- folding and disposing them when the scale of presentation is
large. His zeal for operatic effort was strong during the middle of his career, but in dramatic technique he was too inexperienced to be often successful.
Schubert's melodic inspiration differed from that of Mozart, for instance, in that it preferred to attach itself to a definite thought or sentiment, usually literary in origin, of which it was the musical embodiment and to which it absolutely conformed. Even in his instrumental works, there seems to be behind the utterance some suggestion or impulse that is not simply tonal. Hence what he says is apparently freighted with meaning as well as clothed in outward charm. But we look in vain for the signs of personal experience in the composer corresponding to the implications of his works. That he caught instantly and perfectly by his imagination all sorts of suggestion from without is evident, but that he actually lived what he wrote, except through imagination, is uncertain. He sought to depict what the eye of his fancy saw rather than to disclose hidden depths within himself. Yet, against this, the repose of his usual style corresponds to the contentment of his normal mood, while in the subtle pathos that often creeps in we may perhaps see the unconscious reflection of his unhappy circumstances.
A rough summary of his works is as follows:—(a) about 650 solo
songs, ranging in size from brief snatches and ballads up to protracted odes
and scenas, covering an indescribable variety of topics and lines of feeling,
and including many sets or 'cycles' of pieces, held together usually by
some slight dramatic connection; (b) perhaps 60 part-songs, chiefly for
male voices; (c) 6 masses, those in A (1822) and E (1828) being the
largest, 2 sacred cantatas, notably Miriams Siegesgesang (1828), and
several motets and hymns, some of the latter elaborate; (d) 18 dramatic
works (from 1814), some only fragments, but including the operas Alfonso
und Estrella (1822), and Fierabras (1823), with incidental music to
Rosamunde (1823), of which only parts of the last were given during his
lifetime; (e) 24 piano-sonatas (3 for 4 hands) and a vast quantity of
lesser pieces, like impromptus, moments musicals, dances, marches, etc.;
(f) 20 string-quartets, besides other chamber pieces; (g) 10 symphonies,
some incomplete, of which the most famous are the 'Unfinished' (1822)
and that in C (1828), and many overtures, the finest of which is that to
Rosamunde. Remarkably fertile years were 1815, with almost 200 works,
1816, with 125, and 1817, with 70. In later years the number was much
smaller, but the size of the works larger. Many works recorded appear
to be lost, many have only recently been published, and many are not
often heard, usually on account of their length.
