Life Becomes Art: How Franz Schubert's Music Reflects his Life

Level of Education of Students Involved

Undergraduate

Faculty Sponsor

Joseph Bognar

College

College of Arts & Sciences (CAS)

Discipline(s)

Music, Music History, Romantic Period, Composition

Presentation Type

Oral Presentation

Symposium Date

Spring 4-24-2025

Abstract

Composers use musical composition as a form of autobiographical writing, both intentionally and unintentionally. Musical works can reflect the lived experiences of their creators even when the works themselves are not intended as personal revelations. Especially when it comes to the life and works of Franz Schubert, scholars such as Susan Youens and Lorraine Byrne Bodley have researched Schubert’s songs through the lenses of memoirs and journals, discovering certain heightened emotional aspects in his choice of lyrics and deliberate harmonic structures that appear to reflect autobiographical experiences. By regarding his songs as a reflection of his inner struggles, such as at the end of his life during his battle with syphilis, we hear an artist’s private statement about his life and relationships that he could not otherwise utter publicly. Based on my findings, I have discovered these autobiographical experiences within Schubert’s music tell a linear narrative of his life, and when one listens to his scores in order of publication, they discern a unique tale. Through a musical analysis of Schubert’s intentional text painting, this study delves deeper into Schubert’s seemingly simple lieder and probes the depths of how his personal life experiences, such as the death of his mother or his personal relationships with Josef Spaun and Franz von Schober, affected his musical creation in such a profound way.

Biographical Information about Author(s)

Chris DeGard is a junior music education major at Valparaiso University with a primary in voice and a choral directing focus. Chris became interested in Franz Schubert's works in high school when studying his lied "Gretchen am Spinnrade," which is a heavily text-painted work and one of his most popular solo soprano scores. This interest continued to take hold when taking a music history course that reviewed the impact Schubert main to romantic period compositions.

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