Franz Peter Schubert was born in January 1797 near Vienna. Franz, a Moravian educator, and his wife, Elisabeth, had 12 children. Franz Sr., a cellist, taught his son the fundamentals of music.¹⁾

When Franz was just seven years old, the composer Salieri (of not really killing Mozart renown) noticed him as a prodigy. Franz was taken away to the Imperial Seminary, where he sang in the choir, played the violin in the orchestra, and studied music theory with Salieri himself. ²⁾

Salieri was a wonderful instructor, and the young Schubert was creating his first string quartets, songs, and piano pieces under his tutelage. ³⁾

At the age of 17, Schubert composed his first masterwork, a setting of Goethe's 'Gretchen am Spinnrade' (Gretchen at the Spinning Wheel). Already, the composer began incorporating the piano section into the tune. The accompaniment is a spinning wheel that speeds up and slows down in reaction to the words.⁴⁾

Schubert composed about 20,000 bars of music in 1815 alone, including nine religious compositions, a symphony, and over 150 songs, including eight in one day in October.⁵⁾

Schubert began both a legal degree and the composition of his Symphony No.5 as a 19-year-old in Vienna. This may have been the composition that led the composer to abandon his studies in law. It's the ideal introduction to his music: light, breezy, full of young vigor, and jam-packed with melodies. ⁶⁾

Schubert loved to have a good time, and he was known for his musical gatherings, known as 'Schubertiads', where he would assemble with friends and followers to perform some of his new works.⁷⁾

Schubert's small size, combined with his fairly fat figure, gave him the moniker 'Schwammerl' (little mushroom).⁸⁾

Schubert made no secret of his admiration for Mozart's music. “Mozart, Mozart!” “What many impressions of a happier, better existence hast thou engraved onto our minds, immortal Mozart!” he wrote.⁹⁾

Its name comes from the fourth movement, which is a collection of variations on an older Schubert song called The Trout. The song was written to warn young ladies from being “caught” by “angling” young males. However, Schubert chose not to set the poem's concluding words, choosing to focus on creating the image of a trout in the water and the response to it being caught by a fisherman.¹⁰⁾

Schubert's mournful string quartets served as a precursor to the impassioned music of Brahms and even Richard Strauss in the impending Romantic age.¹¹⁾

Schubert's Unfinished Symphony was discovered more than three decades after the composer's death, when an elderly man claimed to have received a work by Schubert 43 years before. The missing fourth movement of the symphony is thought to be the Entr'acte from Schubert's incidental music for the play Rosamunde.¹²⁾

Few Schubert aficionados would argue that his ninth symphony is worthy of the title “Great.” The title was provided to set it apart from another of his symphonies, which is likewise in the key of C. (known as the Little C). The composer did mention in a March 1824 letter that he was prepared to create 'a great symphony'. ¹³⁾

After Schubert's death, Robert Schumann discovered the Great Symphony in a chest. He said, “The treasures that lay here made me shiver with joy.” According to Schumann, the symphony “transports us into a realm where I cannot recollect ever having gone before”. ¹⁴⁾

The melody for the Ave Maria was set by Franz Schubert to texts from Sir Walter Scott's The Lady of the Lake. The phrase 'Ave Maria' did appear in 'Ellen's Third Song,' but only as a reference to the prayer. From Pavarotti to Perry Como, a wide spectrum of musicians have recorded Schubert's melody.¹⁵⁾