WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.500 Welcome back to the Deep Dive. Today, we are 00:00:02.500 --> 00:00:05.500 opening a file on a figure who I think really 00:00:05.500 --> 00:00:08.519 defines the idea of the hidden genius. We're 00:00:08.519 --> 00:00:10.380 talking about an Austrian composer, Franz Schubert. 00:00:10.560 --> 00:00:12.480 And I want to start with a statistic from the 00:00:12.480 --> 00:00:15.720 research that just, uh, honestly, it didn't compute 00:00:15.720 --> 00:00:17.940 for me. I had to read it like three times to 00:00:17.940 --> 00:00:20.039 make sure it wasn't a typo. I have a feeling 00:00:20.039 --> 00:00:21.839 I know exactly which number you're looking at. 00:00:21.879 --> 00:00:24.179 It sort of jumps off the page, doesn't it? It 00:00:24.179 --> 00:00:26.359 has to be the timeline versus the output. This 00:00:26.359 --> 00:00:30.379 man died at the age of 31. 31. 31 years old. 00:00:30.960 --> 00:00:33.140 I'm looking back at what I had accomplished by 00:00:33.140 --> 00:00:35.640 31, you know, paying off some student loans, 00:00:35.799 --> 00:00:37.539 maybe figuring out how to cook something other 00:00:37.539 --> 00:00:39.759 than pasta. And let's just say the comparison 00:00:39.759 --> 00:00:42.829 is unkind. Right. But Schubert. By the time he 00:00:42.829 --> 00:00:46.070 died at 31, he had left behind a vast oeuvre. 00:00:46.189 --> 00:00:48.149 That's the term that historians use of over 1 00:00:48.149 --> 00:00:51.090 ,500 works. It is staggering. It's a density 00:00:51.090 --> 00:00:54.310 of creativity that is almost unique in human 00:00:54.310 --> 00:00:56.750 history. To put that 1 ,500 number in perspective 00:00:56.750 --> 00:01:00.020 for you, that includes over 600 liter. which 00:01:00.020 --> 00:01:02.840 are, you know, German art songs, seven complete 00:01:02.840 --> 00:01:06.260 symphonies, operas, masses, and just a literal 00:01:06.260 --> 00:01:08.599 mountain of chamber music. It feels like he was 00:01:08.599 --> 00:01:10.340 living on a completely different clock than the 00:01:10.340 --> 00:01:12.760 rest of us. Yeah. Like his day had 48 hours or 00:01:12.760 --> 00:01:14.859 something. Well, in a way, he was living on a 00:01:14.859 --> 00:01:16.459 different clock because he was running out of 00:01:16.459 --> 00:01:18.299 time, even if he didn't really know it at first. 00:01:18.739 --> 00:01:21.650 But historically... You have to place them correctly. 00:01:21.909 --> 00:01:26.349 Okay. Schubert's life from 1797 to 1828, it sits 00:01:26.349 --> 00:01:29.409 right on this tectonic shift in music history. 00:01:29.549 --> 00:01:32.650 He is the ultimate bridge figure. A bridge figure. 00:01:32.709 --> 00:01:35.230 He stands with one foot in the late classical 00:01:35.230 --> 00:01:37.750 era, you know, the structured, elegant world 00:01:37.750 --> 00:01:40.909 of Haydn and Mozart, and the other foot is firmly 00:01:40.909 --> 00:01:43.349 stepping into the emotional, turbulent waters 00:01:43.349 --> 00:01:46.010 of the early Romantic era. But here's the paradox 00:01:46.010 --> 00:01:48.689 that really hooks me. Despite this massive output, 00:01:48.829 --> 00:01:52.189 1500 works, He wasn't a celebrity, right? He 00:01:52.189 --> 00:01:55.370 wasn't the Taylor Swift or the Beyonce of 1820s 00:01:55.370 --> 00:01:57.569 Vienna. Not even close, no. If you look at the 00:01:57.569 --> 00:01:59.390 celebrity composers of that time, you're looking 00:01:59.390 --> 00:02:02.489 at giants like Beethoven or Rossini. Right. They 00:02:02.489 --> 00:02:04.390 were the ones selling out theaters and having 00:02:04.390 --> 00:02:07.049 their names shouted in the streets. Schubert 00:02:07.049 --> 00:02:11.050 was almost invisible to the general public. Invisible. 00:02:11.110 --> 00:02:13.430 His appreciation was limited to a very tight, 00:02:13.490 --> 00:02:16.449 small circle of friends in Vienna. He wasn't 00:02:16.449 --> 00:02:18.490 selling out concert halls. He was playing in 00:02:18.490 --> 00:02:20.770 living rooms. It's actually kind of tragic, but 00:02:20.770 --> 00:02:23.729 it also sets up this incredible posthumous treasure 00:02:23.729 --> 00:02:25.849 hunt story, which I know we'll get to. Okay, 00:02:25.889 --> 00:02:27.889 absolutely. I was reading about how some of his... 00:02:28.060 --> 00:02:30.639 Biggest works, absolute masterpieces like the 00:02:30.639 --> 00:02:33.219 Great Sea Major Symphony, were just sitting in 00:02:33.219 --> 00:02:36.259 dusty cabinets for years after he died. Exactly. 00:02:36.280 --> 00:02:38.639 And that's really the mission of this deep dive. 00:02:38.719 --> 00:02:41.639 We want to move beyond the one or two pieces 00:02:41.639 --> 00:02:44.199 everyone knows, like Ave Maria. Which is beautiful, 00:02:44.340 --> 00:02:47.280 but it's not the whole story. Not at all. We 00:02:47.280 --> 00:02:49.379 need to understand the man, this guy nicknamed 00:02:49.379 --> 00:02:52.360 Little Mushroom. We need to explore the tragedy 00:02:52.360 --> 00:02:55.379 of his unfinished works, the mystery of his health. 00:02:55.770 --> 00:02:58.909 And why Beethoven, who was the titan, arguably 00:02:58.909 --> 00:03:00.729 the hardest man to impress in the history of 00:03:00.729 --> 00:03:03.150 mankind. You're not wrong. Said on his deathbed, 00:03:03.250 --> 00:03:07.009 truly the spark of divine genius resides in this 00:03:07.009 --> 00:03:09.590 Schubert. If Beethoven says that about you, you've 00:03:09.590 --> 00:03:12.150 made it. So let's unpack this. Let's go back 00:03:12.150 --> 00:03:14.849 to the source. Where does a talent like this 00:03:14.849 --> 00:03:17.849 even come from? Was he born into a dynasty of 00:03:17.849 --> 00:03:20.729 musicians like the Bach family? Not exactly a 00:03:20.729 --> 00:03:22.349 dynasty, no, but it was a musical household. 