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Wolfgang Mozart

A prolific artist, Austrian composer Wolfgang Mozart created a string of operas, concertos, symphonies and sonatas that profoundly shaped classical music.

(1756-1791)

Who Was Wolfgang Mozart?

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was a musician capable of playing multiple instruments who started playing in public at the age of 6. Over the years, Mozart aligned himself with a variety of European venues and patrons, composing hundreds of works that included sonatas, symphonies, masses, chamber music, concertos and operas, marked by vivid emotion and sophisticated textures.

Central Europe in the mid-18th century was going through a period of transition. The remnants of the Holy Roman Empire had divided into small semi-self-governing principalities. The result was competing rivalries between these municipalities for identity and recognition. Political leadership of small city-states like Salzburg, Vienna, and Prague was in the hands of the aristocracy and their wealth would commission artists and musicians to amuse, inspire, and entertain. The music of the Renaissance and Baroque periods was transitioning toward more full-bodied compositions with complex instrumentation. The small city-state of Salzburg would be the birthplace of one of the most talented and prodigious musical composers of all time.

Born on January 27, 1756, in Salzburg, Austria, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s was the sole-surviving son of Leopold and Maria Pertl Mozart. Leopold was a successful composer, violinist, and assistant concert master at the Salzburg court. Wolfgang’s mother, Anna Maria Pertl, was born to a middle class family of local community leaders. His only sister was Maria Anna (nicknamed “Nannerl”). With their father’s encouragement and guidance, they both were introduced to music at an early age. Leopold started Nannerl on keyboard when she was seven, as three-year old Wolfgang looked on. Mimicking her playing, Wolfgang quickly began to show a strong understanding of chords, tonality, and tempo. Soon, he too was being tutored by his father.

Leopold was a devoted and task-oriented teacher to both his children. He made the lessons fun, but also insisted on a strong work ethic and perfection. Fortunately, both children excelled well in these areas. Recognizing their special talents, Leopold devoted much of his time to their education in music as well as other subjects. Wolfgang soon showed signs of excelling beyond his father’s teachings with an early composition at age five and demonstrating outstanding ability on harpsichord and the violin. He would soon go on to play the piano, organ and viola.

In 1762, Mozart’s father took Nannerl, now age eleven, and Wolfgang, age six to the court of Bavaria in Munich in what was to become the first of several European "tours." The siblings traveled to the courts of Paris, London, The Hague, and Zurich performing as child prodigies. Mozart met a number of accomplished musicians and became familiar with their works. Particularity important was his meeting with Johann Christian Bach (Johann Sebastian Bach's youngest son) in London who had a strong influence on Mozart. The trips were long and often arduous, traveling in primitive conditions and waiting for invitations and reimbursements from the nobility. Frequently, Mozart and other members of his family fell seriously ill and had to limit their performance schedule.

Budding Young Composer

In December 1769, Mozart, then age 13, and his father departed from Salzburg for Italy, leaving his mother and sister at home. It seems that by this time Nannerl’s professional music career was over. She was nearing marriageable age and according to the custom of the time, she was no longer permitted to show her artistic talent in public. The Italian outing was longer than the others (1769-1771) as Leopold wanted to display his son’s abilities as a performer and composer to as many new audiences as possible. While in Rome, Mozart heard Gregorio Allegri’s Miserere performed once in the Sistine Chapel. He wrote out the entire score from memory, returning only to correct a few minor errors. During this time Mozart also wrote a new opera, Mitridate, re di Ponto for the court of Milan. Other commissions followed and in subsequent trips to Italy, Mozart wrote two other operas, Ascanio in Alba (1771) and Lucio Silla (1772).

Mozart and his father returned from their last stay in Italy in March 1773. His father’s benefactor, Archbishop von Schrattenbach had died and was succeeded by Hieronymus von Colleredo. Upon their return, the new archbishop appointed young Mozart as assistant concertmaster with a small salary. During this time, young Mozart had the opportunity to work in several different musical genres composing symphonies, string quartets, sonatas and serenades and a few operas. He developed a passion for violin concertos producing what came to be the only five he wrote. In 1776, he turned his efforts toward piano concertos, culminating in the Piano Concerto Number 9 in E flat major in early 1777. Mozart had just turned 21.

Despite his success with the compositions, Mozart was growing discontent with his position as assistant concert master and the confining environment of Salzburg. He was ambitious and believed he could do more somewhere else. Archbishop von Colloredo was becoming impatient with the young genius’s complaining and immature attitude. In August 1777, Mozart set out on a trip to find more prosperous employment. The archbishop wouldn’t give Leopold permission to travel, so Anna Maria accompanied Wolfgang on his quest to the cities of Mannheim, Paris and Munich. There were several employment positions that initially proved promising, but all eventually fell through. He began to run out of funds and had to pawn several valuable personal items to pay traveling and living expenses. The lowest point of the trip was when his mother fell ill and died on July 3, 1778. After hearing the news of his wife’s death, Leopold negotiated a better post for his son as court organist in Salzburg and Wolfgang returned soon after.

Making it in Vienna

Back in Salzburg in 1779, Mozart produced a series of church works, including the Coronation Mass. He also composed another opera for Munich, Idomeneo in 1781. In March of that year, Mozart was summoned to Vienna by Archbishop von Colloredo, who was attending the accession of Joseph II to the Austrian throne. The Archbishop’s cool reception toward Mozart offended him. He was treated as a mere servant, quartered with the help, and forbidden from performing before the Emperor for a fee equal to half his yearly salary in Salzburg. A quarrel ensued and Mozart offered to resign his post. The Archbishop refused at first, but then relented with an abrupt dismissal and physical removal from the Archbishop’s presence. Mozart decided to settle in Vienna as a freelance performer and composer and for a time lived with friends at the home of Fridolin Weber.

