Franz Schubert

Books about Franz Schubert and his music

Raymond Erickson Schubert`s Vienna (Aston Magna Academy Book) Yale University Press, 1997; ISBN 0300070802; 304 pages The Vienna in which Franz Schubert lived for the thirty-one years of his life was a city of music, dance, and coffeehouses-a center of important achievements in the arts. But it was also the capital of an empire that was constantly at war in the composer`s youth and that became a police state during his maturity. Now, in the bicentennial of Schubert`s birth, this elegantly written and richly illustrated book paints a vivid picture of the culture, society, and politics of Schubert`s Vienna. Price indication: $ 40.00

Christopher H. Gibbs The Life of Schubert (Musical Lives) Cambridge University Press, 2000; ISBN 0521595126; 228 pages Franz Schubert's tragically short life was lived in one of Europe's most richly musical cities: a Vienna that worshipped Beethoven and where Rossini and Paganini drew crowds. Christopher Gibbs considers how and what Schubert composed, taking a fresh look at this misunderstood composer, particularly the unfolding of his professional career, his relationship to Beethoven, the growth of his reputation and public image and his darker side of drinking, depression and sexual ambiguity. This searching and sympathetic biography questions the customary sentimental clichés and the recent revisionist views concerning this elusive genius. Price indication: $ 23.99

John Reed The Schubert Song Companion Mandolin, 1997; ISBN 1901341003; 528 pages In his short working life Schubert created a vast literature of song, reaching a peak of expressiveness which has never been surpassed. This reference provides for the first time a comprehensive guide to not just the well-known songs but to every song by Schubert for solo voice and piano, 600 in all, including different versions, unfinished songs, and variants. Price indication: $ 18.45

Charles Fisk Returning Cycles: Contexts for the Interpretation of Schubert's Impromptus and Last Sonatas (California Studies in Nineteenth Century Music) University of California Press, 2001; ISBN 0520225643; 325 pages This compelling investigation of the later music of Franz Schubert explores the rich terrain of Schubert's impromptus and last piano sonatas. Drawing on the relationships between these pieces and Schubert's Winterreise song cycle, his earlier "Der Wanderer," the closely related "Unfinished" Symphony, and his story of exile and homecoming, "My Dream," Charles Fisk explains how Schubert's view of his own life may well have shaped his music in the years shortly before his death. Fisk's intimate portrayal of Schubert is based on evidence from the composer's own hand, both verbal (song texts and his written words) and musical (vocal and instrumental). Noting extraordinary aspects of tonality, structure, and gestural content, Fisk argues that through his music Schubert sought to alleviate his apparent sense of exile and his anticipation of early death. Fisk supports this view through close analyses of the cyclic connections within and between the works he explores, finding in them complex musical narratives that attempt to come to terms with mortality, alienation, hope, and desire. Fisk's knowledge of Schubert's life and music, together with his astute and imaginative attention to musical detail, helps him achieve one of the most difficult goals in music criticism: to capture and verbalize the human content of instrumental music. Price indication: $ 45.00

Peter Hartling and Rosemary Smith Schubert: Twelve Moments Musicaux and a Novel Holmes & Meier Publishers, 1995; ISBN 0841913471; 248 pages Price indication: $ 27.95

John Reed Schubert (Master Musicians Series) Oxford University Press, 2001; ISBN 0198164947; 294 pages Celebrating its 100th anniversary, this extraordinary series continues to amaze and captivate its readers with detailed insight into the lives and work of music's geniuses. Unlike other composer biographies that focus narrowly on the music, this series explores the personal history of each composer and the social context surrounding the music. In a precise, engaging, and authoritative manner, each volume combines a vivid portrait of the master musicians' inspirations, influences, life experiences, even their weaknesses, with an accessible discussion of their work-all in roughly 300 pages. Further, each volume offers superb reference material, including a detailed life and times chronology, a complete list of works, a personalia glossary highlighting the important people in the composer's life, and a select bibliography. Under the supervision of music expert and series general editor Stanley Sadie, Master Musicians will certainly proceed to delight music scholars, serious musicians, and all music lovers for another hundred years. When this much acclaimed biography on Schubert was published ten years ago, it was welcomed as `a model of critical biography ... an essential vade mecum for all Schubertians'. In the intervening years, however, Schubert's public image has changed considerably, making it necessary to revise thoroughly the main text of the book as well as the four detailed appendices which serve as a useful reference section. Its aim remains the same: to provide a readable, authoritative, and reliable guide to Schubert's life and works for the student, the musician, and the general reader. Price indication: $ 18.95

Konrad Wolff Masters of the Keyboard: Individual Style Elements in the Piano Music of Bach, Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Chopin and Brahams (Midland Book) Indiana University Press, 1990; ISBN 0253205670; 328 pages "... fluently written and often humorous... " -- Notes "... should be required reading for performers and teachers." -- The Eighteenth Century Konrad Wolff characterizes in detail the personal musical language of several great masters of the piano, pursuing different lines of investigation to discover each composer's essential traits. He brings the accumulated wisdom of his long career as a pianist and teacher to this delineation of compositional styles. Both intellect and musicality contribute to his cogent observations, and his literary style is as eloquent as the music he describes. Price indication: $ 19.95

