Like Mozart, whose influence over him was always considerable, he wrote nearly all the finest of his compositions in the last ten years of his life. His early symphonies, his early quartets, even his early masses, are too much affected by a traditional style to establish an enduring reputation. It is unfair to call them imitative, but at the time when he wrote them he was saturated with Mozart, and early Beethoven, and he spoke what was in his mind with a boy’s frankness. The Andante of the Tragic Symphony (No. 4) strikes a more distinctive note, but the fifth is but a charming adaptation of a past idiom, and the sixth, on which Schubert himself placed little value, shows hardly any appreciable advance. It is a very different matter when we come to the later works. The piano quintet in A major (1819) may here be taken as the turning-point; then come the Unfinished Symphony, which is pure Schubert in every bar; the three quartets in A minor, D minor, and G major, full of romantic colour; the delightful piano trios; the great string quintet; and the C major symphony which, though diffuse, contains many passages of surprising beauty. Every one of them is a masterpiece, and a masterpiece such as Schubert alone could have written. The days of brilliant promise were over and were succeeded by the days of full and mature achievement.
His larger operas are marred both by their inordinate length and by their want of dramatic power. The slighter comedies are pretty and tuneful, but, except as curiosities, are not likely to be revived. We may, however, deplore the fate which has deprived the stage of the Rosamunde music. It is in Schubert’s best vein; the entractes, the Romance, and the ballets are alike excellent, and it is much to be hoped that a poet will some day arise and fit the music to a new play.
Of his pianoforte compositions, the sonatas, as might be expected, are the least enduring, though there is not one of them which does not contain some first-rate work. On the other hand his smaller pieces, in which the lyric character is more apparent, are throughout interesting to play and extremely pleasant to hear. He developed a special pianoforte technique of his own not always “orthodox,” but always characteristic. A special word should be added on his fondness for piano duets, a form which before his time had been rarely attempted. Of these he wrote a great many—fantasias, marches, polonaises, variations—all bright and melodious with sound texture and a remarkable command of rhythm.
His concerted pieces for the voice are often extremely difficult, but they are of a rare beauty which would well repay the labour of rehearsal. The 23rd psalm (for female voices) is exquisite; so are the Gesang der Geister, the Nachthalle, the Nachtgesang im Walde (for male voices and horns), and that “dewdrop of celestial melody” which Novello has published with English words under the title of “Where Thou Reignest.” Among all Schubert’s mature works there are none more undeservedly neglected than these.
Of the songs it is impossible, within the present limits, to give even a sketch. They number over 600, excluding scenes and operatic pieces, and they contain masterpieces from the beginning of his career to the end. Gretchen am Spinnrade was written when he was seventeen, Erlkönig when he was eighteen; then there follows a continuous stream which never checks or runs dry, and which broadens as it flows to the Müllerlieder, the Scott songs, the Shakespearean songs, the Winterreise, and the Schwanengesang. He is said to have been undiscriminating in his choice of words. Schumann declared that “he could set a handbill to music,” and there is no doubt that he was inspired by any lyric which contained, though even in imperfect expression, the germ of a poetic idea. But his finest songs are almost all to fine poems. He set over 70 of Goethe’s, over 60 of Schiller’s; among the others are the names of Shakespeare and Scott, of Schlegel and Rückert, of Novalis and Wilhelm Müller—a list more than sufficient to compensate for the triviality of occasional pieces or the inferior workmanship of personal friends. It was a tragedy that he only lived for a few weeks after the appearance of the Buch der Lieder. We may conjecture what the world would have gained if he had found the full complement of his art in Heine.
In his earlier songs he is more affected by the external and pictorial aspect of the poem; in the later ones he penetrates to the centre and seizes the poetic conception from within. But in both alike he shows a gift of absolute melody which, even apart from its meaning, would be inestimable. Neither Handel nor Mozart—his two great predecessors in lyric tune—have surpassed or even approached him in fertility and variety of resource. The songs in Acis are wonderful ; so are those in Zauberflöte, but they are not so wonderful as Litaney, and “Who is Sylvia?” and the Ständchen. To Schubert we owe the introduction into music of a particular quality of romance, a particular “addition of strangeness to beauty”; and so long as the art remains his place among its supreme masters is undoubtedly assured. (W. H. H.)