Mozart quickly found work in Vienna, taking on pupils, writing music for publication, and playing in several concerts. He also began writing an opera Die Entführung aus dem Serail (The Abduction from the Seraglio). In the summer of 1781, it was rumored that Mozart was contemplating marriage to Fridolin Weber’s daughter, Constanze. Knowing his father would disapprove of the marriage and the interruption in his career, young Mozart quickly wrote his father denying any idea of marriage. But by December, he was asking for his father’s blessings. While it’s known that Leopold disapproved, what is not known is the discussion between father and son as Leopold’s letters were said to be destroyed by Constanze. However, later correspondence from Mozart indicated that he and his father disagreed considerably on this matter. He was in love with Constanze and the marriage was being strongly encouraged by her mother, so in some sense, he felt committed. The couple was finally married on August 4, 1782. In the meantime, Leopold did finally consent to the marriage. Constanze and Mozart had six children, though only two survived infancy, Karl Thomas and Franz Xaver.

As 1782 turned to 1783, Mozart became enthralled with the work of Bach and George Frederic Handel and this, in turn, resulted in several compositions in the Baroque style and influenced much of his later compositions, such as passages in Die Zauberflote (The Magic Flute) and the finale of Symphony Number 41. During this time, Mozart met Joseph Haydn and the two composers became admiring friends. When Haydn visited Vienna, they sometimes performed impromptu concerts with string quartets. Between 1782 and 1785 Mozart wrote six quartets dedicated to Haydn.

European Fame

The opera Die Entführung enjoyed immediate and continuing success and bolstered Mozart’s name and talent throughout Europe. With the substantial returns from concerts and publishing, he and Constanze enjoyed a lavish lifestyle. They lived in one of the more exclusive apartment buildings of Vienna, sent their son, Karl Thomas, to an expensive boarding school, kept servants, and maintained a busy social life. In 1783, Mozart and Constanze traveled to Salzburg to visit his father and sister. The visit was somewhat cool, as Leopold was still a reluctant father-in-law and Nannerl was a dutiful daughter. But the stay promoted Mozart to begin writing a mass in C Minor, of which only the first two sections, "Kyrie" and "Gloria," were completed. In 1784, Mozart became a Freemason, a fraternal order focused on charitable work, moral uprightness, and the development of fraternal friendship. Mozart was well regarded in the Freemason community, attending meetings and being involved in various functions. Freemasonry also became a strong influence in Mozart’s music.

From 1782 to 1785, Mozart divided his time between self-produced concerts as soloist, presenting three to four new piano concertos in each season. Theater space for rent in Vienna was sometimes hard to come by, so Mozart booked himself in unconventional venues such as large rooms in apartment buildings and ballrooms of expensive restaurants. The year 1784, proved the most prolific in Mozart’s performance life. During one five-week period, he appeared in 22 concerts, including five he produced and performed as the soloist. In a typical concert, he would play a selection of existing and improvisational pieces and his various piano concertos. Other times he would conduct performances of his symphonies. The concerts were very well attended as Mozart enjoyed a unique connection with his audiences who were, in the words of Mozart biographer Maynard Solomon, “given the opportunity of witnessing the transformation and perfection of a major musical genre.” During this time, Mozart also began to keep a catalog of his own music, perhaps indicating an awareness of his place in musical history.

By the mid-1780s, Wolfgang and Constanze Mozart’s extravagant lifestyle was beginning to take its toll. Despite his success as a pianist and composer, Mozart was falling into serious financial difficulties. Mozart associated himself with aristocratic Europeans and felt he should live like one. He figured that the best way to attain a more stable and lucrative income would be through court appointment. However, this wouldn’t be easy with the court’s musical preference bent toward Italian composers and the influence of Kapellmeister Antonio Salieri. Mozart’s relationship with Salieri has been the subject of speculation and legend. Letters written between Mozart and his father, Leopold, indicate that the two felt a rivalry for and mistrust of the Italian musicians in general and Salieri in particular. Decades after Mozart’s death, rumors spread that Salieri had poisoned him. This rumor was made famous in 20th-century playwright Peter Shaffer’s Amadeus and in the 1984 film of the same name by director Milos Foreman. But in truth, there is no basis for this speculation. Though both composers were often in contention for the same job and public attention, there is little evidence that their relationship was anything beyond a typical professional rivalry. Both admired each other’s work and at one point even collaborated on a cantata for voice and piano called Per la recuperate salute di Ophelia.

Toward the end of 1785, Mozart met the librettist Lorenzo Da Ponte, a Venetian composer and poet and together they collaborated on the opera The Marriage of Figaro . It received a successful premiere in Vienna in 1786 and was even more warmly received in Prague later that year. This triumph led to a second collaboration with Da Ponte on the opera Don Giovanni which premiered in 1787 to high acclaim in Prague. Noted for their musical complexity, the two operas are among Mozart’s most important works and are mainstays in operatic repertoire today. Both compositions feature the wicked nobleman, though Figaro is presented more in comedy and portrays strong social tension. Perhaps the central achievement of both operas lies in their ensembles with their close link between music and dramatic meaning.

Later Years

In December 1787, Emperor Joseph II appointed Mozart as his "chamber composer," a post that had opened up with the death of Gluck. The gesture was as much an honor bestowed on Mozart as it was an incentive to keep the esteemed composer from leaving Vienna for greener pastures. It was a part-time appointment with low pay, but it required Mozart only to compose dances for the annual balls. The modest income was a welcome windfall for Mozart, who was struggling with debt, and provided him the freedom to explore more of his personal musical ambitions.