00:03:22.610 --> 00:03:24.849 He was born in the Himmelfurtgrund. Which is 00:03:24.849 --> 00:03:26.870 just a great name for a suburb. It means gate 00:03:26.870 --> 00:03:29.590 of heaven. It was a suburb of Vienna. He was 00:03:29.590 --> 00:03:32.409 the 12th child of a schoolmaster. The 12th child. 00:03:32.449 --> 00:03:35.250 That is a very, very crowded house. Extremely 00:03:35.250 --> 00:03:37.930 crowded, though tragically, it was common for 00:03:37.930 --> 00:03:40.990 the nine of his siblings died in infancy. Whoa. 00:03:41.210 --> 00:03:43.930 So death was just... present in the household 00:03:43.930 --> 00:03:46.870 from the very start. His father, Franz Theodor, 00:03:47.090 --> 00:03:49.430 was a schoolmaster, and he started teaching Franz 00:03:49.430 --> 00:03:52.750 the violin at age five. His brother Ignaz taught 00:03:52.750 --> 00:03:55.210 him piano. Okay, so a normal musical upbringing 00:03:55.210 --> 00:03:58.750 so far. For a minute. But here is the first aha 00:03:58.750 --> 00:04:02.669 moment in the Schubert story. It's what I call 00:04:02.669 --> 00:04:05.030 the unteachable paradox. The unteachable moment? 00:04:05.169 --> 00:04:07.870 Usually that means a student is bad. In this 00:04:07.870 --> 00:04:10.409 case, it meant the exact opposite. It's the classic 00:04:10.409 --> 00:04:13.550 prodigy problem. His brother Ignaz later admitted 00:04:13.550 --> 00:04:16.569 that he was just amazed because only a few months 00:04:16.569 --> 00:04:19.250 after they started lessons, Franz told him he 00:04:19.250 --> 00:04:21.949 had no need of further instruction. Can you imagine 00:04:21.949 --> 00:04:23.829 the scene? Your little brother looks at you and 00:04:23.829 --> 00:04:26.709 says, Thanks, bro. I'm good. I've already surpassed 00:04:26.709 --> 00:04:29.550 you. It was humbling for Ignaz, for sure. He 00:04:29.550 --> 00:04:31.689 actually said Franz had completely distanced 00:04:31.689 --> 00:04:34.209 and outstripped him. And it wasn't just his family. 00:04:34.410 --> 00:04:36.829 Oh, this continues. They sent him to the local 00:04:36.829 --> 00:04:40.120 organist, a man named Michael Holzer. for lessons. 00:04:40.720 --> 00:04:43.740 Holzer ended up crying with admiration. He said 00:04:43.740 --> 00:04:45.959 he didn't really teach Franz anything, he just 00:04:45.959 --> 00:04:49.180 looked on with astonishment and silence. That 00:04:49.180 --> 00:04:51.360 is a recurring theme here, isn't it? The people 00:04:51.360 --> 00:04:52.759 who are supposed to be teaching him are just 00:04:52.759 --> 00:04:54.459 stepping back and watching him go. It's like 00:04:54.459 --> 00:04:56.500 trying to teach a bird how to fly when it's already 00:04:56.500 --> 00:04:59.879 soaring. A perfect analogy. But obviously a talent 00:04:59.879 --> 00:05:02.399 like that gets noticed eventually. He ends up 00:05:02.399 --> 00:05:05.180 at the imperial seminary, right? The Stadtkonvikt. 00:05:05.459 --> 00:05:08.339 Yes, at age 11. He gets a choir scholarship. 00:05:09.180 --> 00:05:12.660 And this is crucial because it exposes him to 00:05:12.660 --> 00:05:15.060 the greats. He's playing the music of Haydn, 00:05:15.120 --> 00:05:16.980 Mozart, and of course Beethoven every single 00:05:16.980 --> 00:05:19.860 day. And he catches the eye of Antonio Salieri. 00:05:20.000 --> 00:05:23.079 Salieri. Now, I have to pause here. Anyone who 00:05:23.079 --> 00:05:26.259 has seen the movie Amadeus creates this mental 00:05:26.259 --> 00:05:29.319 image of Salieri as this villain, you know, the 00:05:29.319 --> 00:05:32.240 man who hated Mozart. Right. But here, the narrative 00:05:32.240 --> 00:05:35.139 is totally different. Completely different. That 00:05:35.139 --> 00:05:37.579 movie is great drama, but it's terrible history. 00:05:37.779 --> 00:05:40.920 Yeah. In reality, Salieri was Vienna's leading 00:05:40.920 --> 00:05:43.779 musical authority. highly respected teacher. 00:05:44.000 --> 00:05:46.540 Yeah. And he recognized Schubert's talent immediately. 00:05:46.839 --> 00:05:48.500 So he took him under his wing. He taught him 00:05:48.500 --> 00:05:50.920 privately for years, focusing on theory and composition. 00:05:51.220 --> 00:05:53.379 But what I love about this period is the irony. 00:05:53.560 --> 00:05:55.699 Here is Schubert, this young student leading 00:05:55.699 --> 00:05:58.300 the school orchestra, composing his first symphony, 00:05:58.339 --> 00:06:01.300 Symphony No. 1, D82, while he's still just a 00:06:01.300 --> 00:06:03.199 kid in a school uniform. He's doing homework, 00:06:03.339 --> 00:06:05.399 dodging bullies and writing symphonies, but then 00:06:05.399 --> 00:06:08.120 reality hits. And this is the part of the story 00:06:08.120 --> 00:06:10.279 that feels so relatable to anyone trying to be 00:06:10.279 --> 00:06:12.360 an artist today. You leave... school and you 00:06:12.360 --> 00:06:14.860 have to get a job. And for Schubert, that meant 00:06:14.860 --> 00:06:17.100 returning to his father's school to teach. The 00:06:17.100 --> 00:06:21.139 starving artist reality, but worse, it was the 00:06:21.139 --> 00:06:24.360 drudging artist. He spent two years teaching 00:06:24.360 --> 00:06:27.879 the youngest pupils. He described it as severe 00:06:27.879 --> 00:06:31.180 drudgery. I can only imagine. You have this divine 00:06:31.180 --> 00:06:33.379 music in your head. You're thinking about orchestration 00:06:33.379 --> 00:06:35.420 and harmony. And then you have to go teach the 00:06:35.420 --> 00:06:38.100 ABCs to a room full of six -year -olds who probably 00:06:38.100 --> 00:06:40.379 just want to run around and scream. Yeah, he 00:06:40.379 --> 00:06:42.899 was miserable. He was famously short -tempered 00:06:42.899 --> 00:06:45.959 with the kids. But this is where we see the double 00:06:45.959 --> 00:06:49.240 life of Franz Schubert. This is the key to his 00:06:49.240 --> 00:06:51.519 productivity. A double life. While he was miserable 00:06:51.519 --> 00:06:53.720 in the classroom during the day, his creative 00:06:53.720 --> 00:06:56.399 output was exploding at night. Let's just look 00:06:56.399 --> 00:06:58.740 at the year 1815. This year is statistically 00:06:58.740 --> 00:07:00.699 insane. I have the numbers right here. It is 00:07:00.699 --> 00:07:02.680 arguably the most prolific year of his entire 00:07:02.680 --> 00:07:05.600 life. He's 18 years old, working a full -time 00:07:05.600 --> 00:07:08.439 job he absolutely hates. And yet. And yet in 00:07:08.439 --> 00:07:13.459 1815 alone, he writes over 20 ,000 bars of music. 