Franz Schubert's Childhood
Franz Schubert was born in Vienna, Austria on January 31, 1797. Of Schubert's father's fourteen children, only five survived and the rest died at infancy. His first teacher was his father at the age of five. A year later, he enrolled at his father's Himmelpfortgrund school. Around that time, his formal musical education began. His brother Ignaz gave him piano lessons while his father continued giving him lessons on the violin. Schubert began receiving lessons from Michael Holzer, the church orginist and choirmaster at the age of seven. He also played the viola in the family string quartet. While he played the viola, his father played the cello and his brothers, Ferdinand and Ignaz, played the violin. Schubert wrote lots of the peices they played together. In 1804, he first caught the eye of Antono Salieri, Vienna's leading musical authority, because of Schubert's singing voice. Salieri began giving Schubert private lessons in theory and musical compisition.