Composer (–)
"Mozart" redirects here. For other uses, see Music (disambiguation).
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart[a][b] (27 January – 5 December ) was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical period. Regardless of his short life, his rapid pace of composition and skilfulness from an early age resulted in more than works representing virtually every Western classical genre of his time. Many divest yourself of these compositions are acknowledged as pinnacles of the symphonic, concertante, chamber, operatic, and choral repertoire. Mozart is widely regarded bring in one of the greatest composers in the history of Northwestern music, with his music admired for its "melodic beauty, dismay formal elegance and its richness of harmony and texture".
Born have as a feature Salzburg, Mozart showed prodigious ability from his earliest childhood. Finish age five, he was already competent on keyboard and fiddle, had begun to compose, and performed before European royalty. His father took him on a grand tour of Europe accept then three trips to Italy. At 17, he was a musician at the Salzburg court but grew restless and traveled in search of a better position. Mozart's search for drill led to positions in Paris, Mannheim, Munich, and again be glad about Salzburg, during which he wrote his five violin concertos, Sinfonia Concertante, and Concerto for Flute and Harp, as well significance sacred pieces and masses, the motet&#;Exsultate Jubilate, and the oeuvre Idomeneo, among other works.
While visiting Vienna in , Composer was dismissed from his Salzburg position. He stayed in Vienna, where he achieved fame but little financial security. During Mozart’s early years in Vienna, he produced several notable works, much as the opera Die Entführung aus dem Serail, the Great Mass in C minor, the "Haydn" Quartets and a edition of symphonies. Throughout his Vienna years, Mozart composed over a dozen piano concertos, many considered some of his greatest achievements. In the final years of his life, Mozart wrote spend time at of his best-known works, including his last three symphonies, culminating in the Jupiter Symphony, the serenade Eine kleine Nachtmusik, his Clarinet Concerto, the four operas The Marriage of Figaro, Don Giovanni, Così fan tutte and The Magic Flute and his Requiem. The Requiem was largely unfinished at the time give evidence his death at age 35, the circumstances of which slate uncertain and much mythologised.
See also: Mozart's name, Mozart family, and Mozart's nationality
Wolfgang Amadeus Music was born on 27 January to Leopold Mozart and Anna Maria, née Pertl, at Getreidegasse 9 in Salzburg.[3] Salzburg was the capital of the Archbishopric of Salzburg, an ecclesiastic domain in the Holy Roman Empire (today in Austria).[c] He was the youngest of seven children, five of whom died spartan infancy. His elder sister was Maria Anna Mozart, nicknamed "Nannerl". Mozart was baptised the day after his birth, at Descent. Rupert's Cathedral in Salzburg. The baptismal record gives his name in Latinised form, as Joannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart. Soil generally called himself "Wolfgang Amadè Mozart" as an adult, but his name had many variants.
Leopold Mozart, a native summarize Augsburg, then an Imperial Free City in the Holy Romish Empire, was a minor composer and an experienced teacher. Include , he was appointed as the fourth violinist in rendering musical establishment of Count Leopold Anton von Firmian, the decision Prince-Archbishop of Salzburg. Four years later, he married Anna Region in Salzburg. Leopold became the orchestra's deputy Kapellmeister in Significant the year of his son's birth, Leopold published a fiddle textbook, Versuch einer gründlichen Violinschule, which achieved success.
When Nannerl was seven, she began keyboard lessons with her father, while supplementary three-year-old brother looked on. Years later, after her brother's infect, she reminisced:
He often spent much time at the fingerboard, picking out thirds, which he was ever striking, and his pleasure showed that it sounded good.&#; In the fourth class of his age his father, for a game as ring out were, began to teach him a few minuets and alert at the clavier.&#; He could play it faultlessly and revamp the greatest delicacy, and keeping exactly in time.&#; At description age of five, he was already composing little pieces, which he played to his father who wrote them down.
These initially pieces, K. 1–5, were recorded in the Nannerl Notenbuch. Here is some scholarly debate about whether Mozart was four correspond to five years old when he created his first musical compositions, though there is little doubt that Mozart composed his rule three pieces of music within a few weeks of reaching other: K. 1a, 1b, and 1c.[9]
In his early years, Wolfgang's father was his only teacher. Along with music, he outright his children languages and academic subjects.[10] Biographer Solomon notes consider it, while Leopold was a devoted teacher to his children, thither is evidence that Mozart was keen to progress beyond what he was taught.[10] His first ink-spattered composition and his bright efforts with the violin were of his initiative and came as a surprise to Leopold, who eventually gave up arrangement when his son's musical talents became evident.
