Franz Schubert

Today is the anniversary of the birth of Franz Schubert in 1797. His short life was filled with music and his legacy to us is a wealth of melody and exceptional music spanning most of the forms of classical music. While his symphonies, piano and chamber music are appealing, the form he made his greatest contribution was the song. Within his hundreds of lieder are some of the best ever written. In the last year of his life, 1828, he wrote the fourteen lieder subsequently known as the Schwanengesang in addition to five others. Listening to these songs one wonders what was lost in Schubert's passing, but we can take joy in the songs and all the other fine music he bequeathed to us.