The Short Life of the One and Only Child Prodigy, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart 1756-1791
“Mozart is a divine genius of light and love. The history of art does not know a single phenomenon more touching and more sublime than it. He achieved the incredible, left immeasurable riches to generations” /Wagner/.
“In my deep conviction, Mozart is the highest, culminating point to which beauty has reached in the field of music” /Tchaikovsky/.
Mozart’s life is a heroic feat in selfless service to art.
Mozart was considered a “child prodigy who composed with intensity until his last days. He lived a humble life and had endless obstacles and opposition from enemies. Mozart wasted a lot of his time in private lessons. In his short life, Mozart composed more than 600 works.
Mozart composes all his music at the highest value and significance. All his work was perfect and he wrote music for every known instrument at that time. There is no musical instrument known in his time for which he didn’t create a work.
He composed 22 operas, 50 symphonies, 7 concertos for violin and orchestra, 25 concertos for piano and orchestra, sonatas for violin, piano and organ, 23 quartets, 8 quintets, 70 vocal-symphonic works, arias, duets, tercets, 4 serenades, divertimentos, and other concert ensembles, 30 songs, 4 cantatas, 2 oratorios, 18 masses, a requiem, and many others.
Most significant of his immortal works are his operas and symphonies. If you try to copy Mozart’s works, you can’t do it for the 35 years he lived.
Mozart’s music is optimistic, tender, beautiful, and emotional. It reaches everyone’s heart due to its melodic sound. When we listen to it, we experience joyful and happy feelings. Some people associate it with positive experiences. It’s called “music of the soul” for a reason. Scientists have studied his music over the years and found many benefits from it. You can read more about the “The Mozart Effect” in the blog I wrote below.
Besides being a composer, Mozart was a harpsichordist, conductor, violinist, singer, organist, and unique improviser. His memory was phenomenal and he had perfect pitch (ability to identify any note/sound by ear).
Family Life
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart came from a family of craftsmen. His great-grandfathers moved to the city of Augsburg /Austria/ in 1636. They’re stonemasons, bookbinders and masons. The composer’s father, Leopold Mozart, was witty, observant, hardworking, and ambitious. He’s the only one with musical talent.
His parents prepared him for a spiritual career. As a child he sang as a chorister in a monastery, while learning to play the harpsichord, violin and organ. In 1737, he entered the University of Salzburg to study law and philosophy, while continuing to study music.
Leopold established himself as a first-class musician and composer due to his hard work. Unfortunately, he was expelled from the university and returned to Salzburg, as a valet and musician to the count of Thurn.
Mozart’s mother, Anna Maria Pertl, was a talented singer. She was cheerful, good-natured, and modest. Leopold was – strict, closed, with a sense of dignity.
There’s always music in Mozart’s home. His mother sang songs, the father often played music with his relatives. Leopold had many students who came to his house for piano or violin lessons. At the age of seven, Nannerl (Mozart’s sister) began to study the piano under her father. Soon she became an excellent pianist and singer. Mozart showed interest in music from a very young age.
Mozart’s Music Interest Begins
One day when he was two years old and playing with his sister in the garden, he heard the sound of a violin from his father’s room. Wolfgang stopped playing and went to his father’s room, who was teaching a violin to his student. Wolfgang listened with his mouth and eyes wide open. His father chased him outside, but the always obedient child bursted into tears and didn’t want to go out.
Because of his finger dexterity and extraordinary memory, he was able to perform complex musical pieces.
Mozart’s father wrote in a notebook that his four-year-old son is already trying to compose pieces that he has to write down because the child can’t yet write notes. Leopold also wrote in his music notebook: “This minuet and trio Wolfgang studied on 26.1.1761 at 21:30 in the evening for half an hour, one day before he turned five”. It took Mozart no more than half an hour to learn a minuet or other pieces, in perfect rhythm and tempo. When he would practice, even the slightest noise irritated him and drove him nuts. He acted like a totally different person when he was playing his music. He was very focused and didn’t let anything or anyone disturb him. As soon as he finished playing, he immediately became a small child again with his childish manners, habits and interests.
Wolfgang loved his father very much, who had great authority over him. His father’s opinion was very important to him. Leopold was very strict and persistent with his music work. He had high expectations of his son.
Mozart’s Musical Career
Mozart studied not only piano, violin, and organ performance, but also music theory and composition. He was never pleased with his accomplishments and demanded more of himself for the rest of his life.