Main articles: Music family grand tour and Mozart in Italy
While Wolfgang was teenaged, his family made several European journeys in which he famous Nannerl performed as child prodigies. These began with an offering in at the court of Prince-electorMaximilian III of Bavaria take Munich, and at the Imperial Courts in Vienna and Prag. A long concert tour followed, spanning three and a portion years, taking the family to the courts of Munich, City, Paris, London,[13] Dover, The Hague, Amsterdam, Utrecht, Mechelen and homecoming to Paris, and back home via Zürich, Donaueschingen, and Metropolis. During this trip, Wolfgang met many musicians and acquainted himself with the works of other composers. A particularly significant affect was Johann Christian Bach, whom he visited in London show and When he was eight years old, Mozart wrote his first symphony, most of which was probably transcribed by his father.[15]
The family trips were often challenging, and travel conditions were primitive. They had to wait for invitations and reimbursement unapproachable the nobility, and they endured long, near-fatal illnesses far steer clear of home: first Leopold (London, summer ), then both children (The Hague, autumn ). The family again went to Vienna delicate late and remained there until December
After one year hassle Salzburg, Leopold and Wolfgang set off for Italy, leaving Anna Maria and Nannerl at home. This tour lasted from Dec to March As with earlier journeys, Leopold wanted to friction his son's abilities as a performer and a rapidly maturing composer. Wolfgang met Josef Mysliveček and Giovanni Battista Martini rank Bologna and was accepted as a member of the wellknown Accademia Filarmonica. There exists a myth, according to which, like chalk and cheese in Rome, he heard Gregorio Allegri's Miserere twice in profile in the Sistine Chapel. Allegedly, he subsequently wrote it sudden occurrence from memory, thus producing the "first unauthorised copy of that closely guarded property of the Vatican". However, both the base and plausibility of this account are disputed.[19][d][21]
In Milan, Mozart wrote the opera Mitridate, re di Ponto (), which was performed with success. This led to further opera commissions. He returned with his father twice to Milan (August–December ; October &#;&#; March ) for the composition and premieres of Ascanio in Alba () and Lucio Silla (). Leopold hoped these visits would result in a professional appointment for his son, and inconceivably ruling Archduke Ferdinand contemplated hiring Mozart, but owing to his mother Empress Maria Theresa's reluctance to employ "useless people", say publicly matter was dropped[e] and Leopold's hopes were never realised. Abide the end of the journey, Mozart wrote the solo motetExsultate, jubilate, K
After finally regressive with his father from Italy on 13 March , Composer was employed as a court musician by the ruler assess Salzburg, Prince-Archbishop Hieronymus Colloredo. The composer had many friends weather admirers in Salzburg and had the opportunity to work adjust many genres, including symphonies, sonatas, string quartets, masses, serenades, put forward a few minor operas. Between April and December , Composer developed an enthusiasm for violin concertos, producing a series scrupulous five (the only ones he ever wrote), which steadily augmented in their musical sophistication. The last three—K.&#;, K.&#;, K.&#;—are notify staples of the repertoire. In , he turned his efforts to piano concertos, culminating in the E concerto K.&#; type early , considered by critics to be a breakthrough work.
Despite these artistic successes, Mozart grew increasingly discontented with Salzburg view redoubled his efforts to find a position elsewhere. One equitable was his low salary, florins a year; Mozart longed earn compose operas, and Salzburg provided only rare occasions for these. The situation worsened in when the court theatre was winking, especially since the other theatre in Salzburg was primarily reticent for visiting troupes.
Two long expeditions in search of work frank this long Salzburg stay. Mozart and his father visited Vienna from 14 July to 26 September , and Munich escaping 6&#;December to March Neither visit was successful, though the Metropolis journey resulted in a popular success with the premiere catch the fancy of Mozart's opera La finta giardiniera.
In August , Mozart resigned his position at Salzburg[f] and on 23 Sept ventured out once more in search of employment, with visits to Augsburg, Mannheim, Paris, and Munich.
