Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

At 35 years old, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart has this physical status:

Life and career

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1778), Leopold Mozart (1719-1787) and Anna Maria Pertl (1720-1778) at Getreidegasse 9 in Salzburg on January 27th, 1756 to 1780. Salzburg, Austria's capital, was the capital of the Archbishopric of Salzburg, an ecclesiastic ecclesiastic principality in the Holy Roman Empire (today in Austria). He was the youngest of seven children, five of whom died in infancy. Maria Anna Mozart (1751–1829), nicknamed "Nannerl," was his elder sister. Mozart was baptized at St. Rupert's Cathedral in Salzburg the day after his birth. The baptismal record portrays him in Latinized form, as Joannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Mozart. He usually referred to himself as an adult, but there were several variations of his name.

Leopold Mozart, a native of Augsburg and later an Imperial Free City in the Holy Roman Empire, was a minor composer and an experienced tutor. He was appointed as the fourth violinist in the Salzburg's musical academy of Count Leopold Anton von Firmian, the third violinist. Anna Maria, a four-year-old boy from Salzburg, married him. In 1763, Leopold became the orchestra's deputy Kapellmeister. Leopold published Versuch einer gründlichen Violinschule, a success, during the year of his son's birth.

Nannerl began keyboard lessons with her father when she was 7 years old, while her three-year-old brother watched. She recalled: years later, years after her brother's death: she reminisced:

These early pieces, K. 1–5, were found in the Nannerl Notenbuch. Although there is some controversy about whether Mozart was four or five years old when he created his first musical compositions, there is no doubt that he composed his first three works of music within a few weeks of each other: K. 1a, 1b, and 1c.

Wolfgang's father was his only tutor in his early years. He taught his children's languages and academic subjects, as well as music. Solomon remarks that, although Leopold was devoted to his children, there is evidence that Mozart was eager to move beyond what he was taught. His first ink-spattered composition and his precocious attempts with the violin were of his commission and surprised Leopold, who eventually stopped writing when his son's musical abilities became apparent.

Although Wolfgang was young, his family took several European trips in which he and Nannerl appeared as child prodigies. These began in 1762 at the court of Prince-elector Maximilian III of Bavaria in Munich, Bavaria, and in Vienna and Prague, as well as the Imperial Courts. A long concert tour followed the family's family to Munich, Mannheim, London, Dover, Dover, The Hague, Utrecht, Mechelen, and then back to Paris via Donaueschingen and Munich. Wolfgang met many musicians and became familiar with other composers' works on this trip. Johann Christian Bach, who lived in London between 1764 and 1765, had a major influence. Mozart wrote his first symphony when he was eight years old, the majority of which was undoubtedly transscribed by his father.

The family trips were often stressful, and travel conditions were primitive. They had to wait for invitations and compensation from the nobility, and they were forced to suffer long, near-fatal illnesses far from home: first Leopold (1764), then both children (The Hague, fall 1765). In late 1767, the family returned to Vienna in the late 1770s and remained there until December 1768.

Leopold and Wolfgang set off for Italy after one year in Salzburg, leaving Anna Maria and Nannerl at home. This tour lasted from December 1769 to March 1771. Leopold wanted to showcase his son's abilities as both a performer and a quickly progressing composer on his earlier journeys. Wolfgang met Josef Mysliveek and Giovanni Battista Martini in Bologna and was accepted as a member of the renowned Accademia Filarmonica. He saw Gregorio Allegri's Miserere twice in Rome, and wrote it out of memory, making the first legitimate copy of the Vatican's tightly guarded property.

Mozart wrote the opera Mitridate, re di Ponto (1770), which was a hit in Milan. This resulted in further opera commissions. He and his father returned to Milan twice (August-December 1771; October 1772 – March 1773) for Ascanio's premieres (1771) and Lucio Silla (1772). Leopold hoped these visits would result in a professional appointment for his son, and indeed, Archduke Ferdinand considered a Mozart hire, but the matter was dismissed due to his mother Empress Maria Theresa's refusal to employ "useless people." Mozart wrote Exsultate, jubilate, K. 165, towards the end of the journey.

