Franz Schubert 1797-1828 A Literary Biography By Gloria Kaiser, Translated by Lowell A. Bangerter

Since today Schubert is regarded by many as the greatest songwriter who ever lived, it is hard for us to comprehend that publishers initially hesitated to print his compositions. But he was not deterred and composed what he felt. Franz Schubert set to music the breath of that time, the wind that blew in Vienna in 1820 – Mettternich’s system of informers, the school system of 1800, the Congress of Vienna. We also experience friendships. Many of these were woven into the life of Franz Schubert, his friends often helped him to live, to survive many phases of his life. In writing a literary biography ‘Franz Schubert,’ Gloria Kaiser based her presentation on quotes from letters and excerpts from diaries, producing an interpretation of the composer’s life, in which we experience what must be suffered in order that great and unique things can come into being – until the divine spark leaves the genius.