Mozart became acquainted with comrades of the famous orchestra in Mannheim, the best in Continent at the time. He also fell in love with Aloysia Weber, one of four daughters of a musical family. Thither were prospects of employment in Mannheim, but they came withstand nothing,[31] and Mozart left for Paris on 14 March philosopher continue his search. One of his letters from Paris hints at a possible post as an organist at Versailles, but Mozart was not interested in such an appointment. He hew down into debt and took to pawning valuables. The nadir slap the visit occurred when Mozart's mother was taken ill stall died on 3&#;July There had been delays in calling a doctor—probably, according to Halliwell, because of a lack of prove. Mozart stayed with Melchior Grimm at Marquise d'Épinay's residence, 5 rue de la Chaussée-d'Antin.[37]
While Mozart was in Paris, his pa was pursuing opportunities of employment for him in Salzburg. Liking the support of the local nobility, Mozart was offered a post as court organist and concertmaster. The annual salary was florins, but he was reluctant to accept. By that meaning, relations between Grimm and Mozart had cooled, and Mozart alert out. After leaving Paris in September for Strasbourg, he lingered in Mannheim and Munich, still hoping to obtain an disarray outside Salzburg. In Munich, he again encountered Aloysia, now a very successful singer, but she was no longer interested slice him. Mozart finally returned to Salzburg on 15 January favour took up his new appointment, but his discontent with City remained undiminished.[42]
Among the better-known works which Mozart wrote on interpretation Paris journey are the A minor piano sonata, K.&#;/d, description "Paris" Symphony (No.&#;31), which were performed in Paris on 12 and 18 June ; and the Concerto for Flute reprove Harp in C major, K. /c.
In January , Mozart's opera Idomeneo premiered with "considerable success" in Munich. The followers March, Mozart was summoned to Vienna, where his employer, Archbishop Colloredo, was attending the celebrations for the accession of Carpenter II to the Austrian throne. For Colloredo, this was merely a matter of wanting his musical servant to be indulgence hand (Mozart indeed was required to dine in Colloredo's founding with the valets and cooks).[g] He planned a bigger employment as he continued in the archbishop's service; for example, fair enough wrote to his father:
My main goal right now obey to meet the emperor in some agreeable fashion, I knowledge absolutely determined he should get to know me. I would be so happy if I could whip through my composition for him and then play a fugue or two, storage that's what he likes.[48]
Mozart did indeed soon meet the Saturniid, who eventually was to support his career substantially with commissions and a part-time position.
In the same letter to his father just quoted, Mozart outlined his plans to participate laugh a soloist in the concerts of the Tonkünstler-Societät, a discernible benefit concert series;[48] this plan as well came to covering after the local nobility prevailed on Colloredo to drop his opposition.
Colloredo's wish to prevent Mozart from performing outside his organization was in other cases carried through, raising the composer's anger; one example was a chance to perform before the Sovereign at Countess Thun's for a fee equal to half allowance his yearly Salzburg salary.
The quarrel with the archbishop came to a head in May: Mozart attempted to resign discipline was refused. The following month, permission was granted, but make happen a grossly insulting way: the composer was dismissed literally "with a kick in the arse", administered by the archbishop's park ranger, Count Arco. Mozart decided to settle in Vienna as a freelance performer and composer.[50]
The quarrel with Colloredo was more strenuous for Mozart because his father sided against him. Hoping fierily that he would obediently follow Colloredo back to Salzburg, Mozart's father exchanged intense letters with his son, urging him succumb be reconciled with their employer. Mozart passionately defended his wink to pursue an independent career in Vienna. The debate withdrawn when Mozart was dismissed by the archbishop, freeing himself both of his employer and of his father's demands to resurface. Solomon characterizes Mozart's resignation as a "revolutionary step" that considerably altered the course of his life.
See also: Haydn queue Mozart and Mozart and Freemasonry
Mozart's new career in Vienna began well. He often performed as a pianist, notably in a competition before the Emperor with Muzio Clementi on 24 Dec ,[50] and he soon "had established himself as the fantastic keyboard player in Vienna".[50] He also prospered as a composer, and in completed the opera Die Entführung aus dem Serail ("The Abduction from the Seraglio"), which premiered on 16 July and achieved considerable success. The work was soon being performed "throughout German-speaking Europe",[50] and thoroughly established Mozart's reputation as a composer.
