notation that it was first intended as a trio for flute, guitar and viola, and it appears that a violoncello part was added, before it was completely finished. Similar to most of Schubert’s manuscripts it is dated showing that it was begun February, 1814, and the handwriting from first to last is unmistakably that of the master. The quartet is in five movements: first, Moderato, second, Menuetto, third, Lento e patetico, fourth, Zingara and the fifth, Tema con variazioni.

From the appearance of the manuscript it was evident that several more pages belonged to it, but these have not been found. They possibly contained more variations and a final coda to bring the quartet to a proper close, as was his custom in compositions of this type. Next to the flute, the guitar has the most important part, containing many solo and obbligato passages and other characteristic effects generally associated with the guitar. It calls on all the resources of the instrument and also proves that Schubert was a consummate master of guitar technic. From beginning to end the five movements are gems of musical invention and contain melodies that are typically Schubert at his best. The initial public performance of the quartet was given on June 6, 1925, at the Fourth German Chamber Music festival held in the music room of the beautiful castle, “Zu Bruehl,” near Cologne, with the guitar virtuoso Heinrich Albert playing the guitar part. On May 4, 1926, it was again heard in Vienna at a concert sponsored by the Schubert Society of that city.

Schubert frequently found his way to the workshop of Stauffer the celebrated guitar maker, whose instruments were quite popular at that time. Stauffer had also constructed a so-called guitar-cello, an instrument about the size of a small violoncello, with fingerboard raised above the sounding board and to be played with a bow. It had six strings, the fingerboard was fretted and its tone is said to have resembled that of the Viol d’amour. Schubert was quite taken with it and composed for it a “Sonata in A minor” with piano accompaniment.

Of the guitars that had been in Schubert’s possession, three are still in existence. One is owned by the Schubert Society and may be seen in the Schubert Museum of Vienna, another is in possession of Richard Schmid and the third is in the hands of Major Hans Umlauf, of Vienna.