00:07:13.620 --> 00:07:17.220 20 ,000 bars. That includes nine church works, 00:07:17.360 --> 00:07:22.290 a symphony. and roughly 140 liter. 140 songs 00:07:22.290 --> 00:07:25.870 in one year. That's one every two or three days 00:07:25.870 --> 00:07:28.550 while working a day job. Exactly. He would finish 00:07:28.550 --> 00:07:31.589 a lesson, rush to his desk, and just pour music 00:07:31.589 --> 00:07:33.870 onto the page. It's almost unbelievable. And 00:07:33.870 --> 00:07:36.149 amidst all this work, there was also heartbreak, 00:07:36.189 --> 00:07:39.550 right? We have to mention Therese Grubb. We do. 00:07:39.949 --> 00:07:43.189 She was a soprano, a neighbor, and Schubert wrote 00:07:43.189 --> 00:07:45.810 several liturgical works specifically for her 00:07:45.810 --> 00:07:48.680 voice. He wanted to marry her. But he couldn't. 00:07:48.680 --> 00:07:50.920 No. And this tells you a lot about the rigid 00:07:50.920 --> 00:07:53.360 society he lived in. There was a strict marriage 00:07:53.360 --> 00:07:56.519 consent law in 1815 Vienna. What did that entail? 00:07:56.699 --> 00:07:58.519 It required a bridegroom to prove he had the 00:07:58.519 --> 00:08:01.379 financial means to support a family. Schubert, 00:08:01.480 --> 00:08:03.980 being a lowly schoolteacher with no real assets 00:08:03.980 --> 00:08:07.139 and a volatile income, he just couldn't meet 00:08:07.139 --> 00:08:09.540 the requirement. That is heartbreaking. Bureaucracy 00:08:09.540 --> 00:08:11.759 literally stopping love. Show us your bank account 00:08:11.759 --> 00:08:14.589 or you can't get married. Essentially, yes. So 00:08:14.589 --> 00:08:16.949 he's miserable at work. He can't marry the girl 00:08:16.949 --> 00:08:19.449 he loves because he's poor. The pressure is building. 00:08:19.769 --> 00:08:23.089 Something has to give. And it does in 1816. A 00:08:23.089 --> 00:08:25.410 friend comes to the rescue. Franz von Schober. 00:08:25.529 --> 00:08:28.290 He was a charismatic, sort of wealthy friend. 00:08:28.709 --> 00:08:31.730 And he essentially says to Schubert, stop this. 00:08:31.870 --> 00:08:35.279 Quit. Come live with me. Just write music. the 00:08:35.279 --> 00:08:38.080 ultimate i quit moment and so he shifts into 00:08:38.080 --> 00:08:40.279 this bohemian lifestyle there's this quote from 00:08:40.279 --> 00:08:42.700 him during this time that i love i compose every 00:08:42.700 --> 00:08:45.399 morning and when one piece is done i begin another 00:08:45.399 --> 00:08:48.820 that was his process he was a machine but he 00:08:48.820 --> 00:08:51.230 was a machine that ran on friendship This is 00:08:51.230 --> 00:08:52.850 where we get to the core of Schubert's adult 00:08:52.850 --> 00:08:56.149 life. He didn't have a wealthy patron like the 00:08:56.149 --> 00:08:58.590 old composers. He didn't have a Prince Esterhazy 00:08:58.590 --> 00:09:01.629 paying his bills. He had a circle. The bros, 00:09:01.629 --> 00:09:04.230 if you will, but very cultured bros. Indeed. 00:09:04.750 --> 00:09:07.429 You had Johann Michael Vogel, who was a prominent 00:09:07.429 --> 00:09:09.629 baritone. He was older, about 20 years Schubert's 00:09:09.629 --> 00:09:12.490 senior. But he recognized the genius in Schubert's 00:09:12.490 --> 00:09:15.750 songs and became his champion, performing them 00:09:15.750 --> 00:09:18.230 in public. Okay, so Vogel was his voice to the 00:09:18.230 --> 00:09:20.830 world. In a way, yes. Then you had Josef von 00:09:20.830 --> 00:09:22.710 Spahn, who had supported him financially since 00:09:22.710 --> 00:09:25.309 the school days, and Johann Merhoffer, the poet. 00:09:25.490 --> 00:09:27.309 And these friends didn't just hang out. They 00:09:27.309 --> 00:09:30.289 built their entire social lives around his music. 00:09:30.690 --> 00:09:34.149 They literally called their parties Schubertiads. 00:09:34.210 --> 00:09:36.529 Which is quite the honor. Imagine having parties 00:09:36.529 --> 00:09:38.809 named after you. And these weren't formal concerts, 00:09:39.009 --> 00:09:41.649 you know. Right. No tickets, no ushers. No. They 00:09:41.649 --> 00:09:44.450 were gatherings in private homes like the Gundelhof. 00:09:44.929 --> 00:09:47.750 They would crowd into a living room, smoke pipes. 00:09:48.240 --> 00:09:51.759 drink, and just dedicate the entire evening to 00:09:51.759 --> 00:09:54.399 listening to Schubert's newest music. But it 00:09:54.399 --> 00:09:56.899 wasn't all serious, quiet listening, was it? 00:09:56.919 --> 00:09:59.000 I saw something in the notes about the nonsense 00:09:59.000 --> 00:10:03.120 society. The Unzensgesellschaft, yes. Schubert 00:10:03.120 --> 00:10:05.700 was an active member. They would publish these 00:10:05.700 --> 00:10:07.899 satirical newsletters, play pranks, make fun 00:10:07.899 --> 00:10:09.840 of the establishment. I love that. There's a 00:10:09.840 --> 00:10:12.340 famous caricature of Schubert from this time 00:10:12.340 --> 00:10:15.279 playing with Drazine. which was an early prototype 00:10:15.279 --> 00:10:17.600 of the bicycle. Just him goofing around with 00:10:17.600 --> 00:10:20.000 his friends. That really humanizes him. Because 00:10:20.000 --> 00:10:21.600 when you see the painted portraits, he looks 00:10:21.600 --> 00:10:24.139 very serious, very stiff with the high collar. 00:10:24.399 --> 00:10:26.720 But then you hear about his nickname, Shamarl. 