DRMUS 911 — Schubert: The Final Decade

In the last ten years of Schubert’s all-too-short life, he composed an amazing number of immortal works, some instrumental and some vocal. Among them are symphonies, quintets, quartets, an octet, piano sonatas, piano trios, four-hand music, song cycles, Masses, and dozens of unforgettable art songs. This course will examine these works in the context of Schubert’s life during these years, a time of his maturation as an artist but also a time of heartbreaking experiences and illness. The world of Schubert—his family and friends, life in Vienna, Beethoven’s shadow, performances and publications of his music—will be discussed. The inimitable musical style of this harbinger of musical Romanticism will be studied in detail. His notions of orchestration, form, harmonic progressions, phrasing, text-setting, sonority, and breaking away from the Classical style will be the focus of the course. Students will prepare papers and talks that probe the special nature and characteristics of Schubert’s music. Required of all second-year D.M.A. students.