Schubert
FRANZ PETER, Austrian composer; born in Vienna, Austria, Jan. 31, 1797. He belonged to a family distinguished for their musical talents, and from his earliest years showed a strong bent to musical studies and composition. At seven years of age he was the pupil of Michael Holzer; became a chorister in the imperial chapel, and the pupil of the court organist and of Salieri. He studied the works of Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven, and gave lessons in music for a living. The number and variety of his compositions is extraordinary. The most admired is his "Songs," and among them "The Erl King," and "Ave Maria" are perhaps the best known. But he wrote also operas, sonatas, symphonies, overtures, cantatas, six masses, etc. He left numerous works unpublished at the time of his death.
Schubert spent almost his whole life at Vienna, and died there Nov. 19, 1828.