7 The 100 Most Influential Musicians of All Time 7period include “Ganymed,” “Der Wanderer,” and the
Harper’s Songs from Goethe’s novel Wilhelm Meister. There
were two more symphonies: No. 4 in C Minor, which Schubert
himself named the Tragic (1816), and the popular No. 5 in
B-flat Major (1816). A fourth mass, in C major, was composed
in 1816. The year 1817 is notable for the beginning of his
masterly series of piano sonatas. Six were composed while
staying at the home of life-long friend Franz von Schober,
the finest being No. 7 in E-flat Major and No. 11 in B Major.
Schubert’s years of schoolmastering ended in the sum-
mer of 1818. He had found the position frustrating, and in
the spring of that year he had produced only one substantial
work, the Symphony No. 6 in C Major. In the meantime his
reputation was growing, however, and the first public
performance of one of his works, the Italian Overture in C
Major, took place on March 1, 1818, in Vienna. In June he
took up the post of music master to the two daughters of
Johann, Count Esterházy, in the family’s summer residence
at Zseliz, Hung. In the summer months Schubert com-
pleted the piano duets Variations on a French Song in E
minor and the Sonata in B-flat Major, sets of dances, songs,
and the Deutsche Trauermesse (German Requiem).
Maturity
On his return to Vienna he composed the operetta Die
Zwillingsbrüder (The Twin Brothers), but the production of
the work was postponed, and in June 1819 Schubert and
Vogl set off for a protracted holiday in the singer’s native
district of upper Austria. There he composed the first of
his widely known instrumental compositions, the Piano
Sonata in A Major, D. 664, and the celebrated Trout Quintet
for piano and strings. The close of 1819 saw him engrossed
in songs to poems by his friend Johann Mayrhofer and by
Goethe, who inspired “Prometheus.”