Franz Schubert : The Story of the Boy Who Wrote Beautiful Songs — Edition Insights

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In Category - Composers

Authors: Tapper, Thomas, 1864-1958 Digital Source: Project Gutenberg Gutenberg Release Year: 2011 First Publication Year: Not confirmed

Key Word: Composers -- Austria -- Biography -- Juvenile literature; Schubert, Franz, 1797-1828 -- Juvenile literature Target Reader: Readers of public-domain and historical texts

Book Edition: Project Gutenberg digital edition Book Language: en

Edition facts

Words 4,977

Reading time 22 min

Text sections 1

The catalog record for Franz Schubert : The Story of the Boy Who Wrote Beautiful Songs — Edition Insights provides practical reading context through 4,977 words, 22 min estimated reading time, and 1 detected text section.

The text analysis averages about 19.1 words per sentence, while the detected sections provide another way to judge how the source is divided.

Project Gutenberg metadata also associates the work with “Composers -- Austria -- Biography -- Juvenile literature,” connecting these edition facts with the source record’s subject description.

Source: Project Gutenberg record #35070

Thomas Tapper's 1916 biography for children presents Franz Schubert as a natural melodist, emphasizing his songs' heartfelt origin. The book is part of an interactive series where children cut, paste, and write their own story, blending factual narrative with hands-on activity.

Editorial Edition Score 4.4/5

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Description quality20 pts
Title & short description10 pts
Source metadata20 pts
Text length15 pts
Chapters / structure15 pts
EPUB file integrity20 pts

Total of 100 points, scaled to a 2.5-5.0 range. Editions with an empty description or a missing EPUB file are not scored.

Edition quality

File: pg35070

Read the Text

Czerny was born in the year 1794, and wrote many studies for the piano.

How much older was he than Franz Schubert?

Von Weber wrote operas and conducted them himself. He was born eleven years before Schubert.

Rossini was an Italian composer of operas, born in 1792, five years before Schubert. Schubert's life was so short, however, that Rossini lived forty years longer than the great song writer.

Donizetti was an Italian opera composer. One of his well-known operas was Lucia di Lammermoor. He was born in 1797, just as Schubert was.

Franz's father was a schoolmaster, and so was Franz himself for three years.

He taught the little children of Vienna their A-B-C's, and how to do sums. Of course, he helped them to learn to read.

Sometimes we find it quite hard to take one piano lesson or violin lesson a week.

But from the time when Franz Schubert was a very little boy he had lessons every week for violin, voice, and piano.

A little later he began to study harmony with a very famous man who knew Mozart. His name was ANTONIO SALIERI.

With so many lessons and with school work just as we have it, Franz must have been a very busy boy.

He was quite poor and often very hungry; but in spite of that he was always good natured and full of fun.

At eleven years of age he became a singer in the chapel of the Emperor. It was here that Salieri was director.

Franz sang in the choir until he was nearly seventeen. Then he became a schoolmaster, because, of course, he had to earn his living.

Wherever he was Franz was thinking music and composing it. Once he wrote a song called _The Serenade_ at a table outside an inn.

An artist has made a picture of this.

Once Schubert was seen by his boyhood friends busily writing a new song. So quick did he write that the ink was hardly dry on one sheet before the next one was done. He was writing the music to a beautiful fairy poem by the great German poet Goethe. The poem is called _The Erl-King_, and tells how the fairy Erl-King chases a father who is rushing on horseback with his dying child in his arms. Finally, just as the father reaches his courtyard the child dies. It is a beautiful song sung by the greatest singers.

Goethe, the great poet, is not known to have met Schubert. He paid little attention to his music.

Sometime you will learn about Joseph Haydn, who died in Vienna when little Franz was twelve years old. Papa Haydn, as he was called, was music master in a famous family called the Esterhazys.

Let us put a picture of Joseph Haydn here just to remember that he was an old man of seventy-seven when little Franz was a boy of twelve.

Well, Franz Schubert also lived for a time with the Esterhazy family. He was piano teacher to the children of Count Johann. Franz was then twenty-one years old.

In what year was he twenty-one?

A good friend of Schubert's was Michael Vogl. He was a famous singer, who did all he could to make Schubert's songs known.

They took little vacation trips together and were good companions. When you read more about this singer's friendship for Franz Schubert you will like him for being so kind to one who had very little pleasure in life.

He looks like a good friend even in a picture--do you not think so?

Once when Schubert and Vogl were enjoying a vacation tour in the mountains, Franz read Scott's _Lady of the Lake_, which was printed in the year 1810, when Schubert was thirteen years old.

Schubert set some of this poem to music. A fact you will remember when you read it in school.

Perhaps you could remember at the same time that Scott was a little older than Schubert and just one year younger than Beethoven.

