JAVS Fall 2000

VOL. 16 No.3

20

jOURNAL OF THE AMERJCAN VIOLA SOCIETY

Works A large number of compositions have been attributed to Joseph Schubert. It is possible, however, that some of these works were written by other composers. Confusion between his name and others of like spelling (Schubart, Schobert, and Schobart) may have led to false attributions. Laux 5 lists a large number of works, including four operas, eleven published instrumental works (including a cello concerto and compositions for a variety of other instruments), six unpublished works (including a symphony and an organ concerto), vocal music and three masses. In addition, Gerber 6 lists the following works, composed before 1796 and presumably existing only in manuscript: forty-nine concertos for a variety of instruments and chamber music sonatas for winds and strings. Other sources list additional works, including Mittelstiicke (short pieces inserted between movements of the Catholic mass), theatrical works, another dozen masses, and Tafelmusik. Style Schubert's style was strongly influenced by the music of Viennese composers. His only extant symphony 7 is modeled after Haydn, with four movements and typical formal structures. Otten berg suggests that Schubert began imitating the Viennese style while in Schwedt, where the court orchestra performed works by Mozart, Haydn, Albrechtsberger, and Hoffmeister. The works of Joseph Schubert were evaluated during his lifetime and also in the ensuing years. His critics have included colleagues and contemporary reviewers, nineteenth-century lexi cographers, and modern scholars. Gerber himself had the opportunity to hear performances of Schubert works. He wrote that the Partien for brass instruments were actually big symphonies in the style of Haydn, which consist of four large similar movements, wherein he shows just as much artistry in the harmony, modulation, and the appropriate use of the various instruments, as he does good taste in the creation of beautiful melodies. 8 Not all reviews were fully positive. An anonymous reviewer for the Allgemeine Musikalische Zeitungwrote of the 62-year-old's new Mass, "The opinions of the artists as well as those of the audience were divided." The reviewer himself, however, found this composition "to be rich and with turns of harmony which are appropriate for the church and which are set in a lighter and clear style." 9 Laux 10 quotes a G. Pietzsch, who wrote of Schubert's "remarkable, forward-looking harmony and melodiousness," and that his 12 Deutschen Tanze would even do honor to the "great Franz Schubert." Ottenberg, writing about Schubert's C Major Symphony, laments the composer's lack of dra matic development, relying instead on compositional devices to extend the work. In fact, he sug gests that Schubert "saw himself as a composer of small forms, Mittlepiecen, partitas, dances, and the like." 11 He does conclude, though, that despite his shortcomings, Schubert succeeded in this symphony in creating "original and expressive melodies" in the first movement, a "marked sense of orchestration'' in the slow movement, and music that "satisfies the demands of the genre with a colorful musical setting" in the finale. 12 A 1981 article in The Strad, in reviewing the above-mentioned recording of the C Major Concerto, noted that though less well crafted [than the Rolla Viola Concerto on the same recording, it] is worth hearing all the same: after a perfunctory, at times even dull, first movement... the music suddenly becomes interesting with a heavily ornamented slow movement and a finale whose delightful first theme Weber might well have been pleased to have written. 13 This author will not deny the weaknesses of the Symphony and Concerto noted above. And while he may seem to be prejudiced in this account, he also believes the Concerto in E-flat to be a much stronger work than the two listed above. See Analysis below for a case made on this work's behal£