Composer Franz Peter Schubert

Short-answer box

Composer Franz Peter Schubert was an Austrian composer who lived from 31 January 1797 to 19 November 1828. He spent almost his whole short life in and around Vienna, and he bridged the Classical and Romantic periods in music. He is best known for his songs, which are called lieder in German, and for his chamber music, symphonies, and piano works.

Schubert died at the age of 31, yet he left more than 600 songs. Among his best known works are “Gretchen am Spinnrade,” “Erlkönig,” “Ave Maria,” the Piano Quintet known as the Trout Quintet, the Symphony in B minor known as the Unfinished Symphony, the Symphony in C major known as the Great Symphony, the String Quartet in D minor known as Death and the Maiden, the song cycles Die schöne Müllerin and Winterreise, and the group of late songs known as Schwanengesang.

During his lifetime, Schubert was admired mainly by a circle of friends and supporters in Vienna. After his death, other composers discovered, performed, and published much more of his music, and his reputation grew into the major standing he holds today.

Who was composer Franz Peter Schubert?

If you search for composer Franz Peter Schubert, you are usually looking for more than a list of dates. You want to know why a man who died so young still fills concert programs, why singers still learn his songs, and why one symphony is still called unfinished almost two hundred years later.

The short answer is that Schubert changed what a song could do. Before him, a German art song was often a pleasant tune fitted to a poem. In Schubert’s hands, the piano part became part of the story. It could spin like a wheel, ripple like water, gallop like a horse, or fall silent at a moment of dread. The voice carried the words, but the piano carried the scene, the weather, and the feeling underneath the words.

Schubert did the same kind of work on a larger scale in chamber music and symphonies. His melodies are easy to remember, but they turn into unexpected keys and repeat with small changes that alter their meaning. That combination of singable melody and bold harmony is why reference works describe him as a bridge between the Classical world of Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven and the Romantic world that followed.

He was also astonishingly productive, writing songs, symphonies, masses, operas, chamber music, and piano works, often quickly and sometimes several songs in a day. Much of it was not published or widely performed while he lived, so his story is two stories at once: a short working life in Vienna, and a long afterlife in which the music slowly found its audience.

Early life in Vienna

Franz Peter Schubert was born on 31 January 1797 in Himmelpfortgrund, near Vienna. His father, Franz Theodor Schubert, was a schoolmaster who had built up a flourishing school. His mother, Elisabeth, whose maiden name was Vietz, had been in domestic service at the time of her marriage. The family was musical. String quartets were played at home, with the young Franz playing the viola.

Schubert received the foundations of his music education from his father and from his elder brother Ignaz. He continued later with organ playing and music theory under the parish church organist. In 1808, he won a scholarship that gave him a place in the imperial court chapel choir and an education at the Stadtkonvikt, the principal boarding school for commoners in Vienna. There his tutors included Wenzel Ruzicka, the imperial court organist, and later the composer Antonio Salieri, who was then at the height of his fame.

At school, Schubert played violin in the students orchestra, was quickly promoted to leader, and conducted when Ruzicka was absent. His early works included a Fantasia for Piano Duet, a song, several orchestral overtures, chamber pieces, and three string quartets.

After his voice broke, Schubert left the school, but he continued his studies privately with Salieri for at least another three years. During that period he entered a teachers training college in Vienna, and in the autumn of 1814 he became an assistant in his father’s school. He was rejected for military service because of his short stature, and he continued as a schoolmaster until 1818. Teaching gave him a living, but it was never the work he wanted. Composition was already taking over his life.

The teacher years and the breakthrough songs

The years from 1813 to 1815 show how fast Schubert was developing. Besides five string quartets, he wrote three full scale masses and three symphonies in that period. His first full length opera, Des Teufels Lustschloss, or The Devil’s Palace of Desire, was finished while he was at the training college. But song composition was his chief, absorbing interest.

On 19 October 1814, he first set to music a poem by Goethe, “Gretchen am Spinnrade,” or “Gretchen at the Spinning Wheel,” from Faust. It was his 30th song, and in it he created at one stroke the German lied as later composers understood it. The piano part does not merely accompany the singer. It turns, hurries, and pauses like the spinning wheel itself, while Gretchen’s thoughts run from longing to confusion and back again. The following year brought the composition of more than 140 songs.

