Franz Schubert Reading Comprehension Lesson

Vienna’s Boy Composer

Franz Peter Schubert was one of the most productive composers of all time. He grew up and composed during the Romantic period of music. In his short life, Schubert wrote nearly a thousand compositions. He was born into a large family in Vienna, Austria in 1797. His father was a teacher, and the family lived in a cramped three-room apartment that is now a museum. Schubert’s father and older brother taught him to play the violin and piano. It was not long before Franz Peter could play both instruments better than his teachers could.

When Schubert was eleven years old, he was sent to a boarding school where it was assumed that he would become a teacher like his father. In those days, most boys followed in their father’s footsteps. In 1813, he began teaching at his father’s school. But Schubert did not really want to be a teacher. He believed his only purpose in life was to compose music, and that is exactly what he decided to do after only a short time as a teacher. Schubert never cared much about becoming famous or making money.

Schubert is most famous for his “art songs.” An art song is a short song composed for one singer accompanied by a piano. The words usually come from a poem, and the song paints a musical picture of the subject that is as important as the words themselves. Of the nearly 1,000 compositions Schubert wrote, some 600 of them were art songs. Each one captures a feeling or scene with extraordinary delicacy — gardens, storms, shepherds, lost lovers — in only two or three minutes of music.

The Unfinished Symphony and a Brief Life

Another famous piece by Schubert is his Symphony No. 8 in B minor. A symphony is a complex piece of music composed for an entire orchestra. Most symphonies have three or four parts called movements. Schubert’s Symphony No. 8 became known as the “Unfinished Symphony,” because only the first two movements were ever completed. It is not clear why Schubert never finished this symphony, since he wrote the first two parts six years before he died. Some scholars argue that the Unfinished Symphony was only meant to have two movements. Whatever the case, it is one of the most beloved compositions Schubert ever wrote.

Schubert lived and composed in the cultural capital of Europe. Vienna was a special place like no other. It was known for its coffee shops, dances, and of course its music. Coffee became a craze in Vienna, and people gathered in coffee shops to discuss politics, art, and literature. Schubert and his friends often gathered for casual evenings of music called “Schubertiades,” where Schubert would play his newest pieces on the piano for friends. The Vienna of Schubert’s time was also home to Beethoven, whom Schubert admired tremendously.

Sadly, Schubert’s life was very short. He died in 1828 at the age of just thirty-one, possibly from typhoid fever. At his own request, he was buried near Beethoven, the composer he had idolized his whole life. Despite his short life, Schubert created an enormous body of work that included symphonies, operas, masses, piano sonatas, chamber music, and hundreds of songs. His music remains popular almost two hundred years later, performed by orchestras and singers all over the world.

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