Franz Schubert was regarded chiefly as a composer of domestic music, and during his all-too-brief life managed to publish only a quarter of his works. Without patronage and without ever becoming well known or a virtuoso, how did Schubert manage to achieve unprecedented expressivity in song composition, or to create his chamber, symphonic and piano masterpieces? And how did he reconcile the warring elements of his tempestuous personality? This vivid biographical narrative includes selections from his most popular works including the String Quintet in C major and the ‘Trout’ Quintet, as well as the symphonies, and examples from his Lieder and stage works.

Written by Davinia Caddy

Davinia Caddy studied music at the University of Cambridge, where she graduated with a BA (Hons), MPhil and, in 2005, a PhD. Her doctoral dissertation was broadly based on French musical culture from 1890 to 1914. She has since taught at the Universities of Oxford, Oxford Brookes and Auckland. Her books include The Ballets Russes and Beyond: Music and Dance in Belle-Époque Paris (Cambridge University Press, 2012), Musicology and Dance: Historical and Critical Perspectives (Cambridge University Press, 2020, co-edited with Maribeth Clark), and How to Hear Classical Music, a contemporary guide to the Western classical repertoire written for the general public (Awa Press, 2013).