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⁾