The Schubert collection

There are a number of articles on Figures of Speech concerning Franz Schubert. This page lists them in order of their publication, earliest first.

Visitors unfamiliar with Schubert can get an accessible overview of his life and thematic lists of the articles about him on this website here: Beginning Schubert.

Article index

Click an entry to jump to the catalogue entry below.

1. Schubert, you idiot! ('Ständchen' D 920) [2015-09-28]
2. 'Die schöne Müllerin' cycle [2015-12-03]
3. 'Die Winterreise' cycle [2015-12-31]
4. 'Die Forelle', song and quintet [2016-02-07]
5. Out of the swamp ('Nähe des Geliebten' D 162) [2016-04-17]
6. Before Schubert [2016-05-24]
7. 'Gretchen am Spinnrade' (D 118) [2016-06-13]
8. Franz's belljar [2016-09-13]
9. Rustling inspiration ('Wohin') [2016-09-22]
10. The other Spaun [2016-09-05]
11. The Jacobin Conspiracy [2016-10-01]
12. The Schubert trajectory [2016-11-04]
13. Who is Schober? what is he? [2016-12-09]
14. Franz Peter Schubert's family [2017-01-18]
15. Will the real Schubert please stand up? [2017-02-13]
16. Schubert: from child to musical genius [2017-03-01]
17. Schubert's friend Johann Senn [2017-04-24]
18. 'Lied auf dem Wasser zu singen' (D 774) [2017-04-27]
19. Schubert: Greatest Hits [2017-05-01]
20. Goethe's 'Heidenröslein' (D 257) [2017-06-01]
21. The mystery of Schubert's 'Unfinished Symphony' [2017-10-17]
22. January 1818: Franz Schubert dodges the draft [2018-01-25]
23. Franz Schubert's 31st birthday ('Ave Maria') [2018-01-31]
24. Midnight, 21 February 1818 ('Die Forelle') [2018-02-21]
25. 26 March 1828: Schubert's only concert [2018-03-22]
26. 3 June 1828: Fugue at midnight [2018-06-03]
27. Franz Schubert below stairs (Zseliz 1818) [2018-07-08]
28. Rolling the bacterial dice in Old Vienna [2018-08-23]
29. Franz Schubert in search of lost time (Zseliz 1824) [2018-09-01]
30. Schubert's downward spiral, 1827 [2018-09-17]
31. How to write a big book in two days [2018-09-19]
32. Gay days in Old Vienna? [2018-09-30]
33. 19 November 1828: the death of Franz Schubert [2018-11-18]
34. 'Alinde' D 904: Rochlitz and Schubert [2018-12-03]
35. 'Dass sie hier gewesen' D 775: Rückert and Schubert [2019-01-16]
36. Wilhelm Müller's 'three suns' [2019-02-01]
37. Franz Schubert's 'Mensch' (in Zseliz 1818) [2019-05-13]
38. Not a portrait of Franz Schubert [2019-05-23]
39. How many people listen to Schubert's music these days? [2019-06-02]
40. Diving deep into Goethe's 'Der Fischer' (D 225) [2019-06-08]
41. Schubert the Insignificant [2019-06-21]
42. Franz Schubert and Heinrich Heine ('Schwanengesang') [2019-08-14]
43. Heinrich Heine and Franz Schubert ('Die Heimkehr') [2019-08-26]
44. Franz Schubert and Ludwig Rellstab ('Schwanengesang') [2019-09-09]
45. Dr Rita Steblin: an obituary notice [2019-09-13]
46. The trembling aspen ('Der Jüngling an der Quelle' D 300) [2019-09-27]
47. A 'Schwanengesang' website [2019-09-29]
48. Another Schubert portrait turns up [2019-10-17]
49. Chillin' with the Kinskys [2019-12-18]
50. Schubert in love [2019-12-21]
51. Ueber allen Gipfeln Ist Ruh' [2020-01-01]
52. Schubert portrait Whac-A-Mole [2020-01-05]
53. 'Fischerweise' D 881 [2020-01-15]
54. Franz Schubert and Franz von Schlechta [2020-01-18]
55. 'Die Sterne' D 939 [2020-01-20]
56. 'Jägers Liebeslied' D 909 [2020-01-24]
57. 'Du bist die Ruh' D 776 [2020-02-09]
58. 'Du bist die Ruh', swipe right edition [2020-02-09]
59. Atzenbrugg und Aumühle [2020-05-11]
60. The Atzenbrugg enlightenment [2020-05-19]
61. Hidden Schubert [2020-05-29]
62. Schubert in da hood [2020-07-08]
63. Schubert on tour [2022-04-30]
64. Broadening the mind [2022-05-02]

Article catalogue

Click an entry to jump to the article.

Websites, mainly Schubert related

Here is a list of links to other websites having a Schubert theme. The list is in alphabetical order of the website name.

We would like to develop this list interactively, which is an affected way of saying that those who want one or more websites listed here should email us. Submit your own short description, or leave it to us to make something up.

• Winterreise A modern and visually interesting site covering all things Winterreise, with a strong musical basis (discography etc.).
• Die schöne Müllerin Another modern and visually interesting website from the same stable as Winterreise, specialising in the song cycle Die schöne Müllerin.
• Schwanengesang Yet another modern and visually interesting website from the same stable as Winterreise, specialising in the collection of songs posthumously marketed under the label Schwanengesang.
• The LiederNet Archive. A long-established and very extensive documentation of (currently) over 150,000 Lieder, among which the Schubert Lieder are, of course, well represented.
• Michael Lorenz. Some Schubert, but many other pieces on other musicological topics. The website has come to a standstill since Dr Lorenz somewhat tardily realised that his work on his blog would always remain unpaid.
• The Schubert Institute (UK). The website is dated, out-of-date and poorly maintained; the archive of The Schubertian, the journal of the Institute, is simply left blank.
• Schubertlied. An extremely ambitious attempt to document and perform the Schubert Lieder.

Friedrich Lieder's Schubert portrait (1827)

Some background information about the image we use as the thumbnail for our Schubert articles. We believe that this is the most realistic image of the composer.

Schubert's head and shoulder portrait, drawn on paper (17x13  cm) was acquired in 1900 for the collection of Prince Liechtenstein. Nothing is known of the provenance of the picture before that. Some time before 1956 it turned up in the Sankt Lukas gallery in Vienna, owned at the time by Robert Herzig. Today the portrait is in private hands in the south of France.

…

How Lieder's Schubert portrait came into being is unknown. It does not seem to have been created as a preliminary for a lithograph, but rather to have been intended as a sketch for the portrait (formerly ascribed to Teltscher) that was once in Zseliz and which is now was in the possession of Franz Albrecht Metternich-Sändor [1920-2009]. This portrait – in coloured pencil, wash and with red emphasis (20 x 16 cm) – is of the highest artistic quality. Although not signed, it was probably coloured by Lieder himself. Based on the date of the preliminary sketch this portrait must also date from around 1827.