The Piano Pages: Mozart Biography
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was born in Salzburg, Germany, on January 27, 1756. He showed his musical talent very, very early: he began composing music when he was four years old, he played in operas before he was ten, and he wrote an opera when he was twelve. People, however, did not believe that young Wolfgang wrote those compositions; they thought his father wrote them and passed them off as his son's. In order to prove the compositions were Mozart's, the family had him write in public music to the poems people brought him. At twelve years old, Mozart wrote his first symphony, Opus 15.
Mozart married Constance Weber, of the famously musical Von Weber family.
During his short life, he wrote 18 operas, 2 Oratorios, many Masses, Graduals, Hymns, 23 Piano Concertos, several Concertos for other instruments, 31 Piano Sonatas, and a total of 626 Compositions of all kinds. He wrote at the rate of over 20 compositions a year. Three of his most popular operas were "The Marriage of Figaro", "Don Giovanni", and "The Magic Flute." He wrote 49 symphonies, but his last three were his best.
The last work Mozart wrote was "The Requiem" (a requiem is a musical composition written in honor of the dead). Just a short time before his death, a man dressed all in black came to Mozart at night and asked him to write a Requiem for him. Mozart, who was ill at the time, felt that it was for his own funeral. He wrote the requiem, however, and afterwards it became known that the man in black had intended to take credit for writing the composition and pass it off as his own.
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart died in Vienna, Austria, on December 5, 1791, known for writing some of the greatest music the world has ever known.
Several comments left by Mozart regarding music:
- "The three essentials are: the head, the heart, the hand."
- "All notes, graces, accents, and embellishments should be brought out with fitting taste and expression."
- "The performer should possess a quiet, steady hand, with its natural lightness, smoothness, and gliding rapidity."
Emily Sigers
emily@thepianopages.com
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