Toward the end of the 1780s, Mozart’s fortunes began to grow worse. He was performing less and his income shrank. Austria was at war and both the affluence of the nation and the ability of the aristocracy to support the arts had declined. By mid-1788, Mozart moved his family from central Vienna to the suburb of Alsergrund, for what would seem to be a way of reducing living costs. But in reality, his family expenses remained high and the new dwelling only provided more room. Mozart began to borrow money from friends, though he was almost always able to promptly repay when a commission or concert came his way. During this time he wrote his last three symphonies and the last of the three Da Ponte operas, Cosi Fan Tutte , which premiered in 1790. During this time, Mozart ventured long distances from Vienna to Leipzig, Berlin, and Frankfurt, and other German cities hoping to revive his once great success and the family’s financial situation but did neither. The two-year period of 1788-1789 was a low point for Mozart, experiencing in his own words "black thoughts" and deep depression. Historians believe he may have had some form of bipolar disorder, which might explain the periods of hysteria coupled with spells of hectic creativity.

Between 1790 and 1791, now in his mid-thirties, Mozart went through a period of great music productivity and personal healing. Some of his most admired works -- the opera The Magic Flute , the final piano concerto in B-flat, the Clarinet Concerto in A major, and the unfinished Requiem to name a few -- were written during this time. Mozart was able to revive much of his public notoriety with repeated performances of his works. His financial situation began to improve as wealthy patrons in Hungary and Amsterdam pledged annuities in return for occasional compositions. From this turn of fortune, he was able to pay off many of his debts.

However, during this time both Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s mental and physical health was deteriorating. In September 1791, he was in Prague for the premiere of the opera La Clemenza di Tito , which he was commissioned to produce for the coronation of Leopold II as King of Bohemia. Mozart recovered briefly to conduct the Prague premiere of The Magic Flute , but fell deeper into illness in November and was confined to bed. Constanze and her sister Sophie came to his side to help nurse him back to health, but Mozart was mentally preoccupied with finishing Requiem, and their efforts were in vain.

Death and Legacy

Mozart died on December 5, 1791, at age 35. The cause of death is uncertain, due to the limits of postmortem diagnosis. Officially, the record lists the cause as severe miliary fever, referring to a skin rash that looks like millet seeds. Since then, many hypotheses have circulated regarding Mozart's death. Some have attributed it to rheumatic fever, a disease he suffered from repeatedly throughout his life. It was reported that his funeral drew few mourners and he was buried in a common grave. Both actions were the Viennese custom at the time, for only aristocrats and nobility enjoyed public mourning and were allowed to be buried in marked graves. However, his memorial services and concerts in Vienna and Prague were well attended. After his death, Constanze sold many of his unpublished manuscripts to undoubtedly pay off the family’s large debts. She was able to obtain a pension from the emperor and organized several profitable memorial concerts in Mozart’s honor. From these efforts, Constanze was able to gain some financial security for herself and allowing her to send her children to private schools.

Mozart’s death came at a young age, even for the time period. Yet his meteoric rise to fame and accomplishment at a very early age is reminiscent of more contemporary musical artists whose star had burned out way too soon. At the time of his death, Mozart was considered one of the greatest composers of all time. His music presented a bold expression, oftentimes complex and dissonant, and required high technical mastery from the musicians who performed it. His works remained secure and popular throughout the 19th century, as biographies about him were written and his music enjoyed constant performances and renditions by other musicians. His work influenced many composers that followed -- most notably Beethoven. Along with his friend Joseph Haydn, Mozart conceived and perfected the grand forms of symphony, opera, string ensemble, and concerto that marked the classical period. In particular, his operas display an uncanny psychological insight, unique to music at the time, and continue to exert a particular fascination for musicians and music lovers today.

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QUICK FACTS

• Name: Wolfgang Mozart
• Birth Year: 1756
• Birth date: January 27, 1756
• Birth City: Salzburg
• Birth Country: Austria
• Gender: Male
• Best Known For: A prolific artist, Austrian composer Wolfgang Mozart created a string of operas, concertos, symphonies and sonatas that profoundly shaped classical music.
• Astrological Sign: Aquarius
• Nacionalities
• Death Year: 1791
• Death date: December 5, 1791
• Death City: Vienna
• Death Country: Austria

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CITATION INFORMATION

• Article Title: Wolfgang Mozart Biography
• Author: Biography.com Editors
• Website Name: The Biography.com website
• Url: https://www.biography.com/musicians/wolfgang-mozart
• Access Date:
• Publisher: A&E; Television Networks
• Last Updated: September 16, 2022
• Original Published Date: April 3, 2014
• Love, love, love—that is the soul of genius.

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Mozart Biography

“Music is my life and my life is music. Anyone who does not understand this is not worthy of God.”

– Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.

Short Biography of Mozart

His father Leopold, who was also a musician, was quick to see the talent of his young son and became a formidable publicist in showing off his son’s capacities.  During his childhood, Mozart was a frequent guest at various palaces around Europe, playing for distinguished guests. In addition to being feted by aristocrats across, Europe, Leopold raised his children as strict Catholics. This included attendance at mass, frequent confession and the veneration of saints. Mozart remained a committed Catholic throughout his life.

Mozart family on tour

Dressed in the finest clothes, the child-genius Mozart left an indelible impression on everyone he met. One of the pre-eminent composers of the day Johann Hasse remarked: “He has done things which for such as age are really incomprehensible; they would be astonishing in an adult.”

Aged 17, he accepted a post as a court musician in Salzburg; although this did not suit him very well. He chaffed at the lack of independence from his patron Prince-Archbishop Hieronymus Colloredo (the ruler of Salzburg). Mozart was also indignant at his meagre salary (150 florins a year) which left Mozart feeling unappreciated. Yet, despite dissatisfaction and getting involved in rows, the next few years were a time of prolific composition. In 1777, he grew tired of the demands placed on him by his patron and negotiated the release from his contract. He left Salzburg and after travelling to Paris and Germany, he moved permanently to Vienna, Austria where he lived for the remainder of his life.

Initially, Mozart worked for Archbishop Colloredo, but again Mozart felt constrained by the unreasonable demands and limitations placed on him by the Archbishop. For example, the Archbishop sought to prevent Mozart from playing in public concerts. Mozart became angry at these restrictions and confronted the archbishop. Eventually, he was released from his contact with a ‘literal kick up the backside.’ It was a difficult decision because his father sided with the archbishop and felt his son should seek to reconcile with the archbishop. Some biographers see this as an important moment in Mozart’s life as – in a very clear way – Mozart asserted his musical independence even at the cost of his relationship with his father and his financial security.

