Italian

Switzerland is a small country in the middle of Europe, famous for its beautiful scenery, its unique banking facilities, and the excellence of its manufactured products, especially watches and clocks. The country is a federal republic and is officially known as the Swiss confederation. Its total area is 15,940 square miles, and the population in 1995 was 6,905,000. It is bounded on the north by Germany, on the east by Austria, on the south by Italy, and on the west by France. The capital city is Berne.
     The people of Switzerland fall into four distinct groups, each speaking a separate language and generally following different religious practices: the German Swiss, the French Swiss, the Italian Swiss, and the Rhaeto-Roman Swiss. However, the good will that exists among them enables them to live and work together. The Swiss are known all over the world for their devotion to work, their efficiency, and heir keen business sense. They love to travel, and many of them live outside of Switzerland without giving up their Swiss nationality. Now over 160,000 of them are living abroad, mainly in France, Germany, Italy, and the United States.
     There are four official languages in Switzerland. German, in the form of the Swiss dialect,’ is spoken by about 72 percent of the population, and is spreading into the French-speaking areas. French, the next most widely-spoken language, is used by about 20 percent, mostly in the neighborhood of Lake Geneva in the southwestern part of the country and along the French border. Italian is spoken by 6 percent of the population, almost exclusively in the southeast, next to Italy. Finally about 1 percent of the population speak Romansch, a language derived from Latin, like Italian and French, but different from them.

The Austrian composer, Schubert, was born in Vienna. His father, a schoolmaster, was his first music teacher. When he was 11, he was fortunate in being chosen to one of the Vienna Boy’s singing group. There he received a free general education as well as music teaching. He began to compose in these years, mostly instrumental or orchestral compositions, but also a few songs. He spent more time in covering sheets of paper with these compositions than at ’his other studies.
      After he left the singing group, Schubert became a schoolmaster to avoid being sent into the army, and he taught at his father’s school for 3 years. When only 17, he wrote his first great song, and during the next 2 years he wrote many of his finest songs. After his 3 years’ teaching, he lived with various friends, all as penniless as himself, composing all the time, sometimes writing eight songs in a day, and even sleeping in his spectacles in case he might have an idea for a song during the night. Although he hated teaching, he earned some money by giving piano lessons.
     Schubert never became widely famous outside Vienna during his life. It was late in his short life, and only after much persuasion, that publishers began to print and sell some of his compositions; and Schubert received very little money for these. He had been able to be happy and free to compose, though extremely poor. But a cloud of sadness hung over in his late years. In 1827 he wrote his song-cycle for voice and piano. "The Winter Journey" and its sadness reveals his own state of mind. In the autumn of 1828 he fell iii for the second time in his life and died. Almost all his last words were of Beethoven, whom he loved and admired above all other composers. He was buried beside him.
     Although Schubert died when only 32, he wrote a great amount of music. He had little academic training but a very sure musical instinct. Much of his finest work he never heard performed.