The Thammasat University Libraries have acquired through a donation an important work about German music. Franz Schubert: the Complete Songs is in three volumes. It was written by Graham Johnson, a British pianist who has recorded over 600 songs by Schubert (1797 – 1828) with different singers. Schubert produced a lot of other music, including symphonies, quartets, and quintets, even though he died when he was only 31. Thai listeners may prefer instrumental works which are not better enjoyed by those who have some understanding of the German language. Schubert’s songs are set to poems and other texts, mostly in German. For those willing to make the effort, Franz Schubert: the Complete Songs usefully offers song texts and translations into English. The TU Libraries also own other studies about Schubert and a small selection of his compositions on record, which may be listened to at the Rewat Buddhinan Media Center on the U2 level of the Pridi Banomyong Library, Tha Prachan Campus. Some people who are hesitant or uncertain about Western classical music claim that it tends to put them to sleep. Others say they get confused by the different names of composers. A student from Italy once told me that his favorite composer was Schubermann. He was confusing the names of Schubert and Schumann, another German composer. Schubert is worth getting to know because his music is very fresh and expresses enjoyment of life. Among his many songs is The Trout, the name for a number of species of freshwater fish. These fish are noted for their ability to leap into the air to catch flies for food. They also jump out of the water when they are migrating. Imitating this natural habit, Schubert wrote lots of merry jumping music for his song. As usual, it helps to read the translated text of the song to better appreciate its message. It turns out the song contains an early animal rights message. The person singing admires the energetic jumping of the fish, only to see a fisherman nearby. The fisherman muddies the waters of the river, so the fish cannot see the lure, and gets hooked, much to the annoyance of the singer. This amusing song later inspired another work by Schubert, the Trout Quintet. It was written for written for piano, violin, viola, cello and double bass, and uses the melody of the song The Trout. Many other works by Schubert are influenced by nature. His String Quintet for two violins, viola, and two cellos, sounds to some listeners like a gently flowing stream. Other works by Schubert are famous, such as the “Unfinished” Symphony, which he began but never completed. Others may prefer the symphonies he did finish, such as his Ninth Symphony. The Ninth Symphony was Schubert’s last, as he died at age 31. In addition to dying young, Schubert was a short, overweight, shy person who suffered from bad health, and his sensitive feelings are expressed in his music in ways that many people find moving. His early death added to the mistaken belief known as the Curse of the Ninth. This idea formed because such composers as Ludwig van Beethoven and Gustav Mahler died after producing a ninth symphony, so it was considered that there must be some problem with ninth symphonies. As usual with such legends, this one does not stand up to careful examination. In fact, many composers have written more than nine symphonies, so if Thai students know anyone who is planning to write music as a career, it is safe to encourage them to compose as many symphonies as they wish.

Thailand and Schubert

Last year Saran Suebsantiwongse, a Ph.D. Student in South Asian Studies at Cambridge University, paid special tribute to Schubert. Khun Saran received a bachelor of music degree from the Manhattan School of Music and continued studies at the Royal College of Music in London. He received a Young Thai Musicians Scholarship Fund awarded by HRH Princess Galyani Vadhana. He has performed the roles of Papageno, Donner and Gugliemo with the Bangkok Opera, Plutone with Thailand Philharmonic Orchestra, and Fiorello and Baron Duphol with the Singapore Lyric Opera, among other performances. In 2007, he founded NUNi Productions, an opera/performing arts company striving to create international standard performances in Thailand and offer professional performance opportunities for young Thai artists. With NUNi Productions, Saran sang the roles of Count Almaviva, Gugliemo, Enrico, Macheath, and Aeneas. Khun Saran’s special skills as a singer include a resonant voice and a fine understanding of French language pronunciation. He has also appeared in concert, including Mozart’s Requiem, Haydn’s Mass in Time of War and Tippett’s Child of Our Time with the Bangkok Opera and Handel’s Samson with Bangkok Music Society, and was baritone soloist in Carl Orff’s Carmina Burana with Shrewsbury International Choir at Chulalongkorn University. As lecturer on voice at the Faculty of Music at Silpakorn University, he studied Sanskrit at Silpakorn, before starting the Ph.D. program at Cambridge. Earlier this year, he gave a song recital at the King’s College Music Society, an historic and much respected center of musical life in Cambridge. In January, he performed in an opera by Benjamin Britten and one UK critic was also impressed by Khun Saran’s intense acting.

With all these accomplishments as a music lover and performer, it is natural that Khun Saran enjoys the music of Schubert. Since he is also a scholar of Sanskrit, it makes sense that he decided to adapt for performance Schubert’s Sakuntala, about Shakuntala, the wife of Dushyanta and the mother of Emperor Bharat, whose story is told in the Mahabharata. The most celebrated theatrical work about this story is The Sign of Shakuntala, a Sanskrit play by Kālidāsa, who lived around the year 500 and is generally considered the greatest poet and dramatist in the Sanskrit language. Khun Saran added parts of Kālidāsa’s play to Schubert’s incomplete work, making a new fusion work, performed in the Small Hall of the Thailand Cultural Centre, a performing arts venue in Huai Khwang District, Bangkok. As The Nation commented:

Thais know Sakuntala from King Vajiravudh’s literary work. The King, who was educated in Oxford, came across the English version of Sakuntala while he was studying there and recreated the work in Thai text with his masterly literary skill. There is also a beautiful Thai song, “Sakuntala”, inspired by the beauty of Sakuntala and the greatness of the drama. Now Saran, a well-trained opera singer, has put together a complete production of “Sakuntala” that blends Kalidasa’s Sanskrit drama, Schubert’s opera and King Vajiravudh’s Thai text into a three-way cultural mixture within a unique setting. But what makes this production truly innovative is the Thai dialogue and spectacular traditional Indian dance. Saran is a frequent traveller to India where he has come to learn and appreciate Sanskrit, a language of depth and high culture. His production, he says, is his personal tribute to the Sanskrit high arts.

More Schubert in the Kingdom

Thais have had the opportunity of hearing Schubert’s music on a less grand scale as well. Last year at the Polo Bar, Dusit Thani Hua Hin Hotel, the Pro Musica Orchestra directed by Leo Phillips, a UK musician based in Bangkok, performed transcriptions by Luigi Piovano and Gustav Mahler of two beloved works by Schubert, “Death and the Maiden” and the “Arpeggione” Sonata. The same concert was given at Anantara Siam Bangkok Hotel, Ratchadamri Road. Also last year at the Hyatt Regency Hua Hin, Schubert’s music was performed by Mathias Boegner, a German/Swiss violin professor at China Conservatory Beijing and the Thai pianist, Aree Kunapongkul. Hua Huin seems to be developing into a center of Schubert appreciation in the Kingdom.

(All images courtesy of Wikimedia Commons)