Franz Peter Schubert (January 31, 1797 –November 19, 1828) was an Austrian composer of the late Classical and early Romantic eras.

Schubert’s gift for music was evident from an early age. His father gave him his first violin lessons and his older brother gave him piano lessons, but Schubert soon exceeded their abilities. In 1808, at the age of eleven, he became a pupil at the Stadtkonvikt school, where he became acquainted with the orchestral music of Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven. He left the Stadtkonvikt at the end of 1813, and returned home to live with his father, where he began studying to become a schoolteacher; despite this, he continued his studies in composition with Antonio Salieri.

One of Schubert’s most famous lieder (art songs), Der Erlkönig, as a shadow puppet animation, with English translation:

In 1814, Schubert met a young soprano named Therese Grob, daughter of a local silk manufacturer, and wrote several of his liturgical works (including a “Salve Regina” and a “Tantum Ergo”) for her; she was also a soloist in the premiere of his Mass No. 1 (D. 105) in September 1814. Schubert wanted to marry her, but was hindered by the harsh marriage-consent law of 1815 requiring an aspiring bridegroom to show he had the means to support a family.

During the early 1820s, Schubert was part of a close-knit circle of artists and students who had social gatherings together that became known as Schubertiads.

Four of Schubert’s brilliant piano impromptus, opus 90, played by Alfred Brendel:

In 1821, Schubert was granted admission to the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde as a performing member, which helped establish his reputation in Vienna. He gave a concert of his own works to critical acclaim in March 1828, his only such concert in his lifetime. He died eight months later at the age of 31, the cause officially attributed to typhoid fever, but believed by some historians to be syphilis.

Schubert was remarkably prolific, writing over 1,500 works in his short career. The largest number of his compositions are songs for solo voice and piano (roughly 630). He completed seven symphonies, and a large body of music for solo piano.

One of Schubert’s most famous symphonies is No. 8, known as The Unfinished Symphony:

Information for this article came from Wikipedia.