Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Biography

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart 1756 - 1791 By 1776 and the American hard time paying his bills. In part Revolution, Mozart was twenty this could be because of the years old, and he had already patronage system in which lived more than half of his royalty and the church of the short, amazing life. He was day supported some musicians, born in 1756 in Salzburg, and they did well in their Austria, the son of Leopold profession. Sadly, Mozart Mozart, the director of music didn’t function well in this at the court of the Prince of system. It may have been his Salzburg. It quickly became unique childhood that left him apparent that young Wolfgang unable to work well with the had amazing musical talents. By formalities of royalty in this period. age three, he played the klavier, by In 1781, Mozart moved to the bustling age five he was composing complex works, city of Vienna, one of the centers of art and and age seven saw him conquer the violin. culture at the time. To make a living, he taught Mozart’s father was quick to seize upon these music to the children of the rich and powerful talents and soon set up tours with Wolfgang in the mornings, and played for royalty in the and his older sister Maria Anna. Soon they afternoons. In Vienna, he also started to live were performing for all of the royal families in his own life, making friends, and falling in love. Europe, and word spread far and wide of this All the while, he continued to write music at a amazing prodigy. We now know him to be the fevered pace. But he didn’t sleep well and most astounding musical prodigy of all time. didn’t take very good care of himself. He As the touring continued during his continued to have money troubles. He married childhood, Mozart met the great musicians of Constanze Weber, though neither her family his day and even studied with some of them. nor his approved. She was always there for him, This included “Papa” Josef Haydn, probably the even in his worst times. most respected composer to that point and one His last ten years saw some of his best who had written many forms of music, music, though at the time it was not well including symphonies and string quartets, that received. And so his money problems got were also of interest to Mozart. worse, making him work harder. This took a During his thirty-five short years, he toll on his health. Unfortunately, financial composed more than 600 musical works, a huge problems also caused him to take on an output by any account, especially because so enormous commission of a requiem mass from many of them were large works, including some an anonymous patron. The more he worked on of the great operas, dozens of concertos, and it, the more depressed and ill he became, until almost fifty symphonies. By the time he was eventually he was bed bound and was just twelve years old, he was writing as fast and convinced that the music was for his funeral. effortlessly as he did for most of his life. It was He was so weak that he hired a student to take said that he composed most of the details of a his dictation of the music. As he was finishing work in his head before he ever wrote a note, the work, on a cold December night, he died and indeed was troubled by all of the time it leaving the world to wonder whether the took to put the music on paper. He thought ending was his or his student’s. much faster than he could write. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, one of the While he was greatly respected by people of greatest composers the world has ever known, his time and ever since, he never really was buried in a pauper’s grave just short of his prospered during his lifetime. Often, he had a thirty-sixth birthday. © 2006 Plank Road Publishing, Inc. .

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