In Vienna, he became well known and was often in demand as a composer and performer. His dazzling and innovative new compositions were generally admired, although, like many genii, he was ahead of his time. Some criticised his symphonies for being too complicated, however, he received the very sincere praise of all the great composers of the era. Schubert said of Mozart:

“O Mozart! immortal Mozart! What countless impressions of a brighter, better life hast thou stamped upon our souls!”

On a personal level, his strained relationship with his domineering father left Mozart often seeking outer recognition. However, in the realm of music, Mozart was in his own world, he was not constrained by the petty misunderstandings and expectations of society.

“I pay no attention whatever to anybody’s praise or blame. I simply follow my own feelings.”

Drawing of Mozart by Dora Stock, Dresden, April 1789

However, despite his relative fame, he struggled to manage his finances and moved between periods of poverty and prosperity. A trait of Mozart’s character was that he could be frivolous with money; he enjoyed spending on fancy clothes – as soon as he received money he could spend it and he was frequently in debt. Another aspect of Mozart’s character was a playfulness and high-spirits, which could also appear like childishness. He enjoyed pranks and a rough sense of humour, and his care-free attitude could get him into difficulties with the more serious-minded court officials. Yet, Mozart was a man of great contrast and counterpoint. The one moment he could be making a crude joke, the next he could be composing the most sublime and divine music.

Personal life

In 1782, he married Constanze – against the wishes of his father. He remained very close to her for the rest of his life and was very much in love. They had six children but only two survived infancy. Whilst he got closer to Constanze, his relationship with his father deteriorated. His father had been domineering since his childhood, and Mozart increasingly resented his presence.

Early fortepiano played by Mozart

His financial difficulties were enhanced in 1786 when Austria was involved in a war which led to lower demand for musicians. Mozart wrote many letters begging for support from patrons, friends and fellow freemasons. He received only scattered support and supplemented his income by teaching and performing his works.

Death and requiem

In the last year of his life, he began composing one of his greatest works – The Requiem. Mozart died before he could finish. Reasons for his death are not clear. The most likely is a sudden illness – possibly the plague or possibly a combination of rheumatoid arthritis and pneumonia. One legend is that he was poisoned by a jealous rival composer Salieri, but this theory is discredited..

His last major work the Requiem was commissioned by Count Franz von Walsegg for his wife who past away. Walsegg may have tried to pass it off as his own work, but a public benefit concert for Constanze frustrated his aim. Many took the Requiem to be autobiographical and written by Mozart for his own life.

Mozart was near bankrupt when he died and he was given a modest burial of a citizen. It was not a pauper’s grave as sometimes claimed. But, in those days, 10 years after burial a citizens grave could be dug up and re-used.

The music of Mozart

The work of Mozart is epic in scope and proportion. There were few branches of music Mozart did not touch. He composed operas, symphonies, concertos, and solo pieces for the piano. His work spanned from joyful light-hearted pieces to powerful, challenging compositions which touched the emotions. At the beginning of his career, Mozart had a powerful ability to learn and remember from the music he heard from others. He was able to incorporate the style and music of people such as Haydn and J.S. Bach. As he matured, he developed his very own style and interpretations. In turn, the music of Mozart very much influenced the early Beethoven .

Mozart was brought up a Roman Catholic and remained a member of the church throughout his life.

“I know myself, and I have such a sense of religion that I shall never do anything which I would not do before the whole world.”

Some of his greatest works are religious in nature such as Ave Verum Corpus  and the final Requiem .

Mozart was very productive until his untimely death in 1791, aged 35.

“I never lie down at night without reflecting that young as I am —I may not live to see another day.”

In the last year of his life, he composed the opera The Magic Flute , the final piano concerto (K. 595 in B-flat), the Clarinet Concerto K. 622, a string quintet (K. 614 in E-flat), the famous motet Ave Verum Corpus K. 618, and the unfinished  Requiem K. 626.

Citation: Pettinger, Tejvan . “Biography of Mozart”, Oxford, UK.  www.biographyonline.net , Last updated 3 March 2020. Originally published 28th May 2008.

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Biography of Mozart

Family and early years.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was born to Leopold and Anna Maria Pertl Mozart in Getreidegasse 9 in the city of Salzburg, the capital of the sovereign Archbishopric of Salzburg, in what is now Austria, then part of the Holy Roman Empire. His only sibling who survived past birth was an older sister: Maria Anna, nicknamed Nannerl. Mozart was baptized the day after his birth at St. Rupert's Cathedral. The baptismal record gives his name in Latinized form as Joannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart. Mozart generally called himself "Wolfgang Amadé Mozart"as an adult, but there were many variants.

Baptsismal Record

Mozart was baptized January 28, 1756, the day after his birth, at St. Rupert's Cathedral in Salzburg as Joannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart. The baptismal register of the cathedral parish contains the entry shown below, written down in Latin by city chaplain Leopold Lamprecht. The parallel five-column format of the original document, seen in the figure, is transcribed below in five consecutive paragraphs. Material in brackets represents editorial additions by Otto Erich Deutsch (see below), intended for clarification.

Mozart's father Leopold Mozart (1719–1787) was one of Europe's leading musical teachers. His influential textbook Versuch einer gründlichen Violinschule, was published in 1756, the year of Mozart's birth (English, as "A Treatise on the Fundamental Principles of Violin Playing", transl. E.Knocker; Oxford-New York, 1948). He was deputy Kapellmeister to the court orchestra of the Archbishop of Salzburg, and a prolific and successful composer of instrumental music. Leopold gave up composing when his son's outstanding musical talents became evident.[citation needed] They first came to light when Wolfgang was about three years old, and Leopold, proud of Wolfgang's achievements, gave him intensive musical training, including instruction in clavier, violin, and organ. Leopold was Wolfgang's only teacher in his earliest years. A note by Leopold in Nannerl's music book – the Nannerl Notenbuch – records that little Wolfgang had learned several of the pieces at the age of four. Mozart's first compositions, a small Andante (K. 1a) and Allegro (K. 1b), were written in 1761, when he was five years old.

