Schobert, Johann (EN)

Schobert Johann, *ca. 1730 Silesia (?), †28 August 1767 Paris, German composer and harpsichordist. Some sources give the year of birth as ca. 1720, 1735, 1740. Little information about Schobert’s biography has survived to this day. Baron F.M. von Grimm wrote about his Silesian origins; Ch.F.D. Schubart claimed in his autobiography that Schobert was his relative from Nuremberg; according to other accounts, he could have come from Strasbourg, as he taught music there, while H. Riemann associated him with the Mannheim school. Around 1760, Schobert came to Paris and was employed as a harpsichordist at the court of Louis-François de Bourbon, Prince de Conti. He performed in Parisian salons, gaining a reputation as a talented composer and an outstanding harpsichordist. In 1764, he met the Mozart family, who was then in Paris and listened to Nannerl’s and Wolfgang’s play.

Schobert, alongside J.G. Eckard and L. Honauer, among others, was one of the German virtuosos active in Paris in the second half of the 18^th century. They introduced a harpsichord style different from the French one and transplanted a new type of early classical sonata for a keyboard instrument with instrumental accompaniment. Schobert’s sonatas, which are among the most outstanding works of this type, are an example of this groundbreaking reversal of roles in the chamber sonata when the harpsichord became the leading instrument from an accompanying instrument; as a result, improvisation was eliminated in his part. The sonatas consist of three, exceptionally two or four movements. The first movements, usually in a fast or moderate tempo, represent various variants of the sonata form; in some reprises, for example, the complete exposition returns in variation form, in others only its final part; the developments are characterised by a free, fancy character. The influence of the suite is visible in the subsequent sections, they often have a dance character. The middle section is an andante or minuet, polonaise, siciliana, allemande, most sonatas end with a minuet, less often a fast section. Schobert was one of the first to foresee the possibility of optional use of accompanying instruments and indicated this in the titles of almost all opuses – “pour le clavecin qui peuvent se jouer avec l’accompagnement,” “ad libitum;” thus, the sonatas found themselves on the border between chamber and solo music. The accompaniment part most often doubles the melodic line, creates rhythmic, harmonic and textural filling, and has a colouristic meaning; in some parts or longer sections, it gains greater importance, sometimes it specifies and develops the melodic line or takes it over, coming to the fore.

Schobert’s pieces have a periodic structure, the melody grows out of the galant style, and the fast parts, in which the composer’s talent is most fully revealed, are virtuoso in character. In the left-hand part, Alberti’s bass, broken octaves, chords, passages, and repetitions play a large role. Schobert had an ease of composition; hence, some fragments seem stereotypical, and overly long figurative passages violate formal coherence. Despite this, in comparison to the music of other composers, his pieces are characterised by a deepening of dramatism and expressive contrasts, which is largely related to the references in the harpsichord part to orchestral effects (alternating dramatic and cantilena sections, textural variability, building tensions by means of harmonic progression, energising tremolandos, extensive passages, long repetitions in the bass or in the middle voices); in the minuet trios, minor keys definitely prevail. The influence of the Mannheim composers is expressed in the transfer of the symphonic style to the harpsichord; Ch. Burney considered this to be the composer’s main achievement.

Schobert’s works were prevalent in the second half of the 18^th century; in the 1760s and 1770s, they were published in Paris (Op. 19 in 1772), and as reissues also in London and Amsterdam. Many of his contemporaries, including J.B. de Laborde, admired the composer’s skills. Unlike L. Mozart, who spoke critically of Schobert, the young W.A. Mozart was strongly impressed by the creator, which was evident in his early works. Mozart arranged many fragments from Schobert’s works in his own piano concertos, including in the second movement of the Concerto in B flat major KV 39, the Sonata Op. 17 No. 2; he valued his works also in later years, recommending them to his students.

Literature: J.B. de Laborde Essai sur la musique ancienne et moderne, vol. 3, Paris 1780, facsimile ed. Paris 1972; Ch.F.D. Schubart Leben und Gesinnungen, Stuttgart 1791–93; F.M. von Grimm Correspondance littéraire, philosophique et critique, 16 volumes, ed. M. Tourneux, Paris 1877–82; G. de Saint-Foix Les premiers pianistes parisiens. Jean Schobert, “La Revue musicale” III, 1922; H.Th. David J. Schobert als Sonatenkomponist, Borna–Kassel 1928; H.V.F. Somerset J. Schobert and His Influence on the Music of Mozart, “The Musical Times” LXXII, 1931; E. Reeser De klaviersonate met vioolbegeleiding in het Parijsche muziekleven ten tijde van Mozart, Rotterdam 1939 (includes sonatas Op. 1 No. 2 and Op. 17 No. 2); H.C. Turrentine J. Schobert and French Clavier Music from 1700 to the Revolution, 2 volumes, dissertation University of Iowa, 1962 (includes a thematic catalogue and sonatas Op. 7 No. 3, Op. 16 No. 2 and Op. 17 No. 4); W.S. Newman The Sonata in the Classic Era, Chapel Hill 1963, revised 2^nd ed. 1972; L.E.R. Rush The Harpsichord Concertos of J. Schobert, dissertation University of Northern Colorado, 1983 (includes editions of Harpsichord Concerto No. 3 and No. 4).