Franz Peter Schubert was born in Vienna on January 21, 1797 and died there on November 19, 1828. He composed a wide variety of music, but his most enduring contributions were to the repertory of song for voice and piano. As best as can be determined, Schubert composed over six hundred accompanied songs in his brief life, as well as a large number of solo piano compositions, operas, sacred vocal works, and chamber music. His gift as a lyrical composer may also be heard in his purely instrumental music, including his symphonies. His Symphony no. 3 was composed between 24 May and 19 July 1815 when the composer was only eighteen years old. The work is in four movements and is scored for 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 2 horns, 2 trumpets, 3 trombones, timpani, and strings.

Establishing an accurate chronology for Schubert’s symphonies has been difficult. The tedious and gruesome details for this need not be reviewed here, but we are able to date his Symphony No. 3 with accuracy. All in all, Schubert made thirteen attempts at writing symphonies, but completed only seven. Schubert's first six symphonies were mostly written and performed by a private orchestra. According to the article on the composer in the New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, his early symphonies are “full of ingratiating touches and, less frequently, genuine originality.” The article also mentions that “at the age when Beethoven finished his First Symphony, Schubert had little over a year to live.”

It is fascinating to contemplate where Schubert stood as a composer of symphonies in relation to the career of his contemporary, Ludwig van Beethoven. The Third Symphony is clearly composed under the influence of Mozart, as were Beethoven’s Symphonies Nos. 1 and 2. Without getting too technical, the differences between the early symphonies of Beethoven and Schubert lies in three principal areas: melody, harmony, and tone color. Schubert, the unchallenged master of the art song, or lied, brought a new kind of lyricism to instrumental music in Beethoven seldom indulged. While Schubert’s fondness for using close-formed melodies sometimes stood in opposition to the exigencies of classical structure, who even now would be willing to sacrifice their beauties at the altar of the necessities of sonata-form development sections?

Youthful energy defines the first movement of Schubert’s Symphony No. 3. After a slow introduction (Adagio maestoso), the Allegro con brio main body is an exuberant and buoyant romp. The brief second movement (Allegretto) offers a string of tuneful melodies that need not indulge in developmental processes. The third movement, Menuetto is marked Vivace, suggesting a brisk speed that belies the moderately-paced expected for the formal courtly dance. Perhaps it is here that we can sense the influence of Beethoven, whose Symphony No. 1 also calls for a fast tempo in its third movement. Some Schubert scholars have suggested that the finale, Presto vivace, evinces comic elements found in the operas of Gioachino Rossini. Indeed, Rossini’s opera buffa style was all the rage in Vienna at the time. It may be telling that two years after the composition of his Symphony No. 3, Schubert composed two Overtures “in the Italian style.”

Program Note by David B. Levy © 2025