SCHÜCKING, LEVIN (1814–1883), German novelist, was born
on the estate of Klemenswerth, near Meppen, in Westphalia, on
the 6th of September 1814. After studying law at Munich,
Heidelberg and Göttingen, he wished to enter the government
judicial service, but, confronted by serious difficulties, abandoned
the legal career, and settling at Münster in 1837, devoted himself
to literary work. In 1841 he removed to Schloss Meersburg
on the Lake of Constance, joined in 1843 the editorial staff of
the Allgemeine Zeitung in Augsburg, and in 1845 that of the
Kölnische Zeitung in Cologne. In 1852 he retired to his estate,
Sassenberg near Münster, and died at Pyrmont on the 31st
of August 1883. Among his numerous romances, which are
distinguished by good taste and patriotic feeling, largely reflecting
the sound, sturdy character of the Westphalians, must
be especially mentioned: Ein Schloss am Meer (1843); Ein
Sohn des Volkes (1849); Ein Staatsgeheimnis (1854);
Verschlungene Wege (1867); Die Herberge der Gerechtigkeit (1879).
Schücking wrote a number of short stories: Aus den Tagen der
grossen Kaiserin (1858) and Neue Novellen (1877). In Annette
von Droste-Hülshoff (q.v.) (1862) he gives a sketch of this poet
and acknowledges his indebtedness to her beneficial influence
upon his mind. There appeared posthumously, Lebenserinnerungen
(1886) and Briefe von Annette von Droste-Hülshoff und
Levin Schücking (1893). His wife, Luise (1815–1855), daughter
of the General Freiherr von Gall, in the Hessian service,
published some novels and romances of considerable merit.
Among the latter may be mentioned Gegen den Strom (1851)
and Der neue Kreuzritter (1853).
Schücking’s Gesammelte Erzählungen und Novellen appeared in 6 vols. (1859–1866); Ausgewählte Romane (12 vols., 1864; 2nd series, also 12 vols., 1874–1876).
SCHULTENS, the name of three Dutch Orientalists. The
first and most important, Albert Schultens (1686–1750),
was born at Groningen. He studied for the church at Groningen
and Leiden, applying himself specially to Hebrew and the
cognate tongues. His dissertation on The Use of Arabic in the
Interpretation of Scripture appeared in 1706. After a visit to
Reland in Utrecht he returned to Groningen (1708); then,
having taken his degree in theology (1709), he again went to
Leiden, and devoted himself to the study of the MS. collections
there till in 1711 he became pastor at Wassenaer. Disliking
parochial work, in 1713 he took the Hebrew chair at Franeker,
which he held till 1729, when he was transferred to Leiden as
rector of the collegium theologicum, or seminary for poor students.
From 1732 till his death (at Leiden on the 26th of January 1750)
he was professor of Oriental languages at Leiden. Schultens
was the chief Arabic teacher of his time, and in some sense a
restorer of Arabic studies, but he differed from J. J. Reiske and
A. I. De Sacy in mainly regarding Arabic as a handmaid to
Hebrew. He vindicated the value of comparative study of the
Semitic tongues against those who, like Gousset, regarded
Hebrew as a sacred tongue with which comparative philology
has nothing to do. His principal works were Origines Hebraeae
(2 vols., 1724, 1738), a second edition of which, with the De
defectibus linguae Hebraeae (1731), appeared in 1761; Job
(1737); Proverbs (1748); Vetus et regia via hebraezandi (1738);
Monumenta vetustiora Arabum (1740), &c.
His son, John James Schultens (1716–1778), became professor at Herborn in 1742, and afterwards succeeded to his father’s chair. He was in turn succeeded by his son, Henry Albert Schultens (1749–1793), who, however, left comparatively little behind him, having succumbed to excessive work while preparing an edition of Meidani, of which only a part appeared posthumously (1795).
SCHULTZ, HERMANN (1836–), German Protestant
theologian, was born at Lüchow in Hanover on the 30th of
December 1836. He studied at Göttingen and Erlangen,
became professor at Basel in 1864, and eventually (1876)
professor ordinarius at Göttingen. Here he has also held the
appointments of chief university preacher, councillor to the
consistory (from 1881) and abbot of Bursfelde (1890). Professor
Schultz’s theological standpoint was that of a moderate liberal.
“It is thought by many that he has succeeded in discovering
the via media between the positions of Biblical scholars
like Delitzsch on the one hand and Stade on the other” (Prof.
J. A. Paterson). He is well known to British and American
students as the author of an excellent work on Old Testament
Theology (2 vols., 1869, 5th ed., 1896; Eng. trans., 2nd ed., 1895).