He was only 17 when he wrote “Gretchen am Spinnrade,” and only 18 when he composed the dramatic song “Erlkönig,” also to a poem by Goethe. In “Erlkönig,” a father rides through the night with his dying child while a supernatural voice calls to the boy. Schubert gives each character a different vocal register and a different rhythmic character, and the piano gallops underneath the whole scene until the ride ends in silence. It remains one of the most famous German songs ever written, and it is still a test piece for singers and pianists because it demands storytelling, stamina, and control at the same time.

Schubert’s friends were central to this breakthrough. Josef von Spanun introduced him in 1814 to the poet Johann Mayrhofer. Franz von Schober visited Schubert at the schoolhouse, encouraged him to break free from his teaching duties, and later persuaded him to apply for leave of absence. In December 1816, despite his father’s reluctance, Schubert obtained the leave and spent eight months living with Schober in the home of Schober’s widowed mother. Early in 1817, Schober brought the baritone Johann Michael Vogl to meet Schubert. Vogl’s singing of Schubert’s songs then became popular in Viennese drawing rooms, and that private success mattered more to Schubert’s reputation during his lifetime than any large public concert.

The songs of this period include “Ganymed” and “Der Wanderer.” There were also Symphonies No. 4, the Tragic, and No. 5, both written in 1816, and a fourth mass in C major, also from 1816.

What is a lied, and why did Schubert matter so much to it?

A lied is a German art song, usually for voice and piano, setting a poem to music. The plural is lieder. The form existed before Schubert, and composers such as Zelter had already written strophic lieder, in which each verse of a poem is sung to the same music. Schubert did not invent that pattern, and a careful history should not credit him with creating the whole genre from nothing.

What Schubert truly created was a body of lieder that showed how fully music could follow a poem’s changing moods. In his best songs, the melody is born from the words, and the harmony and modulation follow the shape of that melody. The external details of the poet’s scene, natural, domestic, or mythical, prompted vivid images in the accompaniment: the spinning wheel, the ripple of water, or the shimmering robe of spring. Later songs deepened and enriched those departures without abandoning them.

Schubert set to music 72 poems by Goethe, 47 by Mayrhofer, 46 by Schiller, 44 by Wilhelm Müller, and 6 by Heine, according to the counts given in Baker’s biographical entry. He worked across the German poetic tradition, returning again and again to poems about longing, wandering, nature, faith, and loss.

For a first time listener, the point is simpler. A Schubert song is short, often only a few minutes long. You do not need music theory to hear a wheel turning or a winter traveler walking away. You only need to listen to what the piano is doing while the singer sings.

The song cycles: Die schöne Müllerin and Winterreise

In 1823, Schubert completed his first large scale song cycle, Die schöne Müllerin, or The Fair Maid of the Mill, setting poems by Wilhelm Müller. A song cycle is a group of songs designed to be heard together, following a connected story or emotional journey. In Die schöne Müllerin, a young miller falls in love, hopes, doubts, and finally despairs beside a brook that seems to speak to him throughout the cycle. The brook is not background decoration. It returns in song after song, changing its character as the young man’s hopes change.

In 1827, Schubert wrote another remarkable song cycle, Winterreise, or Winter Journey, also setting texts by Müller. Winterreise is darker and more solitary. A rejected lover leaves town in winter and walks through snow, past a frozen stream, a graveyard, and a village, meeting figures who seem to mirror his own state of mind: a hurdy gurdy player, a crow, and a signpost pointing to a road from which no one returns. The cycle ends not with resolution but with a question, as the traveler turns toward the old musician and wonders whether he should join him.

Together, the two cycles are widely considered among the pinnacles of lieder. Die schöne Müllerin begins in hope, even though it ends in grief. Winterreise begins in cold and stays there, yet it finds tenderness and strange calm inside that cold. Singers still perform both cycles complete, and audiences still debate what the final songs mean.

