TITLE: Six Minuets for Wind Instruments (1811)

COMPOSER: Franz Schubert (1797-1828)

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH

Franz Schubert had a strict but kind father, who was a schoolmaster in Vienna. He was surrounded by music at school and home. He was expected to follow his father's career path, however, Schubert was interested in other pursuits. He taught school for three years before he totally devoted himself to music composition. Schubert constantly struggled with poor health and poverty. He composed 114 songs in the single year of 1815. He composed over 600 songs during his tragically short lifetime. Schubert's output was extraordinary, given his short time on earth. In addition to his tremendous output of lieder, Schubert composed nine symphonies, twenty-two piano sonatas, and two hundred choral works, including six masses and seventeen operas.

MOVEMENTS: Six

• Number Titles ( I, II, III, IV, V and VI )

PERFORMANCE TIME: 12' 00"

INSTRUMENTATION: 8 or 9 Instruments

• 2 Oboes, 2 Clarinets, 2 Bassoons, 2 Horns, 1 Trumpet (Movements I-III)
• 1 Flute, 1 Oboe, 2 Clarinets, 2 Bassoons, 2 Horns (Movements IV-VI)

EDITIONS: Available for Purchase or Rental

1. Barenreiter Music Corporation, 224 King Street, Englewood, NJ 07631

COMPOSITION SKETCH AND MUSICAL CONSIDERATIONS

In the winter of 1968, during research into source material for the Neue Schubert-Ausgabe, Christa Landon discovered fifty unknown Schubert autographs from various periods of his creative life. Among these autographs was one containing six minuets. Numbers I, II and III were all scored for wind instruments, however, Numbers IV, V and VI were in the form of a piano sketch. The original minuets I, II and III are the only known dances composed for wind instruments by Schubert. The occasion for the composition of these minuets was probably for some festivity at the Vienna Stadthonvikt, the seminary where Schubert was a pupil between 1808 and 1813. The minuets were composed by Schubert when he was fourteen years old. Alexander Weinmann completed the instrumentation of minuets IV, V and VI.

SELECTED RECORDINGS:

RELATED WEBSITES:

The Franz Schubert Society - http://www.franz-schubert.org/index.htm

Schubert Biography - http://www.hearts-ease.org/conservatory/e-romantic/schubert/bio.html

Schubert Institue- http://www.siuk.org.uk/