Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (b. 1756-91) was born in Salzburg, Austria. His fa-
ther, Leopold Mozart, was an accomplished violinist of the Archbishop of Salz-
burg’s court. Additionally, Leopold had written a respected book on the playing
of the violin. At a very young age, Wolfgang began his career as a composer and
performer. A prodigy, his talent far exceeded any in music, past his contempo-
raries. He began writing music prior to the age of five. At the age of six, Wolfgang
performed in the court of Empress Maria Theresa.
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Mozart’s father was quite proud of his children, both being child prodigies. At
age seven, Wolfgang, his father, and his sister Maria Anna (nicknamed “Nannerl”)
embarked on a tour featuring Wolfgang in London, Munich, and Paris. As was
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customary at the time, Wolfgang, the son, was promoted and pushed ahead with
his musical career by his father. While his sister, the female, grew up traditionally,
married, and eventually took care of her father
Leopold in his later years. However, while the
two siblings were still performing, these tours
occurred from when Wolfgang was between
the ages of six and seventeen. The tours,
though, were quite demeaning for the young
musical genius in that he was often looked up-
on as just a superficial genre of entertainment
rather than being respected as a musical prod-
igy. He would often be asked to identify the to-
nality of a piece while listening to it or asked to
sight read and perform with a cloth over his
hands while at the piano. Still, the tours al-
lowed young Mozart to accumulate knowledge
about musical styles across Europe. As a com-
poser prior to his teens, the young Mozart had
already composed religious works, symphonies solo sonatas, an opera buffa, and bastien and bastienne, an operetta; in short he had quickly mastered all forms of music.
Back in Salzburg, Mozart was very unhappy due to being musically restrained
by the restrictions of his patron the Archbishop of Salzburg, Hieronymus von Col-
loredo. At approximately the age of twenty-five, he moved to Vienna and became
a free artist (agent) and pursued other opportunities. Another likely reason for
Wolfgang’s ultimate departure to Vienna was to become independent of his father.
Though Leopold was well-meaning and had sacrificed a great deal to ensure the
future and happiness of his son, he was an overbearing father. Thus at the age of
twenty-five, Mozart married Constance Weber. Mozart’s father did not view the
marriage favorably and this marriage served as a wedge severing Wolfgang’s close
ties to his father.
Wolfgang’s new life in Vienna however was not easy. For almost ten years, he
struggled financially unable to find the secure financial environment in which he
had grown up. The music patronage system was still the main way for musicians
to prosper and thrive: several times, Mozart was considered for patron employ-
ment but was not hired. Having hired several other musicians ahead of Mozart,
Emperor Joseph II hired Mozart to basically compose dances for the court’s balls.
As the tasks were far beneath his musical genius, Mozart was quite bitter about
this assignment.
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While in Vienna, Mozart relied on his teaching to sustain him and his family.
He also relied on the entertainment genre of the concert. He would write piano
concertos for annual concerts. Their programs would also include some arias, solo
improvisation, and possibly an overture of piece by another composer.
The peak of Mozart’s career success occurred in 1786 with the writing of The
Marriage of Figaro (libretto by Lorenza da Ponte). The opera was a hit in Prague
and Vienna. The city of Prague, so impressed with the opera, commissioned anoth-
er piece by Mozart. Mozart, with da Ponte again as librettist, then composed Don
Giovanni. The second opera left the audience somewhat confused. Mozart’s luster
and appeal seemed to have passed. As a composer, Mozart was trying to expand
the spectrum, or horizons, of the musical world. Therefore, his music sometimes
had to be viewed more than once by the audience in order for them to understand
and appreciate it. Mozart was pushing the musical envelope beyond the standard
entertainment expected by his aristocratic audience, and patrons in general did
not appreciate it. In a letter to Mozart, Emperor Joseph II wrote of Don Giovanni
that the opera was perhaps better than The Marriage of Figaro but that it did not
set well on the pallet of the Viennese. Mozart quickly fired back, responding that
the Viennese perhaps needed more time to understand it.
In the final year of his life, Mozart with librettist (actor/poet) Emanuel Schikan-
eder, wrote a very successful opera for the Viennese theatre, The Magic Flute. The
newly acclaimed famous composer was quickly hired to write a piece (as well as
attend) the coronation of the new Emperor, Leopold II, as King of Bohemia. The
festive opera that Mozart composed for this event was called The Clemency of Ti-
tus. Its audience, overly indulged and exhausted from the coronation, was not im-
pressed with Mozart’s work. Mozart returned home depressed and broken, and
began working on a Requiem, which, coincidentally, would be his last composition.
The Requiem was commissioned by a count who intended to pass the work off
as his own. Mozart’s health failed shortly after receiving this commission and the
composer died, just before his thirty sixth birthday, before completing the piece.
Mozart’s favorite student, Franz Xaver Sűssmayr, completed the mass from Mo-
zart’s sketch scores, with some insertions of his own, while rumors spread that
Mozart was possibly poisoned by another contemporary composer. In debt at the
time of his death, Mozart was given a common burial.