Schubert for kids: his life, his music, and what to play first

Franz Schubert was an Austrian composer who lived from 1797 to 1828. He wrote more than 600 songs for voice and piano, and each one tells a small story. He died at 31, and most of the world had not yet heard his music. The best first piece for a child is “The Trout,” a song about a fish in a clear stream that takes about two minutes.

Quick facts

• Born: 1797, in Vienna, Austria
• Died: 1828, in Vienna, Austria
• Era: Romantic
• Played: piano, violin, and viola
• Known for: more than 600 songs, the “Unfinished” Symphony, and the “Trout” Quintet

The life in short

Schubert’s father ran a school, and the family played music together at home. His father taught him violin, and an older brother taught him piano.

At eleven, he won a place in the choir of the emperor’s chapel. The place came with a seat at a good school. He played in the school orchestra and began to write music.

When his voice changed, he left the choir and taught small children at his father’s school. He did not enjoy it. He wrote music before class, after class, and sometimes during it. At 17 and 18 he wrote two songs that singers still perform today.

Schubert left teaching and lived among a circle of friends who were poets, painters, and singers. They held evening parties to hear his new songs. He was short and round, and his friends gave him a nickname that means little mushroom.

He gave only one public concert of his own music, in the last year of his life. He died a few months later. Many of his large works were found and played years after his death.

What the music sounds like

Schubert had a gift for tunes. They sound simple, and they are easy to sing back.

In his songs, the piano does more than keep the singer company. It paints the scene. It can be a brook, a spinning wheel, or the hooves of a horse.

His music often slips from happy to sad and back again within a few bars. Ask your child to listen for the moment the mood changes.

Four pieces to play first

“The Trout.” The piano ripples and leaps like water while the singer tells of a fish darting in a stream. Schubert liked the tune so much that he used it again in a piece for piano and four string instruments, the “Trout” Quintet.

Marche militaire No. 1. A bright march for two people at one piano. Children can march around the room to it.

“Ave Maria.” A slow, calm song over rolling piano notes. It suits the end of the day.

Symphony No. 8, “Unfinished,” first movement. Low strings begin in a murmur. Then the cellos play one of Schubert’s warmest tunes. A symphony has four movements as a rule, and this one has two. Nobody knows for certain why he stopped.

A note for parents: his song “The Erl-King” is a thrilling ghost story with a galloping piano part, and it ends with the death of a child. Hear it yourself before you play it for a young listener.

Things to do together

Be the brook. Play “The Trout” and wiggle your fingers when the piano ripples. Ask what the fish is doing.

Song story. Pick any Schubert song and listen with no translation. Ask your child what the song could be about, based on the piano part alone. Then look up the story.

Two at one piano. If you have a keyboard, sit side by side and play any two notes each, in turn, to the beat of the march. Music for two players at one piano is called a duet.

Print and play

Print the Schubert fact sheet. It has the story, three pieces, and room to write and draw. Find him on the composer timeline. He lived in the same city as Beethoven and carried a torch at Beethoven’s funeral.

Next, read Beethoven for kids, or meet another composer of the same years in Felix Mendelssohn for kids. For all 24 composers by era, see classical composers for kids.