Mozart: The Musician & Man

Following up on the last post, “Socrates: A One Day Trial Leading to Execution” today’s LinkedIn newsletter features Austrian composer Mozart, who during his active years composed more than 600 works that include operas, string quartets, piano and violin sonatas, and many concertos.

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Mozart was born on January 27, 1756 on the feast day of St. John Chrysostomin in Salzburg, Austria. The youngest of seven children, he was the sole-surviving son of Leopold and Maria Pertl Mozart.

He was christened Joannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus the day after his birth at St. Rupert's Cathedral. The name Theophilus became Gottlieb by German translation and was converted to the Italian Amadeus after a journey to Italy. He would come to be known as Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.

His father Leopold Mozart, was a violinist and composer and the family lived in a five story tenement, which is now the Mozart Museum.

His sister, Maria Anna (nicknamed “Nannerl”), started playing when she was seven, as three-year old Wolfgang looked on. He would sit on the floor playing with blocks or a kitchen spoon, and at certain sounds drop his toys, rise and head to the piano. Mozart quickly began to show a strong understanding of chords, tonality, and tempo.

At four years old, his father began to teach him to play. Within a year, his mind was consumed with music, that is, until he discovered arithmetic. He would scribble figures on walls, floors, tables and chairs... but music was his real interest.

At the age of five, Mozart’s public life began in September 1761, singing the treble part in a church choir at the close of the year at Salzburg Gymnasium, one of 150 kids involved.

He started his musical career as a performer, touring Europe with his older sister as a pair of child prodigies.

In December 1769, Mozart and his father departed from Salzburg for Italy, leaving his mother and Nannerl at home. By this time Nannerl’s professional music career was over. She was nearing marriageable age and according to the custom of the time, she was no longer permitted to show her artistic talent in public.

In 1768, Mozart composed his first opera which was to been performed for the celebrations for the wedding of Marie Josefa to the King of Naples. La finta simplice is an opera buffa in three acts for seven voices and orchestra, composed.

His opera, Idomeneo, is considered his first mature opera, and greatest work. One of the few 18th-century opera seria to have regular performances two centuries later.

Mozart developed a passion for violin concertos producing what came to be the only five he wrote. In 1776, he turned his efforts toward piano concertos, culminating in the Piano Concerto Number 9 in E flat major in early 1777.

On August 4, 1782, he married Constanze, the daughter of Fridolin Weber. The couple had six children, of whom only two survived infancy.

Of his 17 completed operas, The Marriage of Figaro—an operatic collaboration with the librettist Lorenzo da Ponte, Don Giovanni, Cosi fan tutte, and The Magic Flute are in the repertory of every opera company in the world.

During an illness which lasted 15 days, and registered as “acute military fever,” his body swelled, he vomited vehemently and suffered from a high fever. Mozart died in his home on December 5, 1791 at 12:55 am, at age 35. Constenza crawled into his bed in a vain attempt to infect herself with his disease. A person from the Vienna art gallery arrived to take a death mask.

The house in which he died, No. 970 Rauhensteingasse, was demolished in the 19th century and is now the site of the Steffel department store.

Mozart is considered to be one of the two top composers of the Classical era. The other was Joseph Haydn, and they were friends who would sometimes play in string quartets together. Like Haydn, Mozart’s music followed the balanced, symmetrical structures typical of the Classical period.

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About the Author: Lawrence Jean-Louis is the founder and creative behind beYOUteous, an eCommerce store offering a line of handcrafted beaded jewelry which aims to spread the message for embracing individuality, feminine strength, and empowerment. Her latest book, She Sells Seashells by the Seashore: Biographies of 12 Entrepreneurial Women is available for pre-order.