1762-1773: Years of travel

During Mozart's formative years, his family made several European journeys in which the children were exhibited as child prodigies. These began with an exhibition in 1762 at the Court of the Elector of Bavaria in Munich, then in the same year at the Imperial Court in Vienna and Prague. A long concert tour spanning three and a half years followed, taking the family to the courts of Munich, Mannheim, Paris, London, The Hague, again to Paris, and back home via Zürich, Donaueschingen, and Munich. During this trip Mozart met a great number of musicians and acquainted himself with the works of other composers. A particularly important influence was Johann Christian Bach, who met Mozart in London in 1764–65. Bach's work is often taken to be an inspiration for Mozart's music. The family again went to Vienna in late 1767 and remained there until December 1768. On this trip Mozart contracted smallpox, and his healing was believed by Leopold as proof of God's plans concerning the child.[citation needed]

After one year in Salzburg, three trips to Italy followed, this time with just Leopold, leaving Wolfgang's mother and sister at home. These took place from December 1769 to March 1771, from August to December 1771, and from October 1772 to March 1773. The first trip resembled the earlier journeys, with the purpose of displaying the now-teenaged Mozart's abilities as a performer and as a rapidly maturing composer. Mozart met G.B. Martini in Bologna, and was accepted as a member of the famous Accademia Filarmonica. In Rome he heard Gregorio Allegri's Miserere once in performance in the Sistine Chapel then wrote it out in its entirety from memory, only returning to correct minor errors; thus producing the first illegal copy of this closely-guarded property of the Vatican.

In Milan Mozart wrote an opera Mitridate Rè di Ponto (1770), performed with success. This lead to further opera commissions, and Wolfgang and Leopold returned twice from Salzburg to Milan for the composition and premieres of Ascanio in Alba (1771) and Lucio Silla (1772).

Toward the end of the final Italian journey Mozart wrote the first of his works that is still widely performed today, the solo cantata "Exsultate, jubilate", K. 165.

1773-1777: The Salzburg Court

Following his final return with his father from Italy (13 March 1773), Mozart was employed as a court musician by the ruler of Salzburg Prince-Archbishop Hieronymus Colloredo. Mozart was a "favorite son" in Salzburg, where he had a great number of friends and admirers, and he had the opportunity to compose in a great number of genres, including symphonies, sonatas, string quartets, serenades, and the occasional opera. Some of the works he produced during this early period are very widely performed today. For instance, during the period between April and December of 1775, Mozart developed an enthusiasm for violin concertos, producing a series of five (the only ones he ever wrote), steadily increasing in their musical sophistication. The last three (K. 216, K. 218, K. 219) are now staples of the repertoire. The E flat piano concerto K. 271 (1777), with its surprising interruption of the orchestra by the soloist at the start, is considered by critics to be a breakthrough work.

Nevertheless, Mozart gradually grew more discontented with Salzburg and made increasingly strenuous efforts to find a position elsewhere. The reason seems to be in part his low salary, 150 florins per year (Leopold, the vice-Kapellmeister, made 250).[6] In addition, Mozart loved to compose operas, and Salzburg provided at best rare occasions for opera productions. The situation became worse in 1775 when the court theater was closed, and the other theater in Salzburg was largely reserved for visiting troupes.[7]

Two long job-hunting expeditions interrupted this long Salzburg stay: Wolfgang and Leopold (they were both looking) visited Vienna from 14 July to 26 September 1773 and Munich from 6 December 1774 to March 1775. Neither visit was successful, though the Munich journey resulted in a popular success with the premiere of Mozart's opera La finta giardiniera[8]

1777-1778: The Paris Journey

On September 23, 1777, Mozart began yet another job-hunting tour, this time accompanied by his mother Anna Maria. The visit included Munich, Mannheim, and Paris. In Mannheim he became acquainted with members of the Mannheim orchestra, the best in Europe at the time. He also fell in love with Aloysia Weber, one of four daughters in a musical family. Mozart moved on to Paris and attempted to build his career there, but was unsuccessful (he did obtain a job offer as organist at Versailles, but it was a job he did not want). The visit to Paris was an especially unhappy one because Mozart's mother took ill and died there, June 23, 1778. On his way back to Salzburg Mozart passed through Munich again, where Aloysia, now employed at the opera there as a singer, indicated she was no longer interested in him.

Mozart's discontent with Salzburg continued after his return. The question arises why Mozart, despite his talent, was unable to find a job on this trip. Maynard Solomon has suggested that the problem lay in conflict with father Leopold, who insisted that Mozart find a high-level position that would support the entire family. Wolfgang favored the alternative strategy of settling in a major city, working as a freelance, and cultivating the aristocracy to the point that he would be favored for an important job; this had worked earlier for other musicians such as Haydn. The plan Leopold imposed, coupled with Mozart's youth (he was only 21 when he left Salzburg), seems to have had foreordained failure.

1781: The move to Vienna

In January 1781, Mozart's opera Idomeneo, premiered with "considerable success" (New Grove) in Munich. The following March, the composer was summoned to Vienna, where his employer, Prince-Archbishop Colloredo of Salzburg, was attending the celebrations for the installation of the Emperor Joseph II. Mozart, who had just experienced success in Munich, was offended when Colloredo treated him as a mere servant, and particularly when the Archbishop forbade him to perform before the Emperor at Countess Thun's (for a fee that would have been fully half of his Salzburg salary). In May the resulting quarrel intensified: Mozart attempted to resign, and was refused. The following month, however, the delayed permission was granted, but a grossly insulting way: Mozart was dismissed literally "with a kick in the arse", administered by the Archbishop's steward, Count Arco. In the meantime, Mozart had been noticing opportunities to earn a good living in Vienna, and he chose to stay there and develop his own freelance career.

