This then was the birthplace of the “most poetical composer who ever lived,” as Liszt said of him; the man who created over six hundred songs, eight symphonies, operas, masses, chamber works and much beautiful piano music, and yet only lived to be thirty-one.  It is almost unbelievable.  Let us get a nearer view of this remarkable musician.

His father kept a school here; there were five children, four boys and a girl to provide for, and as there was nothing to depend on but the school-master’s pay, it is easy to see the family was in poor circumstances, though the wife managed most carefully to make ends meet.  They were a very devoted family altogether.  Little Franz early showed a decided fondness for music, and tried to pick out bits of tunes of his own by ear on an old dilapidated piano the family possessed.  He made friends with a young apprentice who took him sometimes to a piano wareroom in the city, where he was allowed to play his little tunes on a fine piano.

When Franz was seven he began to have music lessons at home, the father teaching him violin and his big brother Ignaz, the piano.  Franz, in his eagerness to learn soon outstripped his home teachers, and told them he could go on alone.  It was then decided he should go to the parish choir master, Holzer, to learn piano, violin, organ, singing and thorough bass.  Soon Holzer was astonished at the boy’s progress.  “Whenever I begin to teach him anything I find he knows it already; I never had such a pupil before.”  By the time Franz was eleven, his voice had come out so well that he was given the place of head soprano in the parish church, and played violin solos whenever they occurred in the service.  He had even begun at home to compose and write down little piano pieces and songs.  The parents considered that this remarkable talent should be cultivated further, if possible, in order that it might assist the slender purse of the family.  There was a choir school, called the Convict, which trained its boys for the Imperial Chapel.  If Franz could prove his ability to enter this school, he would receive free education in return for his services.

One fine morning in October, 1808, Franz in his homespun grey suit, spectacles shielding his bright, near-sighted eyes, his bushy black hair covered by an old fashioned hat, presented himself for examination by the Court Capellmeister and the singing master.  The other boys jeered at his odd appearance, but he kept his good humor.  When his turn came to sing, after solving all the problems given, his singing of the trial pieces was so astonishing that he was passed in at once, and ordered to put on the uniform of the imperial choristers.