Beethoven lived in Vienna at that time and Schubert with two friends went to see him. Beethoven was very deaf, and those who met him had to write down what they wanted to say with a large pencil, such as is used by carpenters. Schubert was so modest and nervous upon meeting the great master that he could not even write his replies.

Here is the picture of the way Beethoven looked as he walked down the street in those days:

Once when Schubert was very ill a friend sent him some books to read. They were _The Last of the Mohicans_, _The Spy_, _The Pilot_, and _The Pioneer_.

Now these books were written by the American author, whose name you must find for yourself.

Continue Reading →

Thomas Tapper's 1916 biography of Franz Schubert is not a conventional read. It belongs to the Child's Own Book of Great Musicians series, designed as a cut-and-paste activity book. Children are instructed to cut apart illustrations, paste them into numbered spaces, and later write their own story of the composer on blank pages. The book is then sewn together with a cord. This format makes the biography a physical project as much as a narrative.

The text itself is brief and direct, opening with the claim that Schubert 'was born with a spring of melody in his heart and a song on his lips.' It includes musical notation for songs like 'Trout' and 'Wandering,' inviting the child to listen or play. The book's structure—part factual account, part workbook—reflects an educational philosophy that learning happens through doing.

A Biography Built for Hands-On Learning

The book's physical design is its most distinctive feature. The instructions tell the child to 'cut apart' the sheet of illustrations, 'paste' each into its numbered space, and 'sew' the book through the center with a cord. This transforms the biography into a craft project. The child is not merely reading about Schubert but assembling the book itself.

The text is interspersed with musical excerpts—staff notation for 'Trout' and 'Wandering'—and direct questions: 'Listen. Play it or have someone play it to you. Is it not worth remembering all one's life?' These moments break the narrative flow, turning the page into a prompt for active engagement. The book ends with blank pages for the child to 'write his own story of the great musician, based on the facts and questions found on the previous pages.'

This approach suggests that the author, Thomas Tapper, valued ownership and participation. The child becomes a co-creator of the book, not just a reader. The biography is thus a vehicle for a larger pedagogical goal: making the facts of a composer's life personally meaningful through manual and reflective work.

The Melodic Heart of the Narrative

Tapper's prose consistently ties Schubert's identity to melody. The opening line declares he 'was born with a spring of melody in his heart and a song on his lips.' The text repeatedly asks the child to consider the beauty of specific songs: 'Can anyone make a melody more lovely than this?' from 'Trout,' and 'Is not this a jolly one?' from 'Wandering.'

The explanation for Schubert's global popularity is simple: 'just because he never let a song come from his lips that did not first come from his heart.' This phrase links the composer's emotional sincerity to his musical output. The narrative does not dwell on technical skill or historical context; instead, it presents Schubert as a natural, almost effortless creator of song.

The excerpts also include a description of Schubert's birthplace in Vienna—'a very simple house that looks quite old-fashioned'—with a bust and a sign. This detail grounds the abstract idea of 'melody' in a specific, humble location. The book's focus remains on the songs themselves, not on biography in a conventional sense. The child is encouraged to listen, play, and remember, making the music the primary subject.

Dates, Questions, and the Child's Own Story

The book's structure is built around interactive prompts. The child is told: 'Dates are easy to remember if we write them. So you must ask your teacher when Schubert was born and put in the date in the next sentence.' This turns a simple fact into a research task. The text does not provide the birth year directly; it expects the child to find it.

Similarly, the narrative includes blank spaces for the child to fill in. The sentence 'Franz Schubert was born in.......' is left incomplete. This pattern recurs throughout: the book supplies a framework, but the child supplies the specific information. The final blank pages are for 'his own story,' based on 'the facts and questions found on the previous pages.'

This method implies that learning is an active, social process. The child must ask the teacher, write, cut, paste, and eventually synthesize. The biography is not a finished product but a starting point. Tapper's series, which includes volumes on Bach, Beethoven, Mozart, and others, standardizes this approach across multiple composers, making each book part of a larger educational system.

Readers approaching this book should expect a hybrid experience: part biography, part craft kit. The text is minimal and direct, but the activities—cutting, pasting, writing—are central. To get the most from it, follow the instructions literally: listen to the musical excerpts, fill in the blanks, and write your own summary. The book's value lies not in its depth of biographical detail but in its method of making the child an active participant in learning about Schubert's life and songs.

There is a particular sweetness in watching a young Schubert find his song, as Tapper’s little book shows us, and it always reminds me of another composer, one who carried his own private ache into every letter. That quiet kinship of sorrow and melody lives on in The Life & Letters of Peter Ilich Tchaikovsky — Story, Setting & Ideas, where feeling, too, becomes music.