In fact, Mozart's Vienna career began very well. He performed often as a pianist, notably in a competition before the Emperor with Muzio Clementi, December 24, 1781, and according to the New Grove, he soon "had established himself as the finest keyboard player in Vienna. Mozart also prospered as a composer: during 1781–1782 he wrote the opera Die Entführung aus dem Serail ("The Abduction from the Seraglio"), which premiered July 16, 1782 and achieved a huge success. The work was soon being performed "throughout German-speaking Europe", and fully established Mozart's reputation as a composer.

Near the height of his quarrels with Archbishop Colloredo, Mozart moved in (May 1 or May 2, 1781) with the Weber family, who had moved to Vienna from Mannheim. The father, Fridolin, had died, and the Webers were now taking in lodgers to make ends meet. Aloysia, who had earlier rejected Mozart's suit, was now married to the actor Joseph Lange, and Mozart's interest shifted to the third daughter, Constanze. The couple were married, with father Leopold's "grudging consent" (New Grove), on August 4, 1782. They had six children, of whom only two survived infancy: Carl Thomas (1784–1858) and Franz Xaver Wolfgang (1791–1844; later a minor composer himself).

During 1782–1783, Mozart became closely acquainted with the work of J. S. Bach and G.F. Handel as a result of the influence of Baron Gottfried van Swieten, who owned many manuscripts of works by the Baroque masters. Mozart's study of these works led first to a number of works imitating Baroque style and later had a powerful influence on his own personal musical language, for example the fugal passages in Die Zauberflöte ("The Magic Flute"), and in the finale of Symphony No.41.

In 1783, Wolfgang and Constanze visited Wolfgang's family in Salzburg, but the visit was not a success, as Leopold and Nannerl were, at best, only polite to Constanze. However, the visit sparked the composition of one of Mozart's great liturgical pieces, the Mass in C Minor, which, though not completed, was premiered in Salzburg. Constanze sang in the premiere.

At some (unknown) time following his move to Vienna, Mozart met Joseph Haydn and the two composers became friends; see Haydn and Mozart. When Haydn visited Vienna, they sometimes played together in an impromptu string quartet. Mozart's six quartets dedicated to Haydn (K. 387, K. 421, K. 428, K. 458, K. 464, and K. 465) date from 1782–85, and are often judged to be his response to Haydn's Opus 33 set from 1781. Haydn was soon in awe of Mozart, and when he first heard the last three of Mozart's series he told the visiting 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, furthermore, the most profound knowledge of composition."

During the years 1782–1785, Mozart put on a series of concerts in which he appeared as soloist in his own piano concertos. He wrote three or four concertos for each concert season, and since space in the theaters was scarce, he booked unconventional venues: a large room in the Trattnerhof, an apartment building; and the ballroom of the Mehlgrube, a restaurant. The concerts were very popular, and the works Mozart composed for them are considered among his finest. Solomon writes that during this period Mozart created "a harmonious connection between an eager composer-performer and a delighted audience, which was given the opportunity of witnessing the transformation and perfection of a major musical genre.

With the substantial money Mozart earned in his concerts and elsewhere, his family adopted a rather plush lifestyle. They moved to an expensive apartment, with a rent of 460 florins.Mozart also bought a fine fortepiano from Anton Walter for about 900 florins, and a billiard table for about 300. The Mozarts also sent their son Karl Thomas to an expensive boarding school and kept servants. These choices inhibited saving, and were the partial cause of a stressful financial situation for the Mozart family a few years later.

1786-1787: Return to Opera

Despite the great success of Die Entführung aus dem Serail, Mozart did little writing of operas during the years that followed it, producing only two unfinished works and the one-act Der Schauspieldirektor. He focused instead on his career as a piano soloist and writer of concertos. However, around the end of 1785, Mozart reshifted his focus again: he ceased to write piano concertos on a regular basis, and began his famous operatic collaboration with the librettist Lorenzo da Ponte. 1786 saw the Vienna premiere of The Marriage of Figaro, which was quite successful in Vienna and even more so in a Prague production later the same year. The Prague success led to a commission for a second Mozart-Da Ponte opera, Don Giovanni, which premiered 1787 to acclaim in Prague and was also produced, with some success, in Vienna in 1788. Both operas are considered among Mozart's most important works and are mainstays of the operatic repertoire today; their musical complexity caused difficulty for both listeners and performers alike at their premieres.

In December 1787 Mozart finally obtained a steady post under aristocratic patronage. Emperor Joseph II appointed him as his "chamber composer", a post vacated the previous month when Gluck died. It was not a full-time job, however. It paid only 800 florins per year, and merely required Mozart to compose dances for the annual balls in the Redoutensaal. Mozart complained to Constanze that the pay was "too much for what I do, too little for what I could do." However, even this much proved important to Mozart later on when hard times arrived. Court records show that Joseph's intent was explicitly to help make sure that Mozart, whom he esteemed, did not leave Vienna to seek better prospects elsewhere.

Toward the end of the decade, Mozart's career declined. Around 1786 he had ceased to appear frequently in public concerts, and his income dropped. This was in general a difficult time for musicians in Vienna, since between 1788 and 1791 Austria was at war (see Austro-Turkish War (1788–1791)), and both the general level of prosperity and the ability of the aristocracy to support music had declined.

By mid 1788, Mozart and his family moved from central Vienna to cheaper lodgings in the suburb of Alsergrund. Mozart began to borrow money, most often from his friend and fellow Mason Michael Puchberg; "a dismal series of begging letters" (New Grove) survives. Maynard Solomon and others have suggested the Mozart suffered from depression at this time, and it seems his output rate sank somewhat (see Köchel-Verzeichnis). The major works of the period include the last three symphonies (1788: 39, 40, 41; it is not certain whether these were performed in Mozart's lifetime), and the last of the three Da Ponte operas, Cosi fan tutte, premiered 1790.

