Mozart Music

Celebrating the music of Mozart

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Amadeus literally translating to “Loved by God” in German – was born on January 27.1756 and is among the most significant and enduringly popular composers of European classical music.

His enormous output, despite his short life, includes works that are widely acknowledged as pinnacles of symphonic, chamber piano, operatic and choral music. Many of his works are part of the standard concert repertory and are widely recognized as masterpieces of the classical style.

Family and early childhood years

Born in the city of Salzburg, Mozart was baptized the day after his birth at St.Rupert’s Cathedral. Mozart’s musical ability became apparent when he was about three years old. Mozart received intensive musical training from his father Leopold, who was one of Europe’s leading musical pedagogues, on instruction in clavier, violin, and organ.

The years of travel

Leopold realized that he could earn a substantial income by showcasing his son as a Wunderkind in the courts of Europe. Mozart soon gained fame as a musical prodigy capable of such feats as playing blindfolded or competently improvising at length on difficult passages.

An almost legendary tale occurred when he heard Gregorio Allegri’s Miserere once in performance in the Sistine Chapel, then wrote it out in its entirely from memory, only returning to correct minor errors. He thus produced the first illegal copy of this closely-guarded property of the Vatican.

From his earliest life, Mozart had a gift for imitating the music he heard. Since he traveled widely, he acquired a rare collection of experiences from which to create his unique compositional language. When he went to London as a child, he met J C Bach and heard his music. When he visited Paris, Mannheim, and Vienna, he heard the work of composers active there as well as the spectacular Mannheim Orchestra.

Mozart In Vienna

His marriage to Constanze Weber took place on August 4, 1782, against his father’s wishes. Although they had six children, only two survived infancy. Neither of these two married or had children.

The year 1782 was an auspicious one for Mozart’s career. His opera Die Entfiihrung aus dem Serail (“The Abduction from the Seragli”) was a great success and he began a series of concerts at which he premiered his own piano concertos as conductor and soloist.

It was in his early Viennese years when Joseph Haydn met Mozart, he was soon in awe of Mozart. He told Leopold,” Before God and as an honest man, I tell you that your son is the greatest composer known to me either in person or by name. he has taste, and what is more, the most profound knowledge of composition.”

Mozart spent 1786 in Vienna in an apartment which my be visited today at Domgasse 5 behind St Stephen’s Cathedral. It was here that Mozart composed Le Noze di Figaro. He followed this in 1787, with one of his greatest works, Don Giovanni.

It was there on December 5,1791, that Mozart died while he was working on his final composition, the Requiem. His death record listed “hitziges Frieselfieber” (“severe military fever”), a description that does not suffice to identify the cause as it would be diagnosed in modern medicine.

According to a popular legend, Mozart was penniless and forgotten when he died, and was buried in a pauper’s grave. In fact, though he was no longer as fashionable in Vienna as before, he continued to have a well-paid job at the curt and received substantial commissions from parts of Europe.

Influence

Many important composers since Mozart’s time have worshipped him or at least been in awe of him.

Rossini averred, “He is the only musician who had as much knowledge as genius and as much genius as knowledge.”

Beethoven’s admiration for Mozart is clear: he used Mozart as a model a number of times, as in his A-Major Quartet from Op 18, which makes careful use of Mozart’s own Quartet in A K 464.

On his own part, after the only meeting between the two composers, Mozart noted that Beethoven would “give the world something to talk about.”