FRANZ SCHUBERT: LOOK FOR THE OLD PIANO IN THE SCHUBERT ROOM AND TRY TO IMAGINE HOW HE CAME UP WITH HIS APPROXIMATELY 600 COMPOSITIONS!

Schubert wore glasses even when he was a child. We have one of his pairs of glasses in our display case. Can you find them? They may look like children’s glasses but Schubert wore them as an adult. He often didn’t even take them off at night and so slept with them on, because he was used to writing music immediately after waking up. Since he is pictured in most portraits with his glasses on, these have become another of his distinctive features.

Read one of the poems in our Schubert room that Schubert put to music, or have someone read one out to you. What were the themes that came up in the poems and thus in his music? What sort of content has concerned people, enriched them, enchanted and touched them?

What do you think?

You have probably noticed that nature, forest and water are often themes. Likewise, the themes of night, death and, of course, texts concerning love often come up.

Maybe you know the poets Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Heinrich Heine, Franz Grillparzer or Johann Mayrhofer? Schubert was so fond of their poems that he turned them into pieces of music.

Now you can listen to the song “Auf dem Wasser zu singen” ("To sing on the Water") and allow a few images to come to you: