Fanboy Franz

Franz Schubert was Beethoven’s greatest fanboy. As a teen, Schubert wrote in his journal that Germanic influence had no place in Austrian music. Once he heard the music of Ludwig van Beethoven, that went out the window. Beethoven was an infinite source of inspiration for Schubert. He practically copied Beethoven’s 32 Variations in C Minor for his Piano Sonata in the same key….

Schubert would have loved to know just how much Herr Ludwig admired him. After all, he was Beethoven’s biggest fanboy. He even requested to be buried next to his idol Beethoven. For 3 decades, the two composers lived in the same city. Beethoven had already won considerable fame due to his early days as a virtuoso pianist, yet Schubert (with his lack of solid musical training), simply had his little Schubertiades. In Schubert’s eyes, he was a mere amateur keeling at the master’s namesake. When he first heard Beethoven’s monumental Opus 131 string quartet, Schubert remarked:

"After this, what is left for us to write?"

Whether Schubert knew it or not, he would be the one to answer his own question. He would become Beethoven's worthy successor through trail-blazing works like his String Quintet, Schwanengesang, and late Piano Sonatas? Or that quartet you composed that happens to contain one of the greatest Theme and Variations in all of music? What’s it called… Death and the Maiden?

Little do you know, Schubert, but you’re basically the only person that old geezer Beethoven has any respect for. Just one month before Beethoven died, he was presented with some of Schubert’s songs at his bedside. He exclaimed:

“Truly, in this Schubert there dwells a divine spark!.”

Indeed, Beethoven and Schubert shared more than admiration for each other. At the ends of their lives, they had an astoundingly similar artistic vision. For one thing, both were fascinated by the idea of cyclical works bound together by their harmonic structure. For Beethoven, his Opus 132, 130, and 131 are dubbed the “ABC quartets” because they are in A Minor, B-flat Major, and C-sharp minor respectively. Although they differ immensely in form and scope, they are linked together by the use of the second tetrachord in a harmonic minor scale. Interestingly, they also add one movement (5, 6 the 7 in Opus 131).

Opening of Opus 132:

Trio of Opus 32 Movement 2:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h6M_xPJB-ec

We get almost a direct “prediction” of the Opus 131 fugue subject! Astounding. Beethoven truly was a genius.

(6:17)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h6M_xPJB-ec

Grosse Fugue (original finale to Opus 130)

Again, if you rearrange the notes you get, E, F, G#, A.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XAgdd2VqLVc

Fugue subject of Opus 131:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WlFYC1U5viw

When rearranging the notes, you get G#, A, B#, C#. The reason why the A in this subject sounds so jarring is that it falls an augmented second down from B sharp. The more a quartet “milks” this note, the better this movement is.

Second theme of Opus 131 Finale:

It’s absolutely fascinating that Beethoven, throughout the ABC quartets, “hid” the tetrachord by rearranging it. Now, he solves the mystery - in the last movement of the last quartet - by putting it in scalar form.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WlFYC1U5viw

(32:49)

Schubert was perhaps less explicit about the cyclical elements in his last three piano sonatas. However, he most certainly intended them as a set, publishing them together.. They are an absolute labyrinth of motivic, harmonic, and even structural similarities. Just like Beethoven’s late string quartets, there are modulations that just don’t fit in with the home key - for the sake of unifying one sonata with the tonalities of the other. There is actually an entire Wikipedia article on Schubert’s last piano sonatas…

