WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART

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WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART BIOGRAPHY
1756-1791

 

By the age of 10, Mozart was a famous "Wunderkind" prodigy composer/performer. He died when he was only 35 years old, after being commissioned to compose a Requiem Mass (music for the dead) from a mysterious stranger, which Mozart misinterpreted as a pronouncement of his own death.

Mozart was considered the first real child "prodigy" who had a musically brilliant ear, incredible memory, melodic inventive mind, was a contrapuntal genius, extreme virtuoso and prolific composer. Music flowed from Mozart and he rarely needed to make corrections on his compositions.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was born in Salzburg, Austria on January 27, 1756, son of the composer Leopold Mozart. By the age of 4, Wolfgang was studying violin and piano with his father. By 6 years old, he began composing minuets and short pieces and toured with his father and sister. By 12 years old, Mozart wrote 3 operas, 6 symphonies and 100 other works.

Mozart continued touring and met the Weber family. He married Constanze Weber in 1782, who was also from a musical family. He had 6 children, 2 of whom survived.

Between 1782 and 1790, Mozart had huge success with his operas and performances, but was always in debt. The sheer volume of Mozart's work was in part due to financial necessity. He composed symphonies, piano concertos, piano sonatas, concertos for various instruments, operas, string quartets, masses, serenades and tons more works. Among Mozart's more famous symphonies are the "Jupiter", "Haffner" and "Prague".

Mozart wrote several operas, the most famous being "The Marriage of Figaro", which is an "Opera Buffa" (Comic Opera) and made fun of aristocracy and celebrated the commoners, but was BANNED in Austria. He also wrote "Don Giovanni" and "Cosi Fan Tutte" and his most popular opera for the masses, "The Magic Flute"- a fairy tale with memorable melodies. The libretto for "The Magic Flute" was written by Emanuel Schikaneder, who like Mozart was a "Freemason" (members of a fraternal organization, who preached equality and "brotherhood".)

Yet with all these brilliant works, Mozart had few works published in his lifetime and because of lavish spending, never had much money and was deeply in debt.

In 1791, Mozart was afflicted by morbid depression. Mozart was commissioned to compose the "Requiem Mass" (music for the dead) from a mysterious stranger (actually from a nobleman, who wanted to pass it off as his own work), which Mozart misinterpreted as a pronouncement of his own death. Mozart could not finish the "Requiem". On December 5, 1791, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart died after a fit of delirium and probably from uraemia. One of the greatest composers of all time, Mozart died a pauper and was buried in an unmarked pauper's grave in Vienna.