SCHUBERT, FRANZ PETER Austrian composer, was born on Jan. 31, 1797, in the Himmelpfortgrund, a small suburb of Vienna. His father, Franz, son of a Moravian peasant, was a parish schoolmaster; his mother, Elizabeth Fitz, had before her marriage been cook in a Viennese family. Of their 14 children nine died in infancy. The father, a man of worth and integrity, possessed some reputation as a teacher, and his school, in the Lichtenthal, was well attended. He was also a fair musician.
At the age of five Schubert began to receive regular instruction from his father. At seven he was placed under the charge of Michael Holzer, the Kapellmeister of the Lichtenthal Church. Holzer's lessons seem to have consisted mainly in expressions of admiration, and the boy gained more from a friendly joiner's apprentice, who used to take him to a neighbouring pianoforte warehouse and give him the opportunity of practising on a better instrument than the poor home could afford.
In Oct. 18o8 he was received as a scholar at the Convict, which, under Salieri's direction, had become the chief music-school of Vienna, and which had the special office of training the choristers for the Court Chapel. Here he remained until nearly 17, profiting little by the direct instruction, which was almost as careless as that given to Haydn at St. Stephen's, but much by the practices of the school orchestra, and by association with congenial comrades. Many of the most devoted friends of his after life were among his schoolfellows : Spaun and Stadler and Holzapfel, and a score of others who helped him out of their slender pocket-money, bought him music-paper which he could not buy for himself, and gave him loyal support and encouragement.
Meanwhile his genius was already showing itself in composition. A pianoforte fantasia, 32 close-written pages, is dated April 8– May 1, 181o: then followed in 1811, three long vocal pieces written upon a plan which Zumsteeg had popularized, together with a "quintet-overture," a string quartet, a second pianoforte fantasia and a number of songs. His essay in chamber-music is noticeable, since we learn that at the time a regular quartet-party was established at his home "on Sundays and holidays," in which his two brothers played the violin, his father the violoncello and Franz himself the viola. It was the first germ of that amateur orchestra for which, in later years, many of his compositions were written. During the remainder of his stay at the Convict he
wrote a good deal more chamber-music, several songs, some mis cellaneous pieces for the pianoforte and, among his more ambitious efforts, a Kyrie and Salve Regina, an octet for wind instruments—said to commemorate the death of his mother, which took place in 1812—a cantata, words and music, for his father's name-day in 1813, and the closing work of his school-life, his first symphony.
At the end of 1813 he left the Convict, and, to avoid military service, entered his father's school as teacher of the lowest class. For over two years he endured the drudgery of the work, which, we are told, he performed with very indifferent success. There were, however, other interests to compensate. He took pri vate lessons from Salieri, who annoyed him with accusations of plagiarism from Haydn and Mozart, but who did more for his training than any of his other teachers; he occupied every moment of leisure with rapid and voluminous composition. His first opera —Des Teufels Lustschloss—and his first Mass—in F major— were both written in 1814, and to the same year belong three string quartets, many smaller instrumental pieces, the first move ment of the symphony in B flat and 17 songs, including such masterpieces as Der Taucher and Gretchen am Spinnrade. But even this activity is far outpaced by that of the annus mirabilis 1815. In this year, despite his school-work, his lessons with Salieri and the many distractions of Viennese life, he produced an amount of music the record of which is almost incredible. The sym phony in B flat was finished, and a third, in D major, added soon afterwards. Of church music there appeared two Masses, in G and B flat, the former written in six days, a new Dona nobis for the Mass in F, a Stabat Mater and a Salve Regina. Opera was repre sented by no fewer than five works, of which three were completed —Der Vierjdhrige Posten, Fernando and Claudine von Villabella —and two, Adrast and Die beiden Freunde von Salamanca, appar ently left unfinished. Besides these the list includes a string quar tet in G minor, four sonatas and several smaller compositions for piano, and, by way of climax, 146 songs, some of which are of considerable length, and of which eight are dated Oct. 15, and seven Oct. 19.