Kenneth S. Whitton Goethe and Schubert : The Unseen Bond Amadeus Press, 2003; ISBN 1574670506; 298 pages Price indication: $ 29.95

Brian Newbould Schubert: The Music and the Man University of California Press, 1999; ISBN 0520219570; 465 pages Of all the great composers, none has been so dogged by myth and misunderstanding as Schubert. In this major new biography, Brian Newbould lays to rest the stereotype of the composer as a pudgy, lovelorn Bohemian scribbling tunes on the back of menus. Instead he paints a vivid and compelling portrait of a man who was compulsively dedicated to his art, a composer so prolific that he produced roughly one thousand works in an eighteen-year period. Examining afresh the enigmas surrounding Schubert's religious outlook, his loves, his sexuality, his illness and death, Newbould offers a celebration of a unique genius, an idiosyncratic composer of an astonishing body of powerful, enduring music. Price indication: $ 24.95

Martin Chusid A Companion to Schubert`s "Schwanengesang" : History, Poets, Analysis, Performance Yale University Press, 2000; ISBN 0300072899; 300 pages In this book distinguished Schubert scholars and performers provide a rich appreciation of Schwanengesang, the miniature masterpieces collected as a song "cycle" and published shortly after the composer's death. The volume contains commentaries on each of the fourteen beloved songs, the complete original German poetry with a new English translation, essays on a variety of issues surrounding the songs, and more. Price indication: $ 45.00

Susan Youens Schubert: Die schöne Müllerin (Cambridge Music Handbooks) Cambridge University Press, 1992; ISBN 0521422795; 132 pages This is a guide to both the music and the poetry of Schubert's much-loved song cycle, set to poems by the Prussian poet Wilhelm MÜller. Composed in 1823, this work is one of the greatest masterpieces of the song repertoire. The genesis of both the poetry and the music, composed soon after Schubert discovered that he had contracted syphilis, is discussed in the first two chapters. A chapter on the poetry considers MÜller's uneasy relationship to the tenets of Romanticism; the influence of Goethe, folk poems, and medieval poetry on Die schöne MÜllerin; and a reading of each of the poems, which are reproduced in German and in English translation. The final chapter provides commentary on each of the twenty songs in the cycle. Price indication: $ 16.99

Anton Neumayr and Bruce Cooper Clarke Music and Medicine: Haydn Mozart Beethoven Schubert : Notes on Their Lives, Works, and Medical Histories Medi-Ed Press, 1994; ISBN 0936741058; 448 pages Music & Medicine, a three-volume series, describes the interplay between inspiration and illness in the lives of the great composers of the 18th and 19th centuries. Volume 1 covers Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, and Schubert. Volume 2 includes Hummel, Weber, Mendelssohn, Schumann, Brahms, and Bruckner. Volume 3 includes Chopin, Smetana, Tchaikovsky, and Mahler. Price indication: $ 32.95

Dietrick Fischer-Dieskau Schubert's Songs: A Biographical Study Limelight Editions, 1984; ISBN 0879100052; 333 pages Price indication: $ 3.75

Elizabeth Norman McKay Franz Schubert: A Biography (Clarendon Paperbacks) Oxford University Press, 1998; ISBN 0198166818; 400 pages In his short, tumultuous life, Franz Schubert (1797-1828) produced an astonishing amount of music. Symphonies, chamber music, opera, church music, and songs (more than 600 of them) poured forth in profusion. His "Trout" Quintet, his "Unfinished" Symphony, the last three piano sonatas, and above all his song cycles Die Schone Mullerin and Winterreise have come to be universally regarded as belonging to the very greatest works of music? Who was the man who composed this amazing succession of masterpieces, so many of which were either entirely ignored or regarded as failures during his lifetime? In this new biography, Elizabeth McKay paints a vivid portrait of Schubert and his world. She explores his family background, his education and musical upbringing, his friendships, and his brushes and flirtations with the repressive authorities of Church and State. She discusses his experience of the arts, literature, and theater, and his relations with the professional and amateur musical world of his day. She traces the way Schubert's manic-depression became an increasingly significant influence in his life, responsible at least in part for social inadequacies, professional ineptitude, and idiosyncrasies in his music. And she examines Schubert's decline after he contracted syphilis, looking at its effect on his music and emotional life. Price indication: $ 39.95

Joseph Wechsberg Schubert: His life, his work, his time Rizzoli, 1977; ISBN 0847801225; 224 pages Price indication: (used only): from $ 4.65

Walter Frisch Schubert: Critical and Analytical Studies Univ of Nebraska Pr, 1986; ISBN 0803219717; 256 pages Price indication: (used only): from $ 9.95

M. B. Goffstein and Richard Woitach A Little Schubert David R. Godine Publisher, 1984; ISBN 087923508X; 48 pages Price indication: (used only): from $ 0.79

Alfred Einstein Schubert, a Musical Portrait (Da Capo Press music reprint series) Da Capo Pr, 1981; ISBN 0306760835; 343 pages Price indication: (used only): from $ 10.00

Susan Youens Retracing a Winter's Journey: Schubert's Winterreise Cornell University Press, 1991; ISBN 0801499666; 320 pages Price indication: (used only): from $ 52.99

Sheet music, libretti, etc.

