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Zumsteeg and Schubert
and the Scena
Hagars Klage
I. Historical Background
As a fourteen-year-old in the convent school, Schubert learned and performed the songs and ballads of Johann Rudolf Zumsteeg (1760 - 1802):
* Director of German music at the court theatre in Stuttgart
* Studied cello and composition, produced seven volumes of lieder and seven
operas
* Influences on Zumsteeg: Jommelli, melodrama, magic, oriental fairy tales, Mozarts operas
* Wrote the opera "The Spirit Island" in 1798 (really a singspiel, although often
referred to as an opera), performed in Stuttgart. ...
* He was part of the "Strum und Drang" movement, which foreshadowed
romanticism
* Zumsteegs lieder and ballads (he wrote about 300) had a particular influence on the young
Schubert: his songs were telling a story, adn expressed a more personal relationship to the
subject, rather than more general attitudes towards nature, love, etc. ...
*Examples of Zumsteegs songs and ballads learned by Schubert: Die Erwantung (Expectation), Ritter Toggenburg (The Knight of Toggenburg), Leichenfrantasie (Corpse Fantasy), Der Taucher (The Diver), Des Madchens Klage (The Maidens Lament), Sehnsucht (Longing).
1811: Schubert wrote three long vocal pieces (D5, D6. D7) written upon a plan which Zumsteeg had made popular. ... Schiller, Goethe) by his use of through-composed as well as strophic procedures and by the admixture of recitative and lyrical sections (Straum) [seen in Schuberts setting of Hagars Klage. ... [Schubert certainly does this in Hagars Klage.]
Insprired by Zumsteeg, Schubert recomposed a number of his ballads, including Hagars Klage, attempting to modernize Zumsteegs form. Salieri, an instructor at the Stadtkonvict, was so taken with Hagars Klage that he made arrangements for Ruczizka to provide the young Schubert with lessons in harmony. Schubert outcomposed his model so well that he consigned Zumsteeg to a footnote in history. ... Zumsteeg attempted to enhanvce serious poetry through music, which in turn attracted Schubert as he learned and performed Zumsteegs work as a boy soprano.
Schubert believed that the mediocrity, lack of character, debility and brutalization which ruled men at that time could only be overcome through true art, only through aesthetic knowledge, that the way to the head must be opened through the heart, and in this way could judgment and reason, and thereby true freedom, be brought forth.
Approximate Word count = 1606
Approximate Pages = 6.4
(250 words per page double spaced)
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