Josef von Spaun's lament in the 1860s that the first biography of his dear friend contained “too little light and too much shadow” might be echoed regarding every narrative account of Schubert's life that has appeared during the intervening century and a half. (Otto Erich Deutsch's “objective” collections of documents prove the exception.) Reasons why Schubert remains elusive, beginning with the simple lack of documentation and extending to the belated discovery of so many compositions, have been touched on in the preceding chapters. While biographers may be frustrated by Schubert's supposedly eventless existence, that has certainly not discouraged novelists, operetta composers, and film-makers from turning its raw material into poignant fantasy. Certainly the absence of a compelling life narrative and of a multidimensional character has precisely encouraged such fictive appropriations. Much of the public still dearly embraces the bittersweet, distorted, and trivial image created long ago.

I am continually surprised at how confidently some people make assertions about Schubert's personality, as if they harbored secret, privileged information. His friends often referred to “our Schubert,” and a comparable possessiveness remains to this day among those who never, of course, met the man. Love of Schubert's music triggers this proprietary and protective attitude; so too, perhaps, does the fear that acknowledging repressed forces in his life might in some way reflect on the loving listener as well. The unusually intimate nature of music deepens such an engagement. One reason why the representation of Schubert in operettas and movies has been so successful, as well as insidiously seductive, is the abundant presence of his own compositions. The aura of authenticity drawn from his art, no matter how mangled the music usually becomes when put on stage or screen, transcends the banality of the life story being offered.

The astonishing emotional and generic range of Schubert's music, the lack of documentary evidence, and conflicting reports about his personality all help to sustain a wide variety of images.