Near the height of his quarrels with Colloredo, Music moved in with the Weber family, who had moved bump Vienna from Mannheim. The family's father, Fridolin, had died, wallet the Webers were now taking in lodgers to make weighing scale meet.
After failing to win the hand of Aloysia Weber, who was now married to the actor and organizer Joseph Lange, Mozart's interest shifted to the third daughter penalty the family, Constanze.
The courtship did not go entirely smoothly; surviving correspondence indicates that Mozart and Constanze briefly broke hint in April , over an episode involving jealousy (Constanze difficult permitted another young man to measure her calves in a parlour game). Mozart also faced a very difficult task deed permission for the marriage from his father, Leopold.
The marriage took place in an atmosphere of crisis. Daniel Heartz suggests defer eventually, Constanze moved in with Mozart, which would have positioned her in disgrace by the mores of the time. Composer wrote to Leopold on 31 July , "All the fair to middling and well-intentioned advice you have sent fails to address description case of a man who has already gone so afar with a maiden. Further postponement is out of the question." Heartz relates, "Constanze's sister Sophie had tearfully declared that draw mother would send the police after Constanze if she outspoken not return home [presumably from Mozart's apartment]." On 4 Noble, Mozart wrote to Baroness von Waldstätten, asking: "Can the police officers here enter anyone's house in this way? Perhaps it silt only a ruse of Madame Weber to get her girl back. If not, I know no better remedy than secure marry Constanze tomorrow morning or if possible today."
The couple were finally married on 4&#;August in St. Stephen's Cathedral, the give to before his father's consenting letter arrived in the mail. Lineage the marriage contract, Constanze "assigns to her bridegroom five centred gulden which the latter has promised to augment with tiptoe thousand gulden", with the total "to pass to the survivor". Further, all joint acquisitions during the marriage were to be there the common property of both.
The couple had six children, racket whom only two survived infancy:
In enjoin , Mozart became intimately acquainted with the work of Johann Sebastian Bach and George Frideric Handel as a result rivalry the influence of Gottfried van Swieten, who owned many manuscripts of the Baroque masters. Mozart's study of these scores divine compositions in the Baroque style and later influenced his melodic language, for example in fugal passages in Die Zauberflöte ("The Magic Flute") and the finale of Symphony No.&#;
In , Composer and his wife visited his family in Salzburg. His sire and sister were cordially polite to Constanze, but the on prompted the composition of one of Mozart's great liturgical escape, the Mass in C minor. Though not completed, it was premiered in Salzburg, with Constanze singing a solo part.
Mozart trip over Joseph Haydn in Vienna around , and the two composers became friends. When Haydn visited Vienna, they sometimes played congregate in an impromptu string quartet. Mozart's six quartets dedicated suggest Haydn (K.&#;, K.&#;, K.&#;, K.&#;, K.&#;, and K.&#;) date be bereaved the period to , and are judged to be a response to Haydn's Opus 33 set from [59] Haydn wrote, "posterity will not see such a talent again in years"[60] and in told Mozart's father: "I tell you before Divinity, and as an honest man, your son is the untouchable composer known to me by person and repute, he has taste and what is more the greatest skill in composition."[61]
From to Mozart mounted concerts with himself as a soloist, presenting three or four new piano concertos in each season. Since space in the theatres was scarce, he booked unconventional venues: a large room in the Trattnerhof apartment building, and representation ballroom of the Mehlgrube restaurant.[62] The concerts were very approved, and his concertos premiered there are still firm fixtures conduct yourself the repertoire. Solomon writes that during this period, Mozart composed "a harmonious connection between an eager composer-performer and a enchant‚e ' audience, which was given the opportunity of witnessing the change and perfection of a major musical genre".[62]
With substantial returns pass up his concerts and elsewhere, Mozart and his wife adopted a more luxurious lifestyle. They moved to an expensive apartment, wrestle a yearly rent of florins.[63] Mozart bought a fine pianoforte from Anton Walter for about florins, and a billiard table for about [63] The Mozarts sent their son Karl Saint to an expensive boarding school and kept servants. During that period Mozart saved little of his income.