Chamber music, especially the string quartet, holds a special place in the output of both Beethoven and Schubert. In particular, chamber music was the medium they turned to towards the end of their lives, after a long break from writing it. Schubert began writing string quartets in 1824; Beethoven a year later. Besides an incomplete quartet movement written in 1820, Schubert hadn’t written a string quartet since 1816. Beethoven’s hiatus lasted even longer; his “Serioso” quartet was written in 1810! Of course, the last years before death are the ones where you are perhaps most intimately connected with yourself. What better represents that intimacy than a string quartet, where the 4 performers must fuse into a single body of sound, where the parts are laced together like a batch of ivy? Beethoven’s grandest ideas found most room to manifest themselves through the string quartet, culminating in Opus 131. Just like Schubert, Beethoven himself felt that Opus 131 was his greatest single work. What a statement, especially considering the mastery Beethoven had over genres like the Symphony and the Piano Sonata. Clearly, the string quartet was where Beethoven felt most at home. Schubert too thrived in the realm of the string quartet - in fact, it is the only other genre besides the art song where his natural talent for songwriting could truly produce a masterpiece. I would actually argue that Schubert’s piano sonatas are some of the finest in the repertoire, but it is generally thought that Schubert was a master of the art song and chamber music (yes, I know art songs are chamber music too). Unlike Beethoven, he actually wasn’t at all recognized for Symphonies, Concertos, or even Operas - but these works for few performers. Perhaps it was for Schubert’s own good that he never reached fame; his works are best appreciated in those little Schubertiades. He was even able to incorporate his art songs into instrumental chamber music, as is the case with his “Trout” Quintet and “Death and the Maiden.”

Most importantly, Beethoven used the medium of the string quartet to express their feelings about incipient death. And that’s where Beethoven and Schubert differ. As we will see through Opus 131 and Death and the Maiden, the tragically different personalities and life experiences between the two composers lent themselves to different attitudes about death.

Beethoven wasn’t exactly a beam of light on a cloudy day. He lived most of his life driving everyone who he came into contact with up the wall, negative and stubborn. At the same time, he sustained himself by always clinging onto the distant silver lining. That despite his miserable existence, he was providing his posterity with the ripest fruits of genius God could have bestowed upon a human being. Of course, Beethoven also found immediate solace through nature, which is another huge inspiration for his works (Pastoral Symphony, Heiliger Dankgesang, etc.). But a clear idiomatic continuity of Beethoven’s is triumph over his inner demons. Very rarely do his works actually end in minor - especially not those written during his middle and late periods. The only work that ends in tragedy beyond Heiligenstadt is the “Appassionata” sonata (I will definitely be doing a post on that). Otherwise, Beethoven always finds his way out of what seems like utter emotional ruin. As explained in my last post (linked), Beethoven maintained this attitude until the very end, with that glorious C-sharp-major ending of Opus 131.

Now, Opus 131 is an extremely bizarre quartet. In tonality alone, there are infinite colors within this 7-movement monstrosity of a quartet - starting and ending in C-sharp minor, the inner movements are in everything from D Major to E Major to G-sharp minor. Richard Wagner described the first movement as “reveal[ing] the most melancholy sentiment ever expressed in music.” It is how Beethoven felt when he was completely isolated and helpless, a prisoner within his long-deafened ears and ailing body. It is a completely new take on the fugue, an antidote to the architectural precedent set by J.S. Bach. It’s power is beyond description; when I first heard it, I didn’t think I could go onto the other movements. Yet immediately after, Beethoven lifts us into a lilting dance in D Major. What is also interesting about this quartet is that some of the movements (the third and sixth) are like little recitiativos, or transitions to the following movements. This adds to the saga-like nature of Opus 131, using a compositional technique common to opera. As if the fugue weren’t enough, Beethoven places the apotheosis of his Grand Variation form right smack in the middle of the quartet. At first, it seems like a little A Major Oasis, but we later get some of the most innovative variations Beethoven has to offer - to a point where you can barely recognize the simple theme. Then comes the fifth movement, which is so bizarre it evokes a wind up toy. Beethoven develops the music, comes to a halt, then plays it right over again. Beethoven also somehow conceived the use of ponticello, despite not having heard a string instrument for decades. The sixth movement wonderfully prepares for the last. Just like the first three movements of the 9th symphony, we have an inexplicable yet unmistakable feeling that something is coming. Then we return to the last movement, where Beethoven spells out his destiny once and for all. Opus 131 is Beethoven’s Judgement Day. With all the impossible variety in the first sixth movements, Beethoven reflects on his journey in life. In the last movement, Beethoven answers the question “what next.” And of course, he determines that his future beyond Earth is a bright one. Death to Beethoven wasn’t at all scary, but simply an extension of the constant heroism he exhibited throughout his life.