From the same final period date the songs later grouped together as Schwanengesang, or Swan Song. The name was given after Schubert’s death, and it does not mean that he planned them as a single cycle. Among them are “Ständchen,” or Serenade, and “Der Doppelgänger,” in which a man sees his own double outside the house of a lost love.

Chamber music: the Trout, Death and the Maiden, and the String Quintet

Chamber music is music for a small group of players, usually one player per part, performed in a room rather than a concert hall. Schubert wrote string quartets, piano trios, an octet, and works for unusual combinations, and his best chamber works combine songlike melody with large scale structure.

The Piano Quintet in A major, D. 667, known as the Trout Quintet, was written in 1819. Its fourth movement is a set of variations on Schubert’s song Die Forelle, or The Trout. The quintet uses an unusual combination: piano, violin, viola, cello, and double bass. The effect is warm and sociable, and the variations let each instrument take a turn with the trout melody, as if the song were being passed around a table. It is an ideal first piece for a listener who likes Schubert’s songs and wants to hear how he builds a longer work from a tune.

The String Quartet in D minor, D. 810, known as Death and the Maiden, was written in 1824. Its second movement is a set of variations on Schubert’s song Der Tod und das Mädchen, or Death and the Maiden. The quartet is far more intense than the Trout Quintet. Its opening is driven and restless, and the variations move from solemn stillness to fierce energy. The title comes from the song, not from a program Schubert imposed on the quartet, but the connection is real: the song imagines a young woman pleading with Death, and Death answering her with strange gentleness.

The String Quintet in C major, D. 956, written in 1828, is often ranked among Schubert’s greatest works. Schubert added a second cello to the usual string quartet, which gives the work a deep, singing bass line and a remarkable range of color. The slow movement is famous for its stillness, and the whole work moves between expansiveness and sudden darkness in a way that feels characteristic of Schubert’s last year. It was not performed in public during his lifetime, which makes its later fame another example of how much of Schubert’s reputation was built after his death.

The symphonies: why the Unfinished is unfinished, and why the Great is great

Schubert’s symphonies cause confusion for a simple reason: their numbering depends on how you count unfinished drafts. Catalogues list his last completed symphony as No. 9, but there is also a symphony known as No. 7 that exists as a full draft in four movements, of which only the first 110 bars are fully scored, and there are sketches for a further symphony from the last months of his life. Several completions of those drafts exist, made by later musicians. For a general listener, the safest way to think about it is this: Schubert wrote a series of symphonies from his teens onward, several were completed, and some important drafts were left unfinished.

Two symphonies stand above the rest in fame. The Symphony in B minor, D. 759, known as the Unfinished Symphony, was begun in 1822. Only two movements are known to exist, with portions of a third movement, a scherzo, in sketches. What prevented Schubert from finishing it remains a mystery. Speculation has been plentiful, but no explanation has settled the question, especially since Schubert was usually careful to complete a work before moving to another composition. He also did not mention the symphony to his friends, which adds to the puzzle.

The two completed movements stand on their own. The first opens with low, quiet strings and a restless theme that never quite settles. The second is calmer, but shadows remain underneath its songlike surface.

The Symphony No. 9 in C major, D. 944, known as the Great Symphony, was written in 1825 and 1826 according to the thematic catalogue. It is long, and that length was once a subject of comment. Robert Schumann, who helped bring the symphony to wider attention, admired what he called its heavenly length. The work opens with a horn call that returns in different forms, and it builds its large scale from melody and repetition rather than from short, hammered motifs of the Beethoven kind. If the Unfinished Symphony shows Schubert’s gift for atmosphere and unease, the Great Symphony shows his ambition to write on the largest orchestral scale.

Piano music, sacred music, and the stage

Schubert’s piano music is sometimes described as songs without words. His Moments musicaux and Impromptus are short piano pieces that sing in the same way his songs do, without a text. He also reused song material in instrumental works, as in the Wanderer Fantasia, based on Der Wanderer, and in the Trout Quintet.

Schubert also wrote sacred music throughout his life, including masses. Between 1813 and 1816 he composed three full scale masses, and a fourth mass, in C major, followed in 1816. His Mass in A flat major, D. 678, was completed in 1822. Sacred music was part of his training and part of Viennese musical life, and it shows another side of Schubert: a composer who could write for choir and orchestra as well as for a single voice and piano.

