Franz Schubert

Born January 31, 1797 in Vienna.

Despite his short life, he was a very prolific composer.
-600 Lieder
-10 symphonies, although not all were complete. The
Unfinished Symphony is his most famous.
-Liturgical music, operas, incidental music and a large
body of chamber and solo piano music.
Ranked among the greatest Romantic composers.
His father began teaching him basic violin at the age of
six.
In 1813 he met Therese Grob, a young soprano. He fell
in love with her and wrote several of his liturgical works
for her. He could not prove that he had the means to
support her and a family, so the two could not wed.
His piece Gretchen am Spinnrade is said to have
sparked the Romantic period.
One of his most famous pieces, Der Erlknig, written for
piano and voice, includes five characters; the narrator,
a father, his son, the elf king and the horse (portrayed
by the piano). The father and his son are riding through
the woods on horseback. The son tells his father that he
sees mystical beings in the woods that his father
cannot see. He explains all these things away with
natural occurrences. The boy shrieks because the elf
king has attacked him. The father rushes home faster
on the horse, but it is too late. The boy is dead .
Schubert died on November 19, 1828 in Vienna at the
age of 31.