Composers Archive

The original sketch for Schumann’s C-major Symphony took less than a week’s effort, but its completion, delayed by bouts of failing health took nearly a year. With Mendelssohn’s encour- agement, the task was finally completed …

Franz Schubert’s  String Quartet No. 14, “Death and the Maiden,” is one of the pillars of the chamber music repertoire. Writing in 1824, Schubert did what many great composers do: he borrowed from himself. The …

The preface to the score of “La Valse” includes the following descriptive note: “Whirling clouds give glimpses, through rifts, of couples dancing. The clouds scatter, little by little. One sees an immense hall peopled with …

Schubert composed the Piano Sonata in A-Major, D664 when he was on a two-month vacation at a place in Austria called Steyer. It was composed for the daughter, Josephine, of his host there. This is …

Composer Franz Schubert left us with Symphonies, chamber music, and more than 600 Lieder (songs) before he died at age 31. Schubert’s creative genius is demonstrated when he combined chamber music and song in his …