Musicians - Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

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	Musicians - Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (baptised as Joannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart; January 27, 1756 – December 5, 1791) is among the most significant and enduringly popular composers of European classical music. His enormous output 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.

Life

Family and early years

Mozart was born in the city of Salzburg, the capital of the archbishopric of Salzburg to Leopold and Anna Maria Pertl Mozart. 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. Of these names, the first two were saints' names not employed in everyday life and the fourth was variously translated in Mozart's lifetime as Amadeus (Latin), Gottlieb (German), and Amadé. Mozart's father Leopold announced the birth of his son in a letter to the publisher Johann Jakob Lotter with the words "... the boy is called Joannes Chrisostomus, Wolfgang, Gottlieb". Mozart himself preferred the third (see Mozart's name).

Mozart's musical ability became noticeable when he was about three years old. His father, Leopold, was one of Europe's leading musical teachers. (Leopold's influential textbook Versuch einer gründlichen Violinschule, or "Essay on the fundamentals of violin playing" was published in 1756, the year of Mozart's birth.) Mozart received intensive musical training from his father, including instruction in clavier, violin, and organ.

The years of travel

During his formative years, Mozart completed several journeys throughout Europe, beginning 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. A long concert tour spanning three and a half years followed, taking him with his father to the courts of Munich, Mannheim, Paris, London, The Hague, again to Paris, and back home via Zürich, Donaueschingen, and Munich. They again went to Vienna in late 1767 and remained there until December 1768.

After one year in Salzburg, three trips to Italy followed: from December 1769 to March 1771, from August to December 1771, and from October 1772 to March 1773. During the first of these trips, Mozart met Andrea Luchesi in Venice and G.B. Martini in Bologna and was accepted as a member of the famous Accademia Filarmonica. A highlight of the Italian journey, now 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 entirety from memory, only returning to correct minor errors; he thus produced the first illegal copy of this closely-guarded property of the Vatican .

On July 3, 1778, accompanied by his mother, Mozart began a tour of Europe that included Munich, Mannheim, and Paris, where his mother died.

During his trips, Mozart met a great number of musicians and acquainted himself with the works of other great composers. A particularly important influence was Johann Christian Bach, who befriended Mozart in London in 1764–65. Bach's work is often taken to be an inspiration for Mozart's music.

Even non-musicians caught Mozart's attention. He was so taken by the sound created by Benjamin Franklin's glass harmonica that he composed several pieces of music for it.

Mozart in Vienna

In 1781 Mozart visited Vienna in the company of his employer, the harsh Prince-Archbishop Colloredo, and soon fell out with him. According to Mozart's own testimony, he was dismissed - literally - "with a kick in the seat of the pants." Mozart chose to settle and develop his career in Vienna after its aristocracy began to take an interest in him.

On August 4, 1782, against his father's wishes, he married Constanze Weber (1762-1842) (also spelled "Costanze"; her father was a half-brother of Carl Maria von Weber's father Fridolin Weber. Although they had seven children, only two survived infancy. Neither of these two, Karl Thomas (1784–1858) and Franz Xaver Wolfgang (1791-1844; later a minor composer himself), married or had children.

The year 1782 was an auspicious one for Mozart's career; his opera Die Entführung aus dem Serail ("The Abduction from the Seraglio") was a great success and he began a series of concerts at which he premiered his own piano concertos as director of the ensemble and soloist.

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