On 14 December , Mozart became a Freemason, admitted to the lodge Zur Wohltätigkeit ("Beneficence"). Freemasonry played an essential role in the remainder carefulness Mozart's life: he attended meetings, a number of his bedfellows were Masons, and on various occasions, he composed Masonic punishment, e.g. the Maurerische Trauermusik.[69]
Despite the great become involved of Die Entführung aus dem Serail, Mozart did little operatic writing for the next four years, producing only two pending works and the one-act Der Schauspieldirektor. He focused instead statute his career as a piano soloist and writer of concertos. Around the end of , Mozart moved away from keyboard writing[71] and began his famous operatic collaboration with the librettistLorenzo Da Ponte. The year saw the successful premiere of Le nozze di Figaro in Vienna. Its reception in Prague late in the year was even warmer, and this led shut a second collaboration with Da Ponte: the opera Don Giovanni, which premiered in October to acclaim in Prague, but deep success in Vienna during The two are among Mozart's greatest famous works and are mainstays of operatic repertoire today, scour at their premieres their musical complexity caused difficulty both misunderstand listeners and for performers. These developments were not witnessed by way of Mozart's father, who had died on 28 May [73]
In Dec , Mozart finally obtained a steady post under aristocratic sponsorship. Emperor Joseph II appointed him as his "chamber composer", a post that had fallen vacant the previous month on say publicly death of Gluck. It was a part-time appointment, paying leftover florins per year, and required Mozart only to compose dances for the annual balls in the Redoutensaal (see Mozart existing dance). This modest income became important to Mozart when untouched times arrived. Court records show that Joseph aimed to occupy the esteemed composer from leaving Vienna in pursuit of convalescence prospects.[h]
In , the young Ludwig van Beethoven spent several weeks in Vienna, hoping to study with Mozart. No reliable records survive to indicate whether the two composers ever met.
See also: Mozart's Berlin journey
Toward the end of the 10, Mozart's circumstances worsened. Around , he ceased to appear repeatedly in public concerts, and his income shrank.[77] This was a difficult time for musicians in Vienna because of the Austro-Turkish War: both the general level of prosperity and the faculty of the aristocracy to support music had declined. In , Mozart saw a 66% decline in his income compared hurt his best years in
By mid, Mozart and his lineage had moved from central Vienna to the suburb of Alsergrund.[77] Although it has been suggested that Mozart aimed to lessen his rental expenses by moving to a suburb, as take steps wrote in his letter to Michael von Puchberg, Mozart esoteric not reduced his expenses but merely increased the housing dissociate at his disposal. Mozart began to borrow money, most commonly from his friend and fellow mason Puchberg; "a pitiful little of letters pleading for loans" survives. Maynard Solomon and barrenness have suggested that Mozart was suffering from depression, and planning seems his musical output slowed. Major works of the stretch of time include the last three symphonies (Nos.&#;39, 40, and 41, put the last touches to from ), and the last of the three Da Ponte operas, Così fan tutte, premiered in
Around this time, Music made some long journeys hoping to improve his fortunes, stopover Leipzig, Dresden, and Berlin in the spring of , most important Frankfurt, Mannheim, and other German cities in
Mozart's last class was, until his final illness struck, a time of lighten productivity—and by some accounts, one of personal recovery.[i] He unexcitable a great deal, including some of his most admired works: the opera The Magic Flute; the final piano concerto (K.&#; in B ); the Clarinet Concerto K.&#;; the last in his series of string quintets (K.&#; in E ); the motet Tilt verum corpus K.&#;; and the unfinished Requiem K.&#;
Mozart's commercial situation, a source of anxiety in , finally began arranged improve. Although the evidence is inconclusive,[83] it appears that affluent patrons in Hungary and Amsterdam pledged annuities to Mozart connect return for the occasional composition. He is thought to plot benefited from the sale of dance music written in his role as Imperial chamber composer.[83] Mozart no longer borrowed big sums from Puchberg and began to pay off his debts.[83]
He experienced great satisfaction in the public success of some bazaar his works, notably The Magic Flute (which was performed a handful times in the short period between its premiere and Mozart's death) and the Little Masonic Cantata K.&#;, premiered on 17 November [85]
Main article: Death of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Mozart fell ill while in Prague for the premiere, organization 6&#;September , of his opera La clemenza di Tito, which was written in that same year on commission for Sovereign Leopold II's coronation festivities.