During this time Mozart made long journeys hoping to improve his fortunes: a visit in spring of 1789 to Leipzig, Dresden, and Berlin (see Mozart's Berlin journey), and a 1790 visit to Frankfurt, Mannheim, and other German cities. The trips produced only isolated success and did not solve Mozart's financial problems.

Mozart's last year was, until his final illness struck, one of great productivity and (in the view of biographer Maynard Solomon) personal recovery. During this time Mozart wrote a great deal of music, including some of the works for which he is most admired today: the opera The Magic Flute, the final piano concerto (K. 595 in B flat), the Clarinet Concerto K. 622, the last in his great series of string quintets (K. 614 in E flat), the revised version of his 40th Symphony, the motet Ave verum corpus K. 618, and the unfinished Requiem.

Mozart's financial situation, which in 1790 was the source of extreme anxiety to him, also began to improve. Although the evidence is uncertain it appears that admiring wealthy patrons in Hungary and in Amsterdam pledged annuities to Mozart, in return for the occasional composition. Mozart also probably made considerable money from the sale of dance music that wrote for his job as Imperial chamber composer. He ceased to borrow large sums from Puchberg and made a start on paying off his debts.

Lastly, Mozart experienced great satisfaction in the public success of some his works, notably The Magic Flute (performed many times even during the short period between its premiere and Mozart's death) and the Little Masonic Cantata K. 623, premiered November 15, 1791.

Final illness and death

Mozart fell ill while in Prague, for the September 6 premiere of his opera La clemenza di Tito, written in 1791 on commission for the coronation festivities of the Emperor. He was able to continue his professional functions for some time, for instance conducting the premiere of The Magic Flute on September 30. The illness intensified on November 20, at which point Mozart became bedridden, suffering from swelling, pain, and vomiting.

Mozart was tended in his final illness by Constanze, her mother Cäcilia Weber, her youngest sister Sophie Haibel, and the family doctor, Thomas Franz Closset. There is evidence that he was mentally occupied with the task of finishing his Requiem (see Death of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart). However, the evidence that he actually dictated passages to Süssmayr is very slim.

Mozart died at 1 in the morning on December 5. His burial arrangements were exceedingly simple: Mozart's body was sewn in a linen sack, and transferred from a reusable coffin to a common grave with five or six other bodies. No friends or family were present to witness the burial. These procedures reflected common practice at the time, traceable to a decree of Joseph II from 1784 governing funeral arrangements; see Josephinism. Maynard Solomon suggests that the simple funeral may have reflected Mozart's own wishes.

The cause of Mozart's death cannot be determined with certainty. His death record listed "hitziges Frieselfieber" ("severe miliary fever," referring to a rash that looks like millet seeds), a description that does not suffice to identify the cause as it would be diagnosed in modern medicine. Dozens of theories have been proposed, including trichinosis, influenza, mercury poisoning, and a rare kidney ailment. The practice of bleeding medical patients, common at that time, is also cited as a contributing cause. However, the most widely accepted version is that he died of acute rheumatic fever; he had had three or even four known attacks of it since his childhood, and this particular disease has a tendency to recur, leaving increasingly serious consequences each time, such as rampant infection and heart valve damage.

Mozart's extremely spare funeral did not reflect his standing with the public as a composer: memorial services and concerts in Vienna and Prague were well attended. Indeed, during the period following his death, Mozart's musical reputation rose substantially; Solomon describes an "unprecedented wave of enthusiasm" for his work. Biographies were written (initially by Schlichtegroll, Niemetschek, and Nissen), and publishers vied to produce complete editions of his works.

Mozart's physical appearance was described by tenor Michael Kelly, in his Reminiscences: "a remarkable small man, very thin and pale, with a profusion of fine, fair hair of which he was rather vain." His early biographer Niemetschek wrote, "there was nothing special about [his] physique ... He was small and his countenance, except for his large intense eyes, gave no signs of his genius." His facial complexion was pitted, a reminder of his childhood case of smallpox. He loved elegant clothing: Kelly remembered him at a rehearsal: he "was on the stage with his crimson pelisse and gold-laced cocked hat, giving the time of the music to the orchestra." Of his voice Constanze later wrote that it "was a tenor, rather soft in speaking and delicate in singing, but when anything excited him, or it became necessary to exert it, it was both powerful and energetic".

Mozart worked very hard, a great deal of the time, and finished works where necessary at a tremendous pace. When composing he often made sketches and drafts, though (unlike Beethoven's sketches) these are mostly not preserved, Constanze having destroyed them after his death.

Mozart also enjoyed billiards and liked dancing. He kept pets (a canary, a starling and a dog), and kept a horse for recreational riding.

Mozart lived at the center of Viennese musical life, and knew a great number of people, including not just his fellow musicians, but also theatrical performers, fellow transplanted Salzburgers, and many aristocrats, including a fairly close acquaintance with the Emperor, Joseph II. Mozart had a considerable number of friends, of whom Solomon estimates the three closest were Gottfried Janequin, Count August Hatzfeld, and Sigmund Barisani; others included the singers Franz Xaver Gerl and Benedikt Schack, Haydn (mentioned above), and the horn player Ignaz Leutgeb (with whom Mozart carried on a curious kind of friendly mockery, Leutgeb being always the butt of Mozart's practical jokes).

Particularly in his youth, Mozart had a striking fondness for scatological and sexual humor, which is preserved in his many surviving letters, notably those written to his cousin Anna Maria Thekla Mozart around 1777–1778, but also in his correspondence with his sister Nannerl. Mozart even wrote scatological music, the canons "Leck mich im Arsch" ("Lick me in the arse") K. 231 and "Leck mir den Arsch fein recht schön sauber" ("Lick me in the arse nice and clean") K. 233.

