In the winter of 1814-15 Schubert made acquaintance with the poet Mayrhofer : an acquaintance which, according to his usual habit, soon ripened into a warm and intimate friendship. They were singularly unlike in temperament : Schubert frank, open and sunny, with brief fits of depression, and sudden outbursts of boisterous high spirits; Mayrhofer grim and saturnine, a silent man who regarded life chiefly as a test of endurance.
As 1815 was the most prolific period of Schubert's life, so 1816 saw the first real change in his fortunes. Somewhere about the turn of the year Spaun surprised him in the composition of Erlkonig—Goethe's poem propped among a heap of exercise books, and the boy at white-heat of inspiration "hurling" the notes on the music-paper. A few weeks later Von Schober, a law-student of good family and some means, who had heard some of Schu bert's songs at Spaun's house, came to pay a visit to the composer and proposed to carry him off from school-life and give him freedom to practise his art in peace. The proposal was particu larly opportune, for Schubert had just made an unsuccessful application for the post of Kapellmeister at Laibach, and was feeling more acutely than ever the slavery of the class-room. His father's consent was readily given, and before the end of the spring he was installed as a guest in Von Schober's lodgings. For a time he attempted to increase the household resources by giving music lessons, but they were soon abandoned and he devoted himself to composition. "I write all day," he said later to an inquiring visitor, "and when I have finished one piece I begin another." The works of 1816 include three ceremonial cantatas and two new symphonies, No. 4 in C minor, called the Tragic, with a striking andante, No. 5 in B flat, as bright and fresh as a symphony of Mozart ; some numbers of church music, fuller and more mature than any of their predecessors, and over a hundred songs, among which are comprised some of his finest settings of Goethe and Schiller. There is also an opera, Die Burgschaft, spoiled by an illiterate book.
All this time his circle of friends was steadily widening. Mayr hofer introduced him to Vogl, the famous baritone, who did him good service by performing his songs in the salons of Vienna; Anselm Hiittenbrenner and his brother Joseph ranged themselves among his most devoted admirers; Gahy, an excellent pianist, played his sonatas and fantasias ; the Sonnleithners, a rich burgher family whose eldest son had been at the Convict, gave him free access to their home, and organized in his honour musical parties which soon assumed the name of Schubertiaden. The material
needs of life were supplied without much difficulty. No doubt Schubert was entirely penniless, for he had given up teaching, he could earn nothing by public performance, and, as yet, no pub lisher would take his music at a gift ; but his friends came to his aid with true Bohemian generosity—one found him lodging, an other found him appliances, they took their meals together and the man who had any money paid the score. Schubert was always the leader of the party and was known by half-a-dozen affectionate nicknames, of which the most characteristic is "kann er 'was?" his usual question when a new acquaintance was proposed.
The year 1818, though, like its predecessor, comparatively unfertile in composition, was in two respects a memorable year. It saw the first public performance of any work of Schubert's an overture in the Italian style written as an avowed burlesque of Rossini, and played in all seriousness at a Jall concert on March I. It also saw the beginning of his only official appointment, the post of music-master to the family of Count Johann Esterhazy at Zelesz, where he spent the summer amid pleasant and congenial surroundings. On his return to Vienna in the autumn he found that Von Schober had no room for him, and took up his residence with Mayrhofer. He made his first public appearance as a song writer on Feb. 28, 1819, when the Schiifers Klagelied was sung by Jager at a Jail concert. In the summer of the same year he took a holiday and travelled with Vogl through Upper Austria. At Steyr he wrote his brilliant piano quintet in A, and astonished his friends by transcribing the parts without a score. In the autumn he sent three of his songs to Goethe, but, so far as we know, received no acknowledgment.