The stage was where Schubert struggled most. He wrote operas, singspiels, and incidental music for plays, but those works rarely succeeded in his lifetime. Later stage works included Die Zwillingsbrüder, performed at the Kärnthnertortheater in Vienna on 14 June 1820, and Die Zauberharfe, heard at the Theater an der Wien on 19 August 1820. The incidental music for the play Rosamunde, Fürstin von Zypern, by Helmina von Chézy, was produced at the Theater an der Wien on 20 December 1823. It contains music that later became popular in concert, although the play itself did not succeed.

The opera Fierrabras, D. 796, written in 1823, was not staged until 1897 in Karlsruhe, according to the works list. That delay sums up his stage career: beautiful vocal music, but librettos and opportunities that did not match his gifts.

Vienna, friends, and the final year

Schubert’s working life cannot be understood without his friends. He lived for much of his adult life in lodgings with friends or with family, and he relied on their support, their introductions, and their homes as performance spaces. Private musical evenings at which his songs and chamber works were performed became known as Schubertiaden. At those gatherings, Schubert sometimes played the piano himself, sometimes sang his songs accompanying himself at the keyboard, and sometimes heard Vogl or another singer perform them.

Those evenings explain why Schubert’s fame during his lifetime was real but limited. A song heard in a drawing room could become the talk of Viennese musical circles without reaching a large public concert. He published some songs, but he never built Beethoven’s kind of public career or held a secure court or church post.

His reputation was growing, however. The first public performance of one of his works, the Overture in C major in the Italian style, took place on 1 March 1818 in Vienna. In June 1818, he became music master to the two daughters of Johann, Count Esterházy, at Zseliz in Hungary, a summer marked by piano duets, dances, songs, and the Deutsche Trauermesse, or German Requiem. He returned to the family as a tutor in the summer of 1824.

On 26 March 1828, Schubert presented in Vienna a public concert of his own works. It was a rare event in his career: a full concert devoted to his music, performed to critical acclaim. From that final year date several masterpieces, including the two books of songs collectively known as Schwanengesang, the String Quintet in C major, and the last piano sonatas. Schubert’s health was frail, and he moved to the lodgings of his brother Ferdinand. On the afternoon of 19 November 1828, he died in Vienna at the age of 31.

The cause of his death has been debated ever since. The official diagnosis at the time was typhoid fever. Britannica’s summary repeats that account, saying that Schubert developed typhoid fever in October 1828 and died on 19 November 1828. Other theories have been proposed, including the tertiary stage of syphilis. Baker’s entry notes that there is no incontrovertible evidence that Schubert died of syphilis, and it refers readers to a detailed reexamination of his illness in the Musical Times in January 1980. A careful article should therefore present the official diagnosis as the contemporary record, note that other theories exist, and avoid stating any single disputed cause as settled fact.

Schubert was buried, by his own request, next to Beethoven, in the village cemetery of Währing. In 1872, a memorial was erected in Vienna’s Stadtpark. In 1888, both graves were moved to the Zentralfriedhof, the central cemetery in Vienna.

How Schubert was rediscovered after his death

The recognition of Schubert’s greatness was astonishingly slow. Fully 40 years elapsed before the discovery of the manuscript of the Unfinished Symphony, according to Baker’s entry, and posthumous performances were the rule for his symphony premieres. Much of his music had to wait for editors, performers, and publishers to catch up.

Robert Schumann was among the first major composers to salute Schubert’s symphonies with enthusiasm. He admired their length, their melody, and their originality, and he helped bring the Great C major Symphony to wider attention. Felix Mendelssohn, Franz Liszt, Johannes Brahms, and other 19th century composers also discovered and championed Schubert’s works in the decades after his death. Through their performances, editions, and advocacy, Schubert moved from a Viennese circle’s favorite to a central figure in the history of Western classical music.

That rediscovery also changed how his songs were understood, as singers learned whole cycles and pianists treated accompaniments as equal partners. Musicologists catalogue his works by Deutsch numbers, the D numbers used here, based on Otto Deutsch’s thematic catalogue, first published in 1951 with a revised edition in 1978.