Mozart was influenced by the ideas of the eighteenth-century European Enlightenment as an adult, and became a Freemason in 1785. His lodge was specifically Catholic, rather than deistic, and he worked fervently and successfully to convert his father before the latter's death in 1787.[citation needed] Die Zauberflöte, his penultimate opera, includes Masonic themes and allegory.

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Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791) was one of the most influential, popular and prolific composers of the classical period. He composed over 600 works, including some of the most famous and loved pieces of symphonic, chamber, operatic, and choral music. Mozart was born in Salzburg to a musical family. From an early age, the young Mozart showed all the signs of a prodigious musical talent. By the age of 5 he could read and write music, and he would entertain people with his talents on the keyboard. By the age of 6 he was writing his first compositions. Mozart was generally considered to be a rare musical genius, though Mozart said that he was diligent in studying other great composers such as Haydn and Bach.

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Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was born on January 27, 1756, in Salzburg, Austria. His father, Leopold Mozart, a noted composer, instructor, and the author of famous writings on violin playing, was then in the service of the archbishop of Salzburg. Leopold and Anna Maria, his wife, stressed the importance of music to their children. Together with his sister, Nannerl, Wolfgang received such intensive musical training that by the age of six he was a budding composer and an accomplished keyboard performer. In 1762 Leopold presented his son as performer at the imperial court in Vienna, Austria, and from 1763 to 1766 he escorted both children on a continuous musical tour across Europe, which included long stays in Paris, France, and London, England, as well as visits to many other cities, with appearances before the French and English royal families.

Mozart was the most celebrated child prodigy (an unusually gifted child) of this time as a keyboard performer. He also made a great impression as a composer and improviser (one who arranges or creates). In London he won the admiration of musician Johann Christian Bach (1735–1782), and he was exposed from an early age to an unusual variety of musical styles and tastes across Europe.

From the age of ten to seventeen, Mozart's reputation as a composer grew to a degree of maturity equal to that of most older established musicians. He spent the years from 1766 to 1769 at Salzburg writing instrumental works and music for school dramas in German and Latin, and in 1768 he produced his first real operas: the German Singspiel (that is, with spoken dialogue)  Bastien und Bastienne . Despite his growing reputation, Mozart found no suitable post open to him; and his father once more escorted Mozart, at age fourteen (1769), and set off for Italy to try to make his way as an opera composer.

In Italy, Mozart was well received: in Milan, Italy, he obtained a commission for an opera; in Rome he was made a member of an honorary knightly order by the Pope; and at Bologna, Italy, the Accademia Filarmonica awarded him membership despite a rule normally requiring candidates to be twenty years old. During these years of travel in Italy and returns to Salzburg between journeys, he produced his first large-scale settings of opera seria (that is, court opera on serious subjects):  Mitridate  (1770),  Ascanio in Alba  (1771), and  Lucio Silla  (1772), as well as his first string quartets. At Salzburg in late 1771 he renewed his writing of Symphonies (Nos. 14–21).

Paris was a vastly larger theater for Mozart's talents. His father urged him to go there, for "from Paris the fame of a man of great talent echoes through the whole world," he wrote his son. But after nine difficult months in Paris, from March 1778 to January 1779, Mozart returned once more to Salzburg, having been unable to secure a foothold and depressed by the entire experience, which had included the death of his mother in the midst of his stay in Paris. Unable to get hired for an opera, he wrote music to order in Paris, again mainly for wind instruments: the  Sinfonia Concertante  for four solo wind instruments and orchestra, the Concerto for flute and harp, other chamber music, and the ballet music  Les Petits riens . In addition, he began giving lessons to make money.

Mozart's years in Vienna, from age twenty-five to his death at thirty-five, cover one of the greatest developments in a short span in the history of music. In these ten years Mozart's music grew rapidly beyond the realm of many of his contemporaries; it exhibited both ideas and methods of elaboration that few could follow, and to many the late Mozart seemed a difficult composer.

The major instrumental works of this period bring together all the fields of Mozart's earlier activity and some new ones: six symphonies, including the famous last three: no. 39 in E-flat Major, no. 40 in G Minor, and no. 41 in C Major (the Jupiter —a title unknown to Mozart). He finished these three works within six weeks during the summer of 1788, a remarkable feat even for him.

In the field of the string quarter Mozart produced two important groups of works that completely overshadowed any he had written before 1780: in 1785 he published the six Quartets (K. 387, 421, 428, 458, 464, and 465) and in 1786 added the single Hoffmeister Quartet (K. 499). In 1789 he wrote the last three Quartets (K. 575, 589, and 590), dedicated to King Frederick William (1688–1740) of Prussia, a noted cellist.

Mozart's development as an opera composer between 1781 and his death is even more remarkable, perhaps, since the problems of opera were more far-ranging than those of the larger instrumental forms and provided less adequate models. The first important result was the German Singspiel entitled  Die Entführung aus dem Serail  (1782;  Abduction from the Seraglio ). Mozart then turned to Italian opera. Mozart produced his three greatest Italian operas:  Le nozze di Figaro  (1786;  The Marriage of Figaro ),  Don Giovanni  (1787, for Prague), and  Cosi fan tutte  (1790). In his last opera,  The Magic Flute  (1791), Mozart turned back to German opera, and he produced a work combining many strands of popular theater and including musical expressions ranging from folk to opera.

On concluding  The Magic Flute , Mozart turned to work on what was to be his last project, the  Requiem . This Mass had been commissioned by a benefactor (financial supporter) said to have been unknown to Mozart, and he is supposed to have become obsessed with the belief that he was, in effect, writing it for himself. Ill and exhausted, he managed to finish the first two movements and sketches for several more, but the last three sections were entirely lacking when he died. It was completed by his pupil Franz Süssmayer after his death, which occurred in Vienna, Austria, on December 5, 1791.

Source: Encyclopedia of World Biography

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