Mozart took over as a court musician by the king of Salzburg, Prince-Archbishop Hieronymus Colloredo, after returning from Italy on March 13, 1773. The composer had many acquaintances and admirers in Salzburg, and he had the opportunity to work in many genres, including symphonies, sonatas, string quartets, mass, serenades, and a handful of minor operas. Mozart's passion for violin concertos arose between April and December 1775, resulting in a series of five (the only ones he wrote) as their musical sophistication increased in detail. –K.A. — the last three years—K. K. 218, K. 219—are now staples of the menu. He dedicated his efforts to piano concertos in 1776, culminating in the E. 271 concerto, considered a breakthrough by critics.

Mozart grew dissatisfied with Salzburg and redirected his efforts to find a new home. One reason was his modest salary, 150 florins a year; Mozart wanted to compose operas; and Salzburg provided only rare occasions for this. When the court theatre was closed in 1775, the situation was particularly bad for visiting troupes.

This long Salzburg stay was interrupted by two long journeys in search of work. Mozart and his father lived in Vienna from 14 July to September 1773, and Munich from 6 December 1774 to March 1775. Neither visit was fruitful, but the Munich tour ended in a big success with Mozart's opera La finta giardiniera's premiere.

Mozart resigned from his Salzburg job in August 1777 and headed out on September 23nd in search of work, with visits to Augsburg, Mannheim, Paris, and Munich.

Mozart became acquainted with members of Mannheim's legendary orchestra, the finest in Europe at the time. He also fell in love with Aloysia Weber, one of four children of a musical family. There were hopes of employment in Mannheim, but they came to nothing, and Mozart left for Paris on March 14th 1778 to continue his hunt. One of Mozart's letters suggests that he might have worked as an organist at Versailles, but Mozart was not concerned about such a position. He went into debt and went to pawning riches. When Mozart's mother was sick and died on July 3rd 1778, the visit's nadir occurred. Certainly, calling a doctor had been delayed, owing to a lack of funds, according to Halliwell. Mozart stayed in Melchior Grimm's mansion as his personal secretary.

When Mozart was in Paris, his father was looking for a job for him in Salzburg. Mozart was given a post as a court organist and concertmaster, with the help of the local nobility. The annual salary was 450 florins, but he was reluctant to accept it. By this time, Grimm and Mozart's friendships had cooled, and Mozart had departed. He lingered in Mannheim and Munich after leaving Paris in September 1778 for Strasbourg, still hoping to get a call outside Salzburg. He heard Aloysia, a very popular musician, performer in Munich, but she was no longer interested in him. Mozart returned to Salzburg on January 1579 and started a new one, but his dissatisfaction with Salzburg remained unaffected.

The A minor piano sonata, K. 310/300d, the "Paris" Symphony is one of Mozart's more well-known works on his Paris visit. The Concerto for Flute and Harp in C major, K. 299/297c, was one of the 317) that were staged in Paris on June 12, 1878; and the Concerto for Flute and Harp in C major, K. 299/297c.

Mozart's opera Idomeneo premiered in Munich in January 1781, with "huge success" in it. Mozart was summoned to Vienna in March, where his employer, Archbishop Colloredo, was attending the official reception of Joseph II to the Austrian throne. For Colloredo, it was simply a question of wanting his musical servant to be present (Mozart was then allowed to dine in Colloredo's establishment with the valets and cooks). As he continued in the archbishop's service, he envisioned a bigger career; for example, he wrote to his father:

Mozart did indeed meet the Emperor early in his career, and he was to continue his education with commissions and a part-time job.

Mozart outlined his intention to perform in the Tonkünstler-Societät, a well-known benefit concert series, in the same letter sent to his father.

In other situations, Colloredo's attempt to discourage Mozart from performing outside of his venue sparked the composer's outrage; one example was the opportunity to perform before the Emperor at Countess Thun's for a sum equal to half of his annual Salzburg compensation.

In May, the conflict with the archbishop came to a conclusion: Mozart threatened to resign but was refused. Permission was granted for the following month, but in a grossly offensive manner: the composer was dismissed literally "with a kick in the arse," administered by the archbishop's steward, Count Arco. Mozart settled in Vienna as a freelance performer and composer.

Mozart's quarrel with Colloredo was more difficult for him because his father opposed him. Mozart's father wrote a long letter to Colloredo, urging him to reconcile with their employer, who hoped fervently that he would obediently follow him back to Salzburg. Mozart defended his decision to pursue a free career in Vienna. Mozart was fired by the archbishop, freeing himself and his father's requests to return. Mozart's resignation, according to Solomon, was a "revolutionary move" that significantly changed the course of his life.

