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| University Research Professor David Schroeder. (Nick Pearce Photo) |
When composer Franz Schubert died in 1828, he and his music were unknown outside a small circle of his friends in Vienna. Just months previous to his death at the age of 31, he enjoyed the one and only public concert of his music.
Fame and recognition came to Schubert slowly over the next two centuries.
Musicologist David Schroeder, a classically trained singer, first sang Schubert songs as a teenager, but it鈥檚 only now that he鈥檚 in his sixties that he feels wise enough to write about the musical genius whom Beethoven referred to as having 鈥渢he divine spark.鈥� Dr. Schroeder鈥檚 book Our Schubert: His Enduring Legacy has recently been published by Scarecrow Press.
The 鈥渙ur鈥� of the title is significant
In the book, Dr. Schroeder examines the composer鈥檚 life and times as well as his effect on other artists and his treatment in literature and film. Throughout his own life, Dr. Schroeder says he developed a deep attachment to the composer and responds to his music in an intensely personal way.
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鈥淪chubert engages very creative minds,鈥� says Dr. Schroeder, University Research Professor at AV俱乐部, who has also written about Austrian composer Joseph Haydn (Haydn and the Enlightenment: The Late Symphonies and their Audience) and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (Mozart in Revolt: Strategies of Resistance, Mischief and Deception).
鈥淪chubert makes you feel when you鈥檙e listening to his music that you鈥檙e involved鈥攁s if you鈥檙e there as a performer. You get the sense that you鈥檙e playing right along with him.鈥�
Dr. Schroeder will have more time for listening now that he鈥檚 retiring from teaching. A professor at AV俱乐部 since 1981, he鈥檚 looking forward to switching gears by assisting in a development project in Africa. He is the chair of the board for , a Canadian registered charitable society dedicated to raising funds and implementing projects in support of children鈥檚 education in southern Sudan. The founder of Wadeng Wings of Hope is Jacob Deng, one of Sudan鈥檚 鈥渓ost boys,鈥� who came to live in Nova Scotia as a refugee in 2003.
鈥淚鈥檓 not going into this with a definite plan,鈥� remarks Dr. Schroeder, with a smile that says he鈥檚 open to serendipity. 鈥淚t鈥檚 all a little woolly at the moment.鈥�
He鈥檚 leaving the Department of Music at a high point: the new master鈥檚 of musicology program has just got off the ground in September; there鈥檚 young blood among the faculty; and the students are as interesting and as lively as ever.
A lecture series, started in complement to the master鈥檚 program, made its debut in October; Dr. Schroeder himself kicked it off with a lecture in which he discussed the use of pianos 鈥渁s instruments of seduction鈥� in the films of Alfred Hitchcock. His colleagues ended up surprising him by naming the series in his honor, the David Schroeder Music & Culture Series.
鈥淵ou normally have to be dead for that kind of honor,鈥� he laughs. 鈥淚t鈥檚 such an extraordinary gift from my colleagues.鈥