Busoni did not become an innovator all at once. The beginnings of his activity took place under very different artistic ideals. Let us look first at this time—the childhood, adolescence, and youth of our hero.

In the north of Italy, in Tuscany, near Florence lies a little town called Empoli. There, on April 1, 1866, the future great pianist was born. He was the only son of the Italian clarinetist Ferdinando Busoni and the pianist Anna Weiss, who was Italian on her mother's side and German on her father's. The boy's parents concertized and led a wandering life, which the child, too, was obliged to share. Eleven months after birth he was taken away from his native town, and, traveling from place to place, in 1869, found himself in Paris where the family planned to settle. However, the Franco-Prussian War that began in 1870 forced Busoni's parents to abandon this intention. The boy's father set off on an extended concert tour of Italy, while Ferruccio and his mother settled in Trieste in the home of his grandfather, Giuseppe Weiss.

In Trieste—an Italian city, then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire—Busoni's musical education began. His abilities, as is usual among great musicians, manifested themselves early. By four years of age he already played the piano by ear. The first lessons of piano and musicianship were given by his mother, and soon the pupil could perform small four-hand pieces of Diabelli with his teacher.