Life and Works of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart - child prodigy, musical genius, and arguably, the greatest composer.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Austrian composer of the Classical era, was born in Salzburg, Austria, on January 27, 1756. His parents were Leopold Mozart, a brilliant musician, and mother, Maria Anna Pertl. Of the seven children, only Mozart and his older sister, Maria Anna or "Nannerl" as family called her, survived infancy. Nannerl and Wolfgang showed early musical promise.

Early Training, Signs of Genius, and First European Tour

His father, Leopold Mozart, himself a composer and an excellent teacher, was one of the greatest violinist in his time. He was a court musician of the Salzburg archbishop, and author of a well-known book on violin-playing. Taught by his father, Wolfgang Mozart was an infant prodigy. He began to play the harpsichord at the age of three, compose at the age of five, and wrote his first minuet at six. At seven, he went on his first European tour with his family.

Mozart the Boy and the Teenager

The family lived for years touring and playing over Europe. Before his ninth birthday, Mozart composed his first symphony, wrote his first oratorio at age eleven, and his first opera the following year. His teenage years were productive years as he forged more travels, compositions and early performances.

Mozart the Man

As a young man, while in one of his European travels in Mannheim, Mozart fell in love with a young soprano, Aloysia Weber, a cousin of composer Carl Maria von Weber. His love was not reciprocated. A year later, in 1778, his beloved mother died in Paris. With double heartache of his mother and first love, he returned to Salzburg. He found work at the court but unhappy with its restrictions. Mozart left Salzburg for Vienna in 1781, and decided to go solo, a freelance musician.

Marital Life and Friendship with Haydn

He married Constanze Weber, Aloysia's younger sister, on August 4, 1782. The same year he also met the older Joseph Haydn he called 'Papa Haydn,' and a lasting friendship developed. Haydn's works had a strong influence on Wolfgang Mozart. In gratitude, Mozart dedicated six string quartets to him, the six Haydn Quartets.

Mozart and his wife Constanze Weber seemingly always lacked money, probably because he also gambled. He didn't have a good health, and his life was filled with difficulties. Yet we rarely see evidence of these hardships in his music, but rather, we hear a lively disposition and graceful spirit, credit to his mother.

Film Amadeus

The play and film Amadeus certainly advertised Mozart, but immensely misrepresented his life and work. The myth depicting him as simple-minded with a miraculous gift of music is far from the complicated truth.

Last years and Requiem

While working on his "Requiem," he died at the young age of 35, on December 5, 1791. He believed even as he wrote it that it would be his own requiem. The opening theme of the "Kyrie" is one used by both Bach and Handel. This is not surprising, as the influence of these Baroque masters, especially the music of Johann Sebastian Bach, was deep and lasting on Mozart.

Musical Genius

Mozart was a comprehensively gifted musician. He belonged to the classical period of the second half of the 18th century, the "Age of Enlightenment", the complex movement involving the revolt of the spirit. Towards the end of his life Mozart turned from formal religion to Freemasonry. This period was also the "Age of Elegance."

This musical genius, from age three until he died at thirty-five, scarcely had a day's rest. His thoughts were always occupied with music. No other prodigy has approached Mozart's ability to combine a musical imagination with a total mastery of style and form, a perfect blending of the French elegance, German knowledge and Italian art.

The Viennese Classics

Arguably, in the era of Viennese classicism there are masters of the highest caliber like Haydn, Gluck, Mozart, Beethoven and Schubert, to name a few, (the last two as transition composers to the Romantic era), but no other classical music composer has ever written in the great range of genres at the same time excelled in all of them as Mozart. A prolific composer, Mozart's major works include 21 piano concertos, 24 string quartets, 35 violin sonatas, 5 violin concertos, concertos for clarinet and other wind instruments, chamber music, masses, and more than 45 symphonies.

Mozart's Milestones

• Gifted Child Prodigy
• First European Tour
• Mozart's Stage Works: Age 11
• Mozart, the Teenager
• Mozart Moves to Vienna: 1781 (Freelancer)

Mozart's Four Famous Operas

• Le Nozze di Figaro (The Marriage of Figaro)
• Così fan tutte
• Die Zauberflöte (The Magic Flute)
• Don Giovanni

Mozart's Other Most Popular Works

• Clarinet Concerto in A
• Piano Concerto No.21 in C includes the famous "Elvira Madigan"
• Eine Kleine Nachtmusik
• Exsultate, Jubilate
• Clarinet Quintet in A
• Sinfonia Concertante for Violin, Viola and Orchestra
• Piano Concerto No.23 in A
• Requiem
• Symphony No.41 in C "Jupiter"
• Laudate Dominum
• Symphony No.40 in G minor
• Flute and Harp Concerto
• list goes on...

Sources:

Constanze, Mozart's Beloved by Agnes Selby (1999)

Mozart's Letter Mozart's Life, Selected Letters by Robert Spaethling (2000)

Mozart's Librettists

Mozart, His Character, His Work by Alfred Einstein (1945)

The Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, ed. by Stanley Sadie (2000)

The Mozart Compendum by H.C. Robbins Landon (1990)