Mozart's new career in Vienna began well. He appeared as a pianist often, especially in a competition with Muzio Clementi on December 24, 1781, and he shortly "had established himself as Vienna's best keyboard player." He also excelled as a composer, and completed Die Entführung aus dem Serail (The Abduction from the Seraglio), which premiered on July 16, 1782 and had a great success as a composer. Mozart's reputation as a composer was quickly demonstrated "throughout German-speaking Europe" and quickly established Mozart's fame as a composer.

Mozart moved to Vienna from Mannheim during his quarrels with Colloredo. Fridolin, the family's son, had died, and the Webers were now taking in lodgers to make ends meet.

Mozart's attention shifted to the third daughter of the family, Constanze, after struggling to capture Aloysia Weber's hand, who was then married to the actor and singer Joseph Lange.

Mozart and Constanze briefly separated in April 1782, according to surviving correspondence. Mozart was up for a difficult challenge in obtaining his father's permission for the marriage. The couple were finally married in St. Stephen's Cathedral on August 4, the day before his father's consent letter arrived in the mail.

The couple had six children, of whom only two survived in infancy:

Mozart became intimately acquainted with Johann Sebastian Bach and George Frideric Handel's work in 1782 and 1783, thanks in large part to Gottfried van Swieten's influence, who owned many manuscripts of the Baroque masters. Mozart's analysis of these scores influenced compositions in Baroque style and later inspired his musical language, for example in Die Zauberflöte ("The Magic Flute") and Symphony No. 2's finale. 42.

Mozart and his wife visited Salzburg in 1783. His father and sister were cordially polite to Constanze, but the visit prompted the creation of one of Mozart's most popular liturgical works, the Mass in C minor. Even if the production was not completed, it was still premiered in Salzburg, with Constanze singing solo.

Mozart met Joseph Haydn in Vienna about 1784, and the two composers became best friends. They often performed together in an impromptu string quartet while Haydn was in Vienna. Mozart's six quartets dedicated to Haydn (K. 387, K. 481, K. 468, and K. 465, respectively) date from 1782 to 1785 and are considered to be a tribute to Haydn's Opus 43 set, which dates from 1781 to 1785. "Posterity will not see such a talent again in 100 years," Haydn wrote in 1785, and Mozart's father said, "I tell you before God, and as an honest man, your son is the best composer to me by person and reputation, has taste, and what is the greatest composition skill."

Mozart appeared as a soloist in 1782 to 1785, with three to four new piano concertos in each season. Since space in the theatres was limited, he reserved unusual venues: a large room in the Trattnerhof apartment building and the Mehlgrube restaurant's ballroom. The concerts were extremely popular, and his concertos premiered there are now firm staples in his repertoire. Mozart created "a seamless connection between an ecstatic composer-performer and a delighted audience," according to Solomon, who was given the opportunity to experience the transformation and perfection of a major musical genre.

Mozart and his wife became more wealthy with significant returns from his shows and other places. They moved to a yearly rent of 460 florins, which was in an expensive apartment. Mozart bought a fine fortepiano from Anton Walter for about 900 florins and a billiard table for about 300. Karl Thomas, the Mozarts' son, was sent by the Mozarts to an expensive boarding school where they kept servants. Mozart saved little of his money during this time.

Mozart became a Freemason ("Beneficence") on December 14, 1784. Freemasonry played a key part in Mozart's life: he attended meetings, a few of his acquaintances were Masons, and e.g., he composed Masonic music on several occasions. The Maurische Trauermusik is a French composer.

Despite the success of Die Entführung aus dem Serail, Mozart stopped operatic writing for the next four years, releasing only two unfinished works and the one-act Der Schauspieldirektor. He concentrated on his work as a pianist soloist and writer of concertos. Mozart began working with librettist Lorenzo Da Ponte around the end of 1785 and began his famous operatic collaboration. The Marriage of Figaro's inaugural year in Vienna in 1786 saw the triumphant premiere of the year 1786. The opera Don Giovanni's reception in Prague later this year was much cooler, leading to a second collaboration with Da Ponte: the opera Don Giovanni, which premiered in October 1787 to acclaim in Prague but not so well in Vienna during 1788. Both of Mozart's most popular works and a mainstay of operatic repertoire today, but their musical complexity caused difficulties for listeners and performers alike at their premieres. These events were not witnessed by Mozart's father, who died on May 28th, 1787.