Frequently asked questions

Who was composer Franz Peter Schubert?

Franz Peter Schubert was an Austrian composer who lived from 1797 to 1828. He bridged the Classical and Romantic periods, and he is best known for more than 600 songs, or lieder, as well as chamber music, symphonies, and piano works. He spent almost his whole life in and around Vienna.

When was Schubert born and when did he die?

Schubert was born on 31 January 1797 in Himmelpfortgrund, near Vienna, and he died on 19 November 1828 in Vienna. He was 31 years old at his death.

What is Schubert most famous for?

He is most famous for “Gretchen am Spinnrade,” “Erlkönig,” and “Ave Maria,” for the song cycles Die schöne Müllerin and Winterreise, and for the Trout Quintet, the Unfinished Symphony, the Great C major Symphony, the Death and the Maiden Quartet, and the String Quintet in C major.

What is a lied?

A lied is a German art song for voice and piano, setting a poem to music. The plural is lieder. Schubert transformed the form by making the piano part an equal partner in storytelling, so that the accompaniment carries scenery, weather, and emotion as well as harmony.

Why is the Unfinished Symphony unfinished?

The Symphony in B minor, D. 759, begun in 1822, exists in two completed movements, with portions of a third movement in sketches. No settled explanation exists for why Schubert did not finish it. The two completed movements are performed as a complete work in concert.

How many symphonies did Schubert write?

The answer depends on how unfinished drafts are counted. Catalogues list his last completed symphony as No. 9, the Great C major Symphony, but there are also drafts and sketches for other symphonies, including a No. 7 that exists as a full draft of which only the first 110 bars are fully scored.

What caused Schubert’s death?

The official diagnosis at the time was typhoid fever. Other theories have been proposed, including syphilis, but Baker’s biographical entry notes that there is no incontrovertible evidence that Schubert died of syphilis. The date and place of death, 19 November 1828 in Vienna, are not in doubt.

Did Schubert know Beethoven?

Schubert lived in Vienna at the same time as Beethoven, whom he admired, and he was buried by his own request next to Beethoven. He did not enjoy Beethoven’s kind of public career, and much of his music was discovered and championed only after both men had died.

What should I listen to first by Schubert?

Start with “Gretchen am Spinnrade,” “Erlkönig,” and “Ave Maria.” Then try the Trout Quintet and the Unfinished Symphony. If you want a longer journey, listen to Die schöne Müllerin or Winterreise complete, and then to the String Quintet in C major.

Where can I learn more about Schubert?

Start with the sources listed below, especially the Britannica biography and Baker’s biographical entry, which give the life, the works list, and the Deutsch catalogue numbers used for Schubert’s compositions.

Sources & references

• Encyclopaedia Britannica, "Franz Schubert," biography by Maurice J. E. Brown, fact checked by Britannica Editors, last updated 28 August 2026. Used for birth and death dates and place, family background, Stadtkonvikt education and tutors, teaching career, Gretchen am Spinnrade date and song count, Vogl meeting, Esterházy post, and the typhoid fever account of his death.
• Baker's Biographical Dictionary of Musicians, entry "Schubert, Franz (Peter)," via Encyclopedia.com. Used for Stadtkonvikt entry in 1808, ages for Gretchen am Spinnrade and Erlkönig, song counts for 1815, first public performance date, stage work dates, Unfinished Symphony details, song cycle dates, 1828 concert date, poet setting counts, symphony numbering discussion, rediscovery timeline, and the note that there is no incontrovertible evidence that Schubert died of syphilis.
• Visiting Vienna, 'Schubert's grave in Vienna' and 'The Schubert statue in Vienna': originally buried next to Beethoven in Währing, moved to the Zentralfriedhof in 1888, Stadtpark memorial 1872.
• Otto Deutsch, Schubert: Thematic Catalogue of All His Works in Chronological Order, 1951, revised edition 1978, as summarized in the Baker's works list. Used for Deutsch numbers and composition dates for the Trout Quintet, Death and the Maiden Quartet, String Quintet, Unfinished Symphony, Great Symphony, Mass in A flat major, Fierrabras, and Rosamunde.