Schubert, on the other hand, was less optimistic.. To say the least, Schubert was having a real hard time. He’d just been hospitalized for Syphillis and failed yet again to be paid for his opera. Around 1824, Schubert realized he was dying:

“Think of a man whose health can never be restored, and who from sheer despair makes matters worse instead of better. Think, I say, of a man whose brightest hopes have come to nothing, to whom love and friendship are but torture, and whose enthusiasm for the beautiful is fast vanishing; and ask yourself if such a man is not truly unhappy.”

Furthermore, this was a man who never really got to live his life to the fullest. It was only in 1816 when he finally moved out from his parents, and he spent most of his life barely scraping by using support from his close friends. He never got to experience freedom, nor romance, nor true “success.” How could Schubert have had hope if he never knew what happiness was like?

I wonder if Schubert would have had a different perspective on his fate had he lived a little longer. Astonishingly, Beethoven was actually 31 when he wrote his Heiligenstadt Testament. Schubert was 31 - the exact same age - when he died. Absolutely UNCANNY. Prior to his pivotal epiphone, Beethoven wasn’t that much more optimistic about life than Schubert. After all, he originally intended the Heligenstadt Testament as a suicide letter.

That is one of the reasons why Schubert’s untimely death is the greatest tragedy in the history of music. Similar to Beethoven, it’s just about impossible to detach Schubert’s music from the man. If Schubert managed to survive Syphilis, what then? His rejuvenated personality surely would have driven inconceivable artistic innovation. Imagine a middle period Schubert, even beyond his art song cycles, Death and the Maiden, String Quintet, Piano Trios, etc. Just thinking about that possibility makes me die inside a little.

Death and the Maiden represents how inescapable death and its ailments were to Schubert. The first movement begins on a hollow, bleak, harsh, D Minor triplet motif; the motif which permeates most of the movement. You can almost FEEL the sudden changes in mood - all culminating in bursts of terror, as if you were experiencing Schubert’s grave illness.

The second movement, of course, is a theme and variations on his song Death and the Maiden.

The art songs Schubert incorporates into Death and the Maiden give us a clue about how Schubert perceived death. The lyrics are especially revealing:

The Maiden:

"Oh! leave me! Prithee, leave me! thou grisly man of bone!

For life is sweet, is pleasant.

Go! leave me now alone!

Go! leave me now alone!"

Death:

"Give me thy hand, oh! maiden fair to see,

For I'm a friend, hath ne'er distress'd thee.

Take courage now, and very soon

Within mine arms shalt softly rest thee!"

(from Wikipedia)

Schubert sees himself as a helpless maiden (as women were seen back then), who wants desperately to ward off Death who clings to her at every moment. Yet Death, like a wolf in sheep’s clothing, tries to convince her to join him and live among him for eternity.

This song isn’t the only one that Schubert quotes in his quartet. In the ferocious Tarantella movement, he actually quotes a melody from the famous Erlkonig. The lyrics to the melody are as follows:

Come with me, lovely child

We'll play games

There are flowers on the beach and

My mother has golden clothes

The Elf King, who ends up killing the boy, tries to convince him that succumbing is a good thing.

Both songs demonstrate how Schubert felt Death as a presence constantly tormenting him, trying to bargain with him, trying to isolate him from life on Earth.

The Tarantella itself also provides heartbreaking insight into Schubert’s feelings. A Tarantella was known as a treatment for the deadly bite of a tarantula. Schubert did write other tarantellas at the time, but the form alone further demonstrates his desperate need to ward off death. It is riddled with whirling sixteenth notes, which give the sense that he is running away from a phantom. Chromatic outbursts represent just how mad Death drove Schubert. Beethoven and Schubert end their quartets in a similar but opposite manner. As has already been explained in a previous post, Beethoven plays a trick on us as the quartet comes to a close. The jousty thematic material takes a slower pace and mysterious character, causing the listener to wonder what realm they are in. And all of the sudden - happening all within the last four bars, the music rises to a dramatic crescendo into C-sharp major chords! Schubert does the same thing, but major tries to steal the show from minor. As the prestissimo coda commences, there is a cadential chord progression in major. But right as we think the music is about to come to an end… minor rushes back in a fast crescendo. Schubert’s last attempts to escape the phantom Death were futile. He has given up.

____________________________________________________________________________

Schubert died just 2 years after Beethoven. He didn’t die in complete misery though - the fanboy got his last wish to be buried next to his idol.