Complete Chamber Music for Strings - Dover Publications
Definitive Breitkopf & Härtel edition of the Quintet in C Major for 2 Violins, Viola and 2 Violoncellos; the 15 Quartets for 2 Violins, Viola and Violoncello; and two Trios for Violin, Viola and Violoncello. Music edited by Eusebius Mandyczewski and Joseph Hellmesberger.<br>

Complete Sonatas for Pianoforte Solo - Dover Publications
<DIV>This affordable edition includes all 15 of Schubert's sonatas, reprinted from the authoritative and extremely expensive Breitkopf & Härtel edition.</DIV>

Complete Song Cycles - Dover Publications
<DIV>Complete piano, vocal music of <I>Die Schöne Müllerin</I>, <I>Die Winterreise</I>, <I>Schwanengesang</I>. Also Drinker English singing translations. </DIV>

Easy Schubert & Schumann Piano - Warner Bros Pubns

Four Symphonies in Full Score - Dover Publications
Edited by Johannes Brahms. Complete unabridged scores of Schubert’s four most popular symphonies: No. 4 in C Minor ("Tragic"); No. 5 in B-flat Major; No. 8 in B Minor ("Unfinished"); and No. 9 in C Major ("Great"). Breitkopf & Härtel edition. Study score.<br>

Franz Schubert - 100 Songs : The Vocal Library (Vocal Library) - Hal Leonard Corporation
The most useful collection of Schubert songs available! Unlike international editions, these new songbooks contain only a few favorite songs from Die Schone Mullerin and Die Wintereisse, rather than the rarely-used entire song cycles; this leaves room for many more wonderful individual songs not normally found in Schubert collections. As in the other volumes in The Vocal Library, each song features introductory notes including information about the composition, the song's biographical context in Schubert's life, early performances and comments about poets. The contents for the High Voice and Low Voice editions are almost the same: the High Voice volume uniquely includes "Der Hirt auf dem Felsen" (with removable clarinet part) and "Auf dem Strom" (with removable horn part); the Low Voice volume uniquely includes "Das Abendrot" and "Romanze." The cover is adorned with a charming 1821 watercolor depicting Schubert and friends at a summer gathering in Atzenbrugg. All songs have been newly edited and researched based on the most current historical material available.

Franz Schubert Arranged for Guitar Book/CD Set - Mel Bay Publications
There have been few previous examples of guitar versions of Schubert' piano music, and practically no attempts to transcribe a complete set of pieces, as Caldern has done here with the six pieces of Schubert's Moments Musicaux. These pieces are superb examples of Schubert's mastery in the miniature form, true "musical moments" of mood and feeling. Two other pieces complete this collection, which also include notes on the preparation and performance of the pieces in English, German, and Spanish. The music is in standard notation only with a CD of performances of the pieces by the arranger.

Franz Schubert: Four Impromptus - Warner Brothers Publications

Mass in G: For Soprano, Tenor and Bass Soli, Full Chorus of Mixed Voices with Organ and Strings - Schirmer Books

Music Minus One Mezzo-Soprano: Schubert German Lieder, Low Voice, Vol. 1 (Book & CD) - Music Minus One
PERFORM FAMOUS ARIAS WITH ACCOMPANIMENT BY JOHN WUSTMAN, PIANIST FOR PAVAROTTI! <P>German Lieder for low voice from Franz Schubert, the master of the form. These are all classics of their genre, to be treasured by any vocalist. The CD contains 2 versions of each performance: one with the solo voice, and one without, so YOU’RE the star and perform with Wustman! Perfect for practice, rehearsal, auditions, performances and more! <P>Includes a high-quality printed vocal score and a CD+G graphics-enabled compact disc with stereo accompaniments to each piece.

Overtures "In the Italian Style" and Other Works in Full Score - Dover Publications

Schubert : New Piano Transcriptions of Famous Masterworks - Stephens Development

Shorter Works for Pianoforte Solo - Dover Publications
<DIV><DIV>All piano music except Sonatas, Dances, and a few unfinished pieces. Contains <I>Wanderer, Impromptus, Moments Musicals, Variations, Scherzi,</I> etc. Breitkopf & Härtel edition.</DIV></DIV>

Symphony in B Minor (Critical Scores) - W. W. Norton & Company

The Great Piano Works of Franz Schubert - Warner Bros Pubns

The Schubert Song Transcriptions for Solo Piano/Series II : The Complete Winterreise and Seven Other Great Songs (The Schubert Song Transcriptions for Solo Piano, Series II) - Dover Publications