00:10:26.860 --> 00:10:29.980 Little Mushroom, or Tubby. He was very short, 00:10:30.039 --> 00:10:33.159 only about 1 .52 meters, which is barely five 00:10:33.159 --> 00:10:34.779 feet tall. A foot tall. Okay, Little Mushroom 00:10:34.779 --> 00:10:37.039 makes perfect sense now. He was round, he wore 00:10:37.039 --> 00:10:40.120 glasses, and he was often disheveled. And he 00:10:40.120 --> 00:10:42.679 definitely enjoyed the nightlife. There are plenty 00:10:42.679 --> 00:10:44.899 of references to heavy drinking and social fun. 00:10:45.059 --> 00:10:47.539 He wasn't some recluse in an ivory tower. Right. 00:10:47.799 --> 00:10:50.720 However, this bohemian life wasn't without its 00:10:50.720 --> 00:10:53.080 dangers. We have to talk about the incident in 00:10:53.080 --> 00:10:56.580 1820. The brush with the law. This surprised 00:10:56.580 --> 00:10:59.100 me. You think of classical composers as part 00:10:59.100 --> 00:11:01.720 of the establishment, wearing wigs and bowing 00:11:01.720 --> 00:11:05.620 to kings. But Schubert got raided. Vienna in 00:11:05.620 --> 00:11:08.720 1820 was a police state. We have to remember 00:11:08.720 --> 00:11:11.360 the context here. The Napoleonic Wars had ended, 00:11:11.440 --> 00:11:13.700 and the Austrian authorities, led by Metternich, 00:11:13.820 --> 00:11:15.840 were terrified of French revolutionary sentiments 00:11:15.840 --> 00:11:18.539 coming back. So they were cracking down. On everything. 00:11:18.720 --> 00:11:21.019 They were deeply suspicious of any gathering 00:11:21.019 --> 00:11:23.899 of students or young artists. So one night, the 00:11:23.899 --> 00:11:26.039 police raided one of these gatherings where Schubert 00:11:26.039 --> 00:11:28.299 was present. And Schubert was arrested. He was 00:11:28.299 --> 00:11:30.679 detained along with four friends. One of them, 00:11:30.740 --> 00:11:33.399 a poet named Johann Senn. was actually in prison 00:11:33.399 --> 00:11:35.460 for over a year and then banished from Vienna. 00:11:35.740 --> 00:11:38.000 Wow, just for being at a party. Pretty much. 00:11:38.259 --> 00:11:40.240 Schubert got off lightly, but he was severely 00:11:40.240 --> 00:11:42.919 reprimanded. And the police report is fascinating. 00:11:43.019 --> 00:11:47.299 It says, Schubert used insulting and opprobrious 00:11:47.299 --> 00:11:50.179 language against the officials. Schubert mouthing 00:11:50.179 --> 00:11:54.019 off to the cops. Insulting and opprobrious. I 00:11:54.019 --> 00:11:56.220 love that detail. It shows he had a temper. It 00:11:56.220 --> 00:11:59.000 adds a layer of tension to his life. And this 00:11:59.000 --> 00:12:01.600 context of surveillance, it explains why his 00:12:01.600 --> 00:12:03.899 audience remains so insular. You couldn't just 00:12:03.899 --> 00:12:06.240 advertise big public gatherings if you were associated 00:12:06.240 --> 00:12:09.220 with revolutionary youth. So it forced his music 00:12:09.220 --> 00:12:11.720 underground, in a way. It kept his music private, 00:12:11.879 --> 00:12:13.820 hidden in these safe houses, which ultimately 00:12:13.820 --> 00:12:15.820 hurt his career, but probably deepened his friendships. 00:12:16.039 --> 00:12:18.019 So his environment shaped his career. But let's 00:12:18.019 --> 00:12:19.820 pivot to the music itself. We keep saying he 00:12:19.820 --> 00:12:22.019 wrote 600 Liter. Why is that so significant? 00:12:22.299 --> 00:12:24.940 People wrote songs before Schubert. Mozart wrote 00:12:24.940 --> 00:12:27.899 songs. Beethoven wrote songs. They did. But the 00:12:27.899 --> 00:12:30.899 approach was completely different. Before Schubert, 00:12:31.480 --> 00:12:34.820 the Lied, the German R song, was generally simple 00:12:34.820 --> 00:12:37.759 and strophic. Strophic meaning? That means verse, 00:12:37.799 --> 00:12:40.600 chorus, verse, chorus, using the exact same music 00:12:40.600 --> 00:12:43.000 for each verse of the poem. It was folk -like. 00:12:43.379 --> 00:12:45.440 Schubert turned them into psychological dramas. 00:12:45.840 --> 00:12:48.620 How so? Give us an example. He made the piano 00:12:48.620 --> 00:12:50.620 an equal partner in the storytelling. It wasn't 00:12:50.620 --> 00:12:53.820 just background chords. Take Gretchen M. Spinraid. 00:12:54.360 --> 00:12:56.450 Gretchen hit the spinning wheel. which he wrote 00:12:56.450 --> 00:12:59.149 when he was just 17. 17. Okay, the text is from 00:12:59.149 --> 00:13:01.690 Goethe's Faust, right? Exactly. Gretchen is spinning 00:13:01.690 --> 00:13:04.049 wool and thinking about her lover, Faust, and 00:13:04.049 --> 00:13:06.090 she's getting more and more agitated. And the 00:13:06.090 --> 00:13:09.289 piano? The piano part. The right hand plays this 00:13:09.289 --> 00:13:13.090 continuous, circling, undulating figure. It perfectly 00:13:13.090 --> 00:13:14.850 mimics the mechanical motion of the spinning 00:13:14.850 --> 00:13:17.490 wheel and the treadle. So it's literal. It's 00:13:17.490 --> 00:13:19.990 literal, but it also mimics her racing thoughts, 00:13:20.169 --> 00:13:22.529 her anxiety. And there was this moment where 00:13:22.529 --> 00:13:25.539 she remembers his kiss. And the music just stops. 00:13:25.960 --> 00:13:28.419 The wheel stops. Because she's so overcome with 00:13:28.419 --> 00:13:31.259 emotion, she stops pedaling. Precisely. And then 00:13:31.259 --> 00:13:33.200 you hear this clunk, clunk in the piano as she 00:13:33.200 --> 00:13:35.059 struggles to get the heavy wheel moving again. 00:13:35.559 --> 00:13:38.240 It is cinematic. It's like the soundtrack is 00:13:38.240 --> 00:13:40.299 reacting to the character's physiology. That 00:13:40.299 --> 00:13:42.879 is incredibly sophisticated for a teenager to 00:13:42.879 --> 00:13:46.559 write. Or look at Ilkenik, the Elf King. There's 00:13:46.559 --> 00:13:49.039 a horror story in the song. A father is riding 00:13:49.039 --> 00:13:51.080 on horseback through the night, holding his sick 00:13:51.080 --> 00:13:53.779 child. The child sees the elf king coming to 00:13:53.779 --> 00:13:56.639 take him, but the father only sees fog. And the 00:13:56.639 --> 00:13:59.039 piano here, what's it doing? The piano plays 00:13:59.039 --> 00:14:01.480 these rapid, relentless triplets in the right 00:14:01.480 --> 00:14:04.539 hand. It represents the furious gallop of the 00:14:04.539 --> 00:14:07.460 horse. It is physically exhausting for the pianist 00:14:07.460 --> 00:14:09.840 to play. It creates this sense of breathless 00:14:09.840 --> 00:14:12.879 terror from the first second. Wow. And Schubert, 00:14:12.980 --> 00:14:15.559 the singer. has to portray four different characters. 