Franz Schubert was an Austrian composer who bridged the Classical and Romantic eras with his songs (lieder) and chamber music, which were notable for their melody and harmony. Symphony No. 9 in C Major (The Great; 1828), Symphony in B Minor (Unfinished; 1822), masses, and piano pieces are among his other works. Franz Theodor Schubert, Schubert's father, was a schoolteacher, and his mother, Elisabeth Vietz, was a domestic servant at the time of their marriage. Franz was their fourth child to live. Ignaz, Karl, and Ferdinand were his older siblings, and Maria Theresa was his younger sister. Franz Schubert, the older, was a man of honor who had founded a thriving academy. The family was talented, and the boy Franz played the viola in a string quartet performed in the house. His father and brother Ignaz provided the basis for his musical education, and he went on to study organ and music theory with the parish church organist later. In 1808, he received a scholarship that enabled him to join the imperial court chapel choir and attend the Stadtkonvikt, Vienna's main boarding school for commoners, where his tutors included the imperial court organist Wenzel Ruzicka and, later, the composer Antonio Salieri, who was at the height of his popularity at the time. In the students' ensemble, Schubert played the violin, was soon elevated to the chief and conducted Ruzicka's absence. He also went to chorus school and practiced chamber music and piano with his classmates.

According to his classmates, Schubert was reserved and hesitant to reveal his early compositions. A long Fantasia for Piano Duet, a poem, numerous orchestral overtures, assorted chamber compositions, and three string quartets was among his earlier works. Der Spiegelritter (The Looking-glass Knight), an incomplete operetta based on August von Kotzebue's text, dates from those years. His friends' interest and motivation overcame his shyness, and Salieri finally noticed his work. Schubert's voice cracked in 1812, and he dropped out of education, but he managed to study privately with Salieri for at least another three years. Around this period, he enrolled in a teacher's training college in Vienna and began working as an assistant in his father's school in 1814. He was turned down for active duty due to his small size, but he worked as a schoolmaster until 1818.

Between 1813 and 1815, he published many compositions that are notable for their diversity and inherent value. They are the creations of a young genius who, though still immature, exudes style, originality, and creativity. There were three full-scale masses and three symphonies among the five-string quartets. While at the training academy, he completed his first full-length musical, Des Teufels Lustschloss (The Devil's Palace of Desire). However, at the time, songwriting was his primary and all-consuming passion. He first put to music a poem by Goethe, "Gretchen is Spinnrade" ("Gretchen at the Spinning Wheel"), from Faust, on October 19, 1814; it was his 30th composition, and in this masterpiece he produced the German lied in one stroke (art song). The following year saw the development of over 140 new albums.