Mozart finally held a steady position in December 1787 under aristocratic patronage. Emperor Joseph II named him as his "chamber composer," a position that had been vacant the previous month due to Gluck's death. It was a part-time job, costing just 800 florins a year, and Mozart had only been required to write dances for the annual balls in the Redoutensaal (see Mozart and dance). When Mozart's golden years came, this modest income was vital to him. According to legal records, Joseph continued to discourage the respected composer from leaving Vienna in the hopes of greater success.

Ludwig van Beethoven, a young Ludwig van Beethoven, spent several weeks in Vienna in 1787 aspireing to study with Mozart. No reliable records exist to show whether the two composers ever met.

Mozart's circumstances worsened toward the end of the decade. He had stopped appearing in public concerts regularly around 1786, and his income decreased. Because of the Austro-Turkish War, musicians in Vienna's general prosperity and the aristocracy's ability to support music had weakened.

Mozart and his family had migrated from central Vienna to Alsergrund, a suburb of Alsergrund by mid-1788. Mozart was rumored to cut his rental income by moving to a suburb, but he did not reduce his spending by moving to a suburb, but simply increased the housing space at his disposal, as he wrote in his letter to Michael von Puchberg. Mozart began to borrow money, most often from his brother and fellow mason Puchberg; "a pitiful sequence of letters pleading for loans" survives. Mozart's depressive disorder had been described by Maynard Solomon and others, but it appears that his musical output slowed. The last three symphonies are among the period's best known works (Nos. The three Da Ponte operas, 39, 40, and 41, all from 1788, as well as Cos fan tutte, the last of the three Da Ponte operas, premiered in 1790.

Mozart spent many years on the road in Dresden, Dresden, and Berlin in the spring of 1789, and Frankfurt, Mannheim, and other German cities in 1790.

Mozart's last year was, until his final illness came, a period of high-efficiency and, in some respects, one of personal recovery. He produced a large number, including some of his best known performances, including the opera The Magic Flute; the final piano concerto in B; and the unfinished Requiem K. 626.

Mozart's financial situation, which had sparked trembling in 1790, has began to improve. Although the evidence is contradictory, wealthy patrons in Hungary and Amsterdam appear to have promised annuities to Mozart in exchange for occasional composition. He is said to have benefited from the selling of dance music based on his role as Imperial chamber composer. Mozart no longer borrowed large sums from Puchberg but began to pay off his debts.

He found tremendous satisfaction in his performances, including The Magic Flute (which was performed several times in the short period between its premiere and Mozart's death), and the Little Masonic Cantata K. 623 premiered on November 1791.

Mozart died in Prague on September 6th, 1791, of his opera La clemenza di Tito, which was written in the same year on commission for Emperor Leopold II's coronation festivities. He continued his teaching duties for a long time and was in charge of the premiere of The Magic Flute on September 30. His health worsened on November 20th, when he went bedridden, suffering from swelling, pain, and vomiting.

Mozart was cared for in his remaining days by his wife and her youngest sister, and by the family doctor, Thomas Franz Closset. He was physically occupied with the task of completing his Requiem, but there is no evidence that he dictated passages to his pupil Franz Xaver Süssmayr.

The New Grove describes his funeral:

The word "common grave" refers not to a communal grave nor a pauper's grave, but a private grave for a common citizen (i.e., not aristocracy). After ten years, common graves were uncovered; aristocrats' graves were not.

Mozart's death is unknown with certainty. Hitziges Frieselfieber ("severe miliary fever"), referring to a rash that looks like millet seeds, is more symptomatic than a disease. More than a hundred causes of death have been described by researchers, including acute rheumatic fever, streptococcal infection, trichinosis, mercury poisoning, and a rare kidney cyst.

Mozart's modest funeral did not reflect his celebrity as a composer; memorial services and concerts in Vienna and Prague were well attended. In fact, his reputation in the immediate aftermath of his death soared sharply. Solomon cites "unprecedented enthusiasm" for his work; biographies were published first by Schlichtegroll, Niemetschek, and Nissen; and publishers raced to produce complete editions of his works.

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