00:14:15.940 --> 00:14:18.720 The narrator, the worried father, the terrified 00:14:18.720 --> 00:14:21.720 child, and the seductive, creepy elf king. It's 00:14:21.720 --> 00:14:24.120 a one -man opera in four minutes. Exactly. And 00:14:24.120 --> 00:14:25.860 then there's Winter Rise, the winter journey. 00:14:26.000 --> 00:14:28.279 This is often cited as the dark heart of his 00:14:28.279 --> 00:14:31.139 work. It is the absolute pinnacle of the genre. 00:14:31.639 --> 00:14:35.659 It's a cycle of 24 songs about a wanderer in 00:14:35.659 --> 00:14:38.240 a bleak, frozen landscape who has been rejected 00:14:38.240 --> 00:14:40.870 by his love. Yeah. But it's not just about a 00:14:40.870 --> 00:14:43.250 breakup. It's deeper than that. It's about existential 00:14:43.250 --> 00:14:46.610 isolation. The Wiener Theater Zeitung wrote that 00:14:46.610 --> 00:14:50.110 none can sing or hear without being deeply moved. 00:14:50.350 --> 00:14:53.570 It was a heavy emotional experience. He finished 00:14:53.570 --> 00:14:55.649 it while he was dying. So he wasn't just writing 00:14:55.649 --> 00:14:57.789 catchy tunes. He was exploring the human psyche. 00:14:58.029 --> 00:15:00.429 But he wasn't just a songwriter. We have to talk 00:15:00.429 --> 00:15:02.490 about his instrumental stuff. There's this famous 00:15:02.490 --> 00:15:05.129 phrase Robert Schumann used to describe Schubert's 00:15:05.129 --> 00:15:08.190 great C major symphony. heavenly lengths yes 00:15:08.190 --> 00:15:10.730 and that highlights a key difference between 00:15:10.730 --> 00:15:13.129 schubert and someone like beethoven beethoven 00:15:13.129 --> 00:15:15.649 is all about harmonic drama tension release struggle 00:15:15.649 --> 00:15:18.289 he grabs you by the collar he's very direct very 00:15:18.289 --> 00:15:20.909 schubert is about melodic development he lets 00:15:20.909 --> 00:15:24.169 themes wander and evolve he's not in a rush to 00:15:24.169 --> 00:15:26.669 get to the destination Heavenly lengths sounds 00:15:26.669 --> 00:15:28.429 like a polite way of saying it's really long, 00:15:28.549 --> 00:15:30.529 but Schumann meant it as a compliment, right? 00:15:30.809 --> 00:15:33.549 Oh, absolutely. It means it's immersive. You 00:15:33.549 --> 00:15:36.269 get lost in it. It creates a world. And he was 00:15:36.269 --> 00:15:38.889 incredibly innovative with instruments. Think 00:15:38.889 --> 00:15:41.169 about the trap quintet. Okay. A standard piano 00:15:41.169 --> 00:15:43.570 quintet is a piano and a string quartet. Two 00:15:43.570 --> 00:15:47.190 violins, viola, cello. Schubert swaps one violin 00:15:47.190 --> 00:15:49.669 for a double bass. Which gives it that... Deep, 00:15:49.870 --> 00:15:52.669 rich, bottom end. It changes the whole texture. 00:15:52.809 --> 00:15:56.009 It's looser, more open, more rustic. Yeah. And 00:15:56.009 --> 00:15:58.330 then there's the arpeggione sonata. He wrote 00:15:58.330 --> 00:16:00.450 a masterpiece for an instrument. The arpeggione 00:16:00.450 --> 00:16:02.649 was a trendy invention at the time. The arpeggione. 00:16:02.649 --> 00:16:04.950 It was basically a mix of a guitar and a cello, 00:16:04.970 --> 00:16:07.629 fretted and bowed. It's like writing a concerto 00:16:07.629 --> 00:16:11.409 for the keytar in the 1980s. In a way. The instrument 00:16:11.409 --> 00:16:13.190 went extinct almost immediately, but the music 00:16:13.190 --> 00:16:15.850 was so good that now cellists or violists play 00:16:15.850 --> 00:16:18.389 it. He backed the wrong horse, instrumentally. 00:16:18.470 --> 00:16:21.080 He did. But we also have to mention his harmonic 00:16:21.080 --> 00:16:24.679 daring. In the string quintet in C major, which 00:16:24.679 --> 00:16:27.399 is just a staggering piece of music, the second 00:16:27.399 --> 00:16:30.059 movement moves from E major to F minor. For those 00:16:30.059 --> 00:16:32.059 of us who aren't music theory experts, what does 00:16:32.059 --> 00:16:34.919 that feel like to listen to? E major is bright, 00:16:35.159 --> 00:16:40.059 warm, stable. F minor is dark. distant, incredibly 00:16:40.059 --> 00:16:42.639 tense. To just jump between them like that is 00:16:42.639 --> 00:16:45.120 shocking. It creates this otherworldly emotional 00:16:45.120 --> 00:16:47.539 shift, like the ground suddenly dropping out 00:16:47.539 --> 00:16:49.960 from under you. So we have this genius output, 00:16:50.200 --> 00:16:52.559 but we also have a lot of loose ends. The most 00:16:52.559 --> 00:16:54.980 famous one being, of course, the unfinished symphony. 00:16:55.159 --> 00:16:57.940 Why is it unfinished? That is the great mystery. 00:16:58.100 --> 00:17:00.940 Symphony number eight. He wrote two absolutely 00:17:00.940 --> 00:17:03.840 perfect movements in 1822, sketched a third, 00:17:04.000 --> 00:17:08.140 and then just stopped. Did he run out of ideas? 00:17:08.200 --> 00:17:10.839 Did he get bored? Neither seems likely. The first 00:17:10.839 --> 00:17:13.079 two movements are masterpieces. But he never 00:17:13.079 --> 00:17:14.619 mentioned it to his friends. You just put it 00:17:14.619 --> 00:17:17.019 aside. Any theories? There are a few. Some suggest 00:17:17.019 --> 00:17:18.960 he associated the piece with the onset of his 00:17:18.960 --> 00:17:21.359 illness. Yeah. A bad memory. Or maybe he felt 00:17:21.359 --> 00:17:22.859 he couldn't possibly write a finale that could 00:17:22.859 --> 00:17:24.460 match the quality of the first two movements. 