Mozart composed small plays, but at the age of five when his parents weren’t home, he composed something “bigger”. As he wrote the piece, he smudged the sheets with ink, wiped away the stains with his palm, and wrote over them again. When his father returned, he noticed the scribbled pages. Leopold examined the notes and discovered that Wolfgang’s concerto has logic and a form. He also performed it in front of some guests he had at their house, and everyone was very impressed.
The notebook with Mozart’s children’s works is in the Salzburg music museum “Mozarteum”.
By the age of six, Wolfgang was an extraordinary harpsichord virtuoso pianist. His fame grew fast and many people started calling the boy “possessed by the devil”.
Elector of Salzburg was the Archbishop Sigismund Schratenbach at that time. He’s a lover of music and other arts. He heard about Mozart’s phenomenal talent and decided to personally find out if the child was possessed by a demon. Michael Haydn, brother of Joseph Haydn, also worked in his palace. He conducted an exam to make sure that Mozart’s talent was only because of hard work.
In 1762, Wolfgang and Nannerl (Mozart’s sister), gave concerts at the Elector’s Palace in Munich for three weeks and had great success. Leopold Mozart realized that his children were very liked, and he decided to travel to Vienna. The Vienna audience was one of the most competent in Europe at that time. The emperor invited them to Schönbrunn Palace. They stayed there for two weeks to prepare Wolfgang how to behave in front of the imperial family and at the ceremony.
On the day of the concert Wolfgang has to go through the salon and kiss the hand of the empress. As he’s walking he slips and falls on the polished parquet floor, but because of his clothing and shoes he can’t get up on his own. The empress sends her young daughter Marie Antoinette /later wife of Louis XVI/ to help him.
She helps him get up and leads him to her mother. Young Wolfgang says:
“You’re a wonderful girl! When I grow up, I will definitely marry you because you are good…”
Everyone starts laughing.
In the palace, the children perform several piano concerts in four hands and individually.
Wolfgang performs technically very difficult pieces, but the Emperor isn’t impressed. He thinks it would be a miracle to perform if the keys are covered. Leopold Mozart covers the keys with canvas and the little virtuoso plays brilliantly.
Next the emperor wants Mozart to play with one finger. The child also fulfills this wish of the monarch.
Wolfgang’s fame as a “child prodigy” spread throughout Austria. He’s talked about in Vienna by everyone.
One of Mozart’s qualities was knowing his worth. He didn’t bow down to anyone, even the highest-ranking person. At one of his concerts, for example, the emperor sat next to him behind the piano. But Wolfgang didn’t start playing until Wagenzeil entered the room. Then he turned to the emperor and asked him to flip through the notes for him.
The word about the “prodigy children” spread all over Europe and everyone attended their concerts.
Here’s an announcement of their concert, printed in the “Frankfurt Gazette”:
“Today, Wednesday, August 30, 1763, at 18:00 o’clock the last concert will take place.
Mozart’s sister, 12-year-old at the time and a 7-year-old Mozart would play harpsichord concerts. The girl will perform the most difficult works of great masters.
The boy will play a violin concerto, along with the symphony. Then from afar he will name all the tones that will be taken singly or in chords on a piano or on any other instrument or emitted by objects – bells, glasses, clocks. Finally, he will improvise not only on the harpsichord, but also on the organ, for as long as the listeners wish, in any, even the most difficult, keys that are given to him”.
Between 1782-1786, Mozart’s concert activity reached its peak.
He became the most popular and recognized virtuoso pianist in Vienna. Clementi, who was then the greatest world virtuoso, recognized the extraordinary freedom of his improvisations and the irresistible beauty of his performance.
During these four years, the composer created 15 concertos for piano and orchestra. Each of them is a complete musical picture, striking with grace and a variety of colors.
Mozart wrote the D minor Concerto for Piano and Orchestra No. 20, in 3 days. Beethoven had such great respect for Mozart that he composed a cadenza for it. This was the only instrumental concerto that Beethoven played in public concerts. Beethoven only performed his own music.
Mozart died on December 5, 1791.
Because Mozart never became rich, his family didn’t have enough money to bury him. Creditors found only 200 guilders in his home and property worth 400 guilders. His debts were 3,000 guilders.
The day of the funeral was wet and cold. The funeral was in a small church without music. None of his relatives attended it. Mozart’s enemy, Salieri, attended the funeral. The artist Roser tells him: “Pity for Mozart, what a great loss for all music.” Salieri replies: “Pity, of course, that such a great genius has passed away. But it’s good for us that he died. If he had lived longer, no one in the world would’ve given a piece of bread for our compositions.”
Mozart’s early scholars suggest that Antonio Salieri poisoned Mozart. Because of this rumor, Salieri left the theater.