00:17:25.119 --> 00:17:26.980 The wildest part is that it wasn't performed 00:17:26.980 --> 00:17:29.640 until decades after his death. It was just sitting 00:17:29.640 --> 00:17:31.680 in a drawer somewhere. It fits the pattern of 00:17:31.680 --> 00:17:34.480 his life work created, then hidden away. But 00:17:34.480 --> 00:17:36.519 he did try to get his work out there, specifically 00:17:36.519 --> 00:17:39.200 operas. He really wanted to be a stage composer. 00:17:39.559 --> 00:17:42.480 He tried so hard. He wrote about 20 stage projects. 00:17:43.160 --> 00:17:46.559 Almost all of them failed. Why? If his music 00:17:46.559 --> 00:17:49.779 was so good. A combination of bad luck, bad librettos, 00:17:49.799 --> 00:17:53.460 the scripts, and just terrible timing. For his 00:17:53.460 --> 00:17:56.440 big opera Furebras, it was rejected largely because 00:17:56.440 --> 00:17:58.519 Vienno was completely obsessed with Rossini at 00:17:58.519 --> 00:18:00.940 the time. The Italian composer. Right. German 00:18:00.940 --> 00:18:02.480 opera was out. Italian opera was in. It was a 00:18:02.480 --> 00:18:05.579 fashion issue. Trends kill art. And censorship 00:18:05.579 --> 00:18:08.440 was a problem too, right? Absolutely. His opera, 00:18:08.599 --> 00:18:11.220 The Conspirators, was banned by the censors simply 00:18:11.220 --> 00:18:14.460 because of the title. Politics again. And then 00:18:14.460 --> 00:18:17.259 there's Rosamund Schubert, wrote incredible incidental 00:18:17.259 --> 00:18:20.759 music for this play. But the play itself, the 00:18:20.759 --> 00:18:23.660 script by Helmina von Tese, was reportedly so 00:18:23.660 --> 00:18:26.839 bad, so boring. That no one cared. The show was 00:18:26.839 --> 00:18:29.329 canceled after two nights. That is tragic. The 00:18:29.329 --> 00:18:31.269 soundtrack was amazing, but the movie sucked, 00:18:31.369 --> 00:18:33.130 so nobody ever heard the soundtrack. That's a 00:18:33.130 --> 00:18:35.569 perfect modern analogy. It took Schubert's beautiful 00:18:35.569 --> 00:18:37.730 music down with the sinking ship of the play. 00:18:37.950 --> 00:18:39.950 It really seems like he couldn't catch a break 00:18:39.950 --> 00:18:42.309 professionally, and all this time he's living 00:18:42.309 --> 00:18:44.309 in the same city as Beethoven. Did they ever 00:18:44.309 --> 00:18:47.009 hang out? Rarely. They moved in different circles. 00:18:47.589 --> 00:18:50.710 Beethoven was the established, grumpy, eccentric 00:18:50.710 --> 00:18:55.140 genius. Schubert was the shy bohemian. But the 00:18:55.140 --> 00:18:57.640 connection between them is so powerful. How so? 00:18:57.900 --> 00:19:01.539 On Beethoven's deathbed in 1827, he was finally 00:19:01.539 --> 00:19:03.880 shown some of Schubert's scores. And that's when 00:19:03.880 --> 00:19:06.380 he made that famous quote. Truly, the spark of 00:19:06.380 --> 00:19:08.819 divine genius resides in this Schubert. Can you 00:19:08.819 --> 00:19:10.700 imagine what that must have meant to Schubert? 00:19:11.200 --> 00:19:13.700 And then, a few weeks later, Schubert actually 00:19:13.700 --> 00:19:16.039 served as a torchbearer at Beethoven's funeral. 00:19:16.220 --> 00:19:18.339 A literal passing of the torch. It was symbolic, 00:19:18.500 --> 00:19:20.519 wasn't it? The tragedy is that Schubert didn't 00:19:20.519 --> 00:19:22.470 live long enough to carry it very far. Before 00:19:22.470 --> 00:19:24.829 we get to the end of his life, I do want to touch 00:19:24.829 --> 00:19:26.769 on a modern debate that came up in the research. 00:19:26.930 --> 00:19:29.650 There's been a lot of discussion about Schubert's 00:19:29.650 --> 00:19:32.890 sexuality. Yes, this is a major topic in modern 00:19:32.890 --> 00:19:35.430 Schubert scholarship. It really started in earnest 00:19:35.430 --> 00:19:38.529 around 1989 when a musicologist named Maynard 00:19:38.529 --> 00:19:40.930 Solomon published an article suggesting Schubert 00:19:40.930 --> 00:19:43.349 was attracted to men. And this caused a huge 00:19:43.349 --> 00:19:46.109 stir in the classical music world. A huge stir. 00:19:46.309 --> 00:19:48.849 It challenged the traditional, you know, Biedermeier 00:19:48.849 --> 00:19:52.799 view of Schubert as this. Sexless chubby cherub. 00:19:52.960 --> 00:19:55.519 Then you had other scholars like Rita Steblin 00:19:55.519 --> 00:19:57.819 countering that argument, saying he was chasing 00:19:57.819 --> 00:20:00.059 women like the Countess Caroline Esterhazy and 00:20:00.059 --> 00:20:02.420 Therese Grob. It sounds like historians reading 00:20:02.420 --> 00:20:04.240 between the lines of old letters and diaries 00:20:04.240 --> 00:20:07.240 trying to decipher code. It is exactly that. 00:20:07.359 --> 00:20:09.960 Whether his intense friendships were homosocial, 00:20:10.079 --> 00:20:13.000 which was very common and even encouraged in 00:20:13.000 --> 00:20:15.779 the 19th century, or if they were actually erotic 00:20:15.779 --> 00:20:18.240 is hard to prove definitively. So what's the 00:20:18.240 --> 00:20:20.750 takeaway? The key takeaway for us isn't necessarily 00:20:20.750 --> 00:20:23.289 who he slept with. It's that his emotional life 00:20:23.289 --> 00:20:25.910 was absolutely fueled by these deep, intense 00:20:25.910 --> 00:20:28.849 connections with his male friends. That's where 00:20:28.849 --> 00:20:31.750 his support system lay. That love, whatever form 00:20:31.750 --> 00:20:33.970 it took, is what you hear in the music. Okay, 00:20:34.009 --> 00:20:35.930 let's move to the final years, because things 00:20:35.930 --> 00:20:38.369 start to go downhill pretty fast around 1823. 00:20:38.730 --> 00:20:41.109 That is when the first symptoms of syphilis appeared. 00:20:41.369 --> 00:20:43.990 And in the 1820s, that was a terrifying diagnosis. 00:20:44.549 --> 00:20:47.130 It was a death sentence, but a slow and often 00:20:47.130 --> 00:20:50.980 agonizing one. There was no cure. The treatment 00:20:50.980 --> 00:20:53.799 was often mercury, which is a poison in itself. 00:20:54.119 --> 00:20:56.460 And this changed his music. It absolutely did. 00:20:56.519 --> 00:20:58.539 It became deeper, more personal, much darker. 00:20:58.660 --> 00:21:00.539 You can hear the shadow of death approaching 00:21:00.539 --> 00:21:04.039 in the later works. But, and here is that Schubert 00:21:04.039 --> 00:21:06.779 paradox again, as his physical health declined, 00:21:07.140 --> 00:21:11.569 his creativity spiked. We arrive at 1828, the 00:21:11.569 --> 00:21:14.829 final year. The miraculous year. It rivals 1815. 00:21:15.210 --> 00:21:17.829 In his last year, suffering from illness, likely 00:21:17.829 --> 00:21:20.470 in constant pain, he writes the great C major 00:21:20.470 --> 00:21:23.210 symphony, the mass in E flat, and the string 00:21:23.210 --> 00:21:26.150 quintet in C major, which many consider the greatest 00:21:26.150 --> 00:21:28.049 piece of chamber music ever written. It's like 00:21:28.049 --> 00:21:29.750 he knew the clock was running out and he just 00:21:29.750 --> 00:21:31.349 had to get it all onto the page. That's what 00:21:31.349 --> 00:21:33.049 it feels like. And he finally got a concert, 00:21:33.170 --> 00:21:36.710 right? A real one. Yes, in March of 1828. The 00:21:36.710 --> 00:21:39.029 only time in his entire career he gave a public 00:21:39.029 --> 00:21:41.410 concert entirely of his own works. And it was 00:21:41.410 --> 00:21:43.809 a success. He made money. He bought a new piano. 00:21:43.970 --> 00:21:50.009 Finally. A win. But fate is cruel. It was overshadowed 00:21:50.009 --> 00:21:52.230 almost immediately because the great virtuoso 00:21:52.230 --> 00:21:54.589 violinist Paganini arrived in Vienna shortly 00:21:54.589 --> 00:21:57.799 after. Paganini! The guy who supposedly sold 00:21:57.799 --> 00:22:00.279 his soul to the devil to play the violin. He 00:22:00.279 --> 00:22:03.019 was the flashy rock star with all the pyrotechnics. 00:22:03.319 --> 00:22:05.700 Schubert was the introspective songwriter. The 00:22:05.700 --> 00:22:08.180 press and the public chased Paganini, and Schubert 00:22:08.180 --> 00:22:10.539 just couldn't hold the spotlight. Then in November 00:22:10.539 --> 00:22:14.180 of 1828, the end comes. He falls gravely ill. 00:22:14.440 --> 00:22:16.720 He'd moved in with his brother Ferdinand. He 00:22:16.720 --> 00:22:19.420 started suffering from terrible headaches, vomiting, 00:22:19.640 --> 00:22:22.039 swollen joints. He couldn't keep any food down. 00:22:22.400 --> 00:22:24.579 There's a touching story about music in his final 00:22:24.579 --> 00:22:27.599 days, though. There is. Five days before he died, 00:22:27.779 --> 00:22:29.519 his friends came to the apartment and played 00:22:29.519 --> 00:22:32.599 Beethoven's String Quartet No. 14 for him. It's 00:22:32.599 --> 00:22:34.839 a dense, difficult, beautiful piece of music. 00:22:35.119 --> 00:22:37.539 His friend Carl Holtz later wrote, The King of 00:22:37.539 --> 00:22:39.420 Harmony has sent the King of Song a friendly 00:22:39.420 --> 00:22:41.319 bidding to the crossing. That gives me chills. 00:22:41.440 --> 00:22:43.819 The King of Song, and then he died November 19, 00:22:44.160 --> 00:22:47.400 1828, at 31. What was the actual cause of death? 00:22:47.700 --> 00:22:49.720 Officially, the death certificate said typhoid 00:22:49.720 --> 00:22:52.990 fever. But that's been debated for years. Some 00:22:52.990 --> 00:22:55.450 say it was tertiary syphilis. Others say it was 00:22:55.450 --> 00:22:57.269 actually mercury poisoning from the treatment 00:22:57.269 --> 00:22:59.690 for syphilis. I read something about him walking 00:22:59.690 --> 00:23:02.230 42 miles shortly before he died. Is that fit? 00:23:02.490 --> 00:23:05.349 Yes. In October, shortly before his final collapse, 00:23:05.529 --> 00:23:08.049 he walked about 68 kilometers, that's 42 miles, 00:23:08.230 --> 00:23:11.309 in three days to visit Hayden's grave. Which 00:23:11.309 --> 00:23:13.650 would be pretty hard to do if you had advanced 00:23:13.650 --> 00:23:15.849 syphilis affecting your muscles or your bones. 00:23:15.970 --> 00:23:18.859 Exactly. That level of physical exhaustion suggests 00:23:18.859 --> 00:23:22.359 his mobility was fine. The intense vomiting and 00:23:22.359 --> 00:23:25.240 the rapid decline at the end, that points more 00:23:25.240 --> 00:23:27.859 toward typhoid or maybe salmonella from contaminated 00:23:27.859 --> 00:23:30.819 food or water. We may never know for sure. And 00:23:30.819 --> 00:23:33.059 he was buried. At his own request, he was buried 00:23:33.059 --> 00:23:35.480 near Beethoven in the Waring Cemetery. And later 00:23:35.480 --> 00:23:38.740 moved. Yes. In 1888, both he and Beethoven were 00:23:38.740 --> 00:23:41.660 exhumed and moved to the Central Cemetery, the 00:23:41.660 --> 00:23:44.180 Zentralfriedhof, to lie alongside Brahms and 00:23:44.180 --> 00:23:46.339 Strauss in the Musician's Corner. And there's 00:23:46.339 --> 00:23:48.740 a truly macabre detail here involving the composer 00:23:48.740 --> 00:23:51.119 Anton Bruckner. Oh, I saw this. Bruckner was 00:23:51.119 --> 00:23:54.140 a huge Schubert fan, right? Obsessive. During 00:23:54.140 --> 00:23:57.079 the exhumation, Bruckner was present. He actually 00:23:57.079 --> 00:23:59.819 reached into the coffins and held the skulls 00:23:59.819 --> 00:24:02.099 of both Schubert and Beethoven in his hands. 00:24:02.319 --> 00:24:05.859 That is intense. Talk about venerating your heroes, 00:24:05.960 --> 00:24:08.980 literally holding their heads. It just shows 00:24:08.980 --> 00:24:10.819 the reverence they were held in by that point. 00:24:11.140 --> 00:24:13.740 To Bruckner, these weren't men. Yeah. They were 00:24:13.740 --> 00:24:17.200 saints. So Schubert dies. But in a way, his career 00:24:17.200 --> 00:24:19.720 was just starting. This is the buried treasure 00:24:19.720 --> 00:24:22.180 part of the story, which is just wild to me. 00:24:22.279 --> 00:24:25.380 It really is. At his death, only about 100 opus 00:24:25.380 --> 00:24:27.940 numbers were published. The vast majority of 00:24:27.940 --> 00:24:30.799 those 1 ,500 works were unpublished. His family 00:24:30.799 --> 00:24:32.859 had cabinets full of manuscripts. They just called 00:24:32.859 --> 00:24:35.140 them the files. And then Robert Schumann shows 00:24:35.140 --> 00:24:37.579 up, like the Indiana Jones of musicology. In 00:24:37.579 --> 00:24:40.700 1838, 10 years after Schubert's death, Schumann 00:24:40.700 --> 00:24:43.279 visits Vienna. He meets Schubert's brother, Ferdinand. 00:24:43.769 --> 00:24:45.670 Ferdinand shows him the pile. Schumann starts 00:24:45.670 --> 00:24:48.089 digging through these papers, and he finds the 00:24:48.089 --> 00:24:50.190 manuscript for the great C major symphony. He 00:24:50.190 --> 00:24:52.849 must have lost his mind. He was stunned. He realized 00:24:52.849 --> 00:24:55.710 the world has never heard this masterpiece. He 00:24:55.710 --> 00:24:57.930 takes it to Felix Mendelssohn in Leipzig, and 00:24:57.930 --> 00:25:00.250 they perform it for the first time. Can you imagine 00:25:00.250 --> 00:25:02.890 being the person to discover a symphony ten years 00:25:02.890 --> 00:25:05.529 after the composer's death? And it didn't even 00:25:05.529 --> 00:25:09.809 stop there. No. In 1867, George Grove of the 00:25:09.809 --> 00:25:12.170 famous Grove Dictionary and Arthur Sullivan of 00:25:12.170 --> 00:25:14.970 Gilbert and Sullivan fame went on a trip to Vienna. 00:25:15.170 --> 00:25:17.549 They literally went digging in closets and dusty 00:25:17.549 --> 00:25:21.150 boxes. They found missing symphonies, the Rosamund 00:25:21.150 --> 00:25:24.269 music, operas. It's incredible that so much of 00:25:24.269 --> 00:25:26.750 what we now consider the canon of classical music 00:25:26.750 --> 00:25:29.730 was just sitting in a drawer one spring cleaning 00:25:29.730 --> 00:25:32.009 away from being thrown in the trash. It changes 00:25:32.009 --> 00:25:34.410 how you view history. If those drawers had been 00:25:34.410 --> 00:25:36.779 thrown out. Music history would be fundamentally 00:25:36.779 --> 00:25:38.500 different. We wouldn't have the bridge between 00:25:38.500 --> 00:25:40.940 Beethoven and Brahms. Now I want to talk about 00:25:40.940 --> 00:25:43.160 his epitaph. It was written by the poet Franz 00:25:43.160 --> 00:25:46.319 Grillparser. It reads, The art of music has here 00:25:46.319 --> 00:25:49.480 interred a precious treasure, but yet far fairer 00:25:49.480 --> 00:25:52.119 hopes. It's a beautiful sentiment, acknowledging 00:25:52.119 --> 00:25:54.539 the tragedy of his early death. But it became 00:25:54.539 --> 00:25:56.519 surprisingly controversial among musicians. Oh, 00:25:56.519 --> 00:25:59.819 so. It sounds complimentary. Well, the phrase 00:25:59.819 --> 00:26:03.519 fairer hopes implies he was incomplete. That 00:26:03.519 --> 00:26:07.069 we lost. what he would have become. Musicians 00:26:07.069 --> 00:26:09.670 like the great pianist Radu Lupu agree. They 00:26:09.670 --> 00:26:11.829 feel the tragedy of the lost future. But not 00:26:11.829 --> 00:26:15.130 everyone sees it that way. No. Others, like Andra 00:26:15.130 --> 00:26:18.049 Schiff and even Robert Schumann himself, disagreed. 00:26:18.069 --> 00:26:20.650 They argue he lived a concentrated life. That 00:26:20.650 --> 00:26:23.009 he did enough. Exactly. Schumann said he did 00:26:23.009 --> 00:26:25.609 enough. And Schiff compares him to Mozart. You 00:26:25.609 --> 00:26:27.309 can't speculate on what they would have done. 00:26:27.490 --> 00:26:29.509 You have to appreciate the perfection of what 00:26:29.509 --> 00:26:33.170 they did do. He fully realized his genius. just 00:26:33.170 --> 00:26:35.410 in a much shorter time frame? It's a hard question 00:26:35.410 --> 00:26:39.710 because 31 is so young. But 1500 works is a lifetime 00:26:39.710 --> 00:26:42.710 achievement for anybody else. It is. He created 00:26:42.710 --> 00:26:45.130 the modern song as we know it. He influenced 00:26:45.130 --> 00:26:47.930 everyone from Brahms to Mahler. You could even 00:26:47.930 --> 00:26:50.069 argue his melodic sense influenced the Beatles. 00:26:50.250 --> 00:26:52.230 Before we wrap up, there's one final thought 00:26:52.230 --> 00:26:53.809 I want to leave our listeners with. And this 00:26:53.809 --> 00:26:55.349 is the one that really sticks with me from all 00:26:55.349 --> 00:26:58.410 the research. It's about his mindset at the very, 00:26:58.430 --> 00:26:59.730 very end. I think I know what you're going to 00:26:59.730 --> 00:27:02.980 say. The lessons. Yes. Weeks before he died, 00:27:03.079 --> 00:27:05.319 literally in the last weeks of his life, November 00:27:05.319 --> 00:27:09.240 1828, Franz Schubert signed up for lessons. Counterpoint 00:27:09.240 --> 00:27:11.539 lessons. He went to Simon Sector, who was a famous 00:27:11.539 --> 00:27:14.099 theorist at the time. Think about this. He had 00:27:14.099 --> 00:27:16.440 written the great C major symphony. He had written 00:27:16.440 --> 00:27:19.019 Winter Rise. He was a master. He was being called 00:27:19.019 --> 00:27:22.200 a genius by Beethoven. And yet he felt he needed 00:27:22.200 --> 00:27:24.519 to learn more. He felt his counterpoint wasn't 00:27:24.519 --> 00:27:26.579 good enough. He was still a student. He was still 00:27:26.579 --> 00:27:28.460 trying to evolve. He didn't think he was done. 00:27:28.940 --> 00:27:31.019 So here is the question for you listening right 00:27:31.019 --> 00:27:33.420 now. If the Unfinished Symphony and Winter Eyes 00:27:33.420 --> 00:27:35.940 were created by a man barely in his 30s who thought 00:27:35.940 --> 00:27:39.000 he still had more to learn, what would the history 00:27:39.000 --> 00:27:41.519 of music look like if he had lived to be 50? 00:27:41.940 --> 00:27:45.140 What did we lose in that gap? It's the greatest 00:27:45.140 --> 00:27:47.900 what if in music history. A genius who never 00:27:47.900 --> 00:27:50.299 stopped being a student. Keep diving deep, everyone. 00:27:50.539 --> 00:27:51.539 We'll see you next time.