Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart : A Prominent Musical Genius

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart baptized as Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart lived from January 27, 1756 to December 5, 1791. Mozart was a very influential and prolific composer of more than 600 works, including symphonies, concertante, chamber, piano, opera, and choral music. Regarded as a child prodigy, Mozart composed and performed in the European courts from the age of five, and was engaged at the Salzburg court at 17. Mozart’s musical style can be classified as Classical, although he learned from many of his contemporaries throughout his musical career. In order to better understand Mozart’s genius it is best to begin looking at his earliest contributions to the musical world as a child. From there, an exploration of his

Johann Chrysostom Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, or Wolfgang Mozart for short, was born on January 27, 1756. He was an Austrian composer that today is known as one of the greatest composers in the history of Western music. Mozart wrote in multiple musical genres, excelling in each one. Because of his range of expression, it made him seem the most universal of all composers.

This paper discusses Mozart's life, his compositions and his importance to the world and the world of music. It explains how Mozart's music is still some of the most popular classical music played today and his life is still studied because his music is so well known and liked.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart lived during a period of great change in philosophy, art, religion and music. This change was brought about by the transition from the baroque period where the Catholic Church encouraged the arts to depict religious themes and the aristocracy ruled over the artists. The populace had very little power or recognition.

Mozart was a virtuoso on the piano. A virtuoso refers to someone who is highly skilled on his or her instrument. Mozart played keyboard and violin while his sister only played the keyboard. At the early age of 3, Mozart was showing signs of being musically gifted and began composing shortly after. Both he and his sister received intense musical training which, in turn, allowed Mozart the opportunity to grow as a musician. It became certain that Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was a child prodigy. This meant that he had a skill that was not learned. He had a natural gift for music. Their father, Leopold began teaching his children music at a young age. Because of this, both children were destined to get far in their musical careers. Over his short life, Mozart wrote several operas. His most famous operas include; The Marriage of Figaro, The Magic Flute and La Clemenza di Tito. Operas and plays that are entirely sung. Each of Mozart’s operas have a story behind it. For example, The Marriage of Figaro is a comedy about a couple trying to get married but, a series of obstacles interferes with it. Because Mozart showed a talent for music at the young age of six, his father took him and his sister to play in from of a court and they caught the attention of important individuals. This resulted in a tour.

Although Leopold was known for his children, Mozart's father was actually very musical himself. He was the fourth chair violinist in the musical establishment of Count Leopold Anton von Firmian, the ruling Prince-Archbishop of Salzburg. He also taught and composed violin and piano. Leopold was born November 14, 1719, and died May 28, 1787, at the age of 68.

     Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart is said to be the greatest genius in western music history. Wolfgang Amadeus was born in Salzburg, Austria January 27, 1756 his parents were Leopold Mozart and Anna Maria Pertl. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s father was a successful composer, violinist, and assistant concertmaster at the Salzburg court. The

     Without a doubt, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart born January 27, 1756, in Salzburg, was probably the greatest genius in Western musical history. His father was a noted composer, pedagogue and author of a famous treatise on violin

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was a prolific European Composer during the 18th century where he made a lasting change on the musical world through his numerous compositions and excellence in his capabilities of playing many instruments perfectly. Mozart was born on January 27th, 1756, in Salzburg Austria. His father was Leopold Mozart who was a violinist, a minor composer, and Vice-Kapellmeister at the court of the Archbishop of Salzburg. His mother was Maria Anna Pertl. By the time Mozart was around four his father gave his sister music lessons, but without anyone knowing Mozart would absorb what they were talking about, and he started to awaken his gift. He started memorizing and playing songs just by hearing them and reciting them after. Mozart was four years old when he composed his first concerto for the clavier. On January 24, 1761, three days before his birthday, he learned a scherzo by Georg Christoph Wagenseil between nine and nine thirty at night an unusual time for a small child to be practicing in an age of no electric lights as Jeremy Siepmann says in Mozart His Life and His Music (5).

Mozart, from an early age, astounded his father with his musical talent. At the age of three he was playing the keyboard, and by the time he was five years old was composing simple minuets. In 1763, Leopold embarked on a three-year journey with his two children to showcase their abilities before Europe’s nobles. The tour spanned a alot of major European cities: Paris, Versailles, where the Mozarts performed before Louis XV, King of France, The Hague, London, Munich, Zurich, and Geneva. Mozart had already gained experience as a musician and was able to make connections to the courts of Europe. These connections later proved to be crucial when Mozart began to pursue his own

As we all go through school, we seem to hear the name “Mozart” come up quite a bit. Everyone seems to know the name and know a few things about him, but what was he really like? What did his music sound like? Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was an Austrian composer, keyboard player, violinist, violist, and conductor. He was born in Salzburg Austria in 1756, and died in 1791. Wolfgang is commonly known as a “child prodigy”. At a very young age, he was taught harpsichord, violin and organ by his father, and was presented in concerts before the royalty of Europe by the age of 6. (Ellsberg) At the age of thirteen Wolfgang had already written symphonies, concertos, and sonatas and was known all around Europe. Mozart is still known by many as the world’s greatest musical genius.

Mozart was a key piece of the social part of this period in the eighteenth century. He, as a musician, encouraged in his music, to break away from composing traditional religious music, and he composed concertos inspired on his life experiences and stories. He likewise cleared routes for different writers of this time, for example, Beethoven, who made his own particular style with pieces of Mozart's work. Beethoven was also a contemporary Wunderkind and just like Mozart, he started learning about music when he was very little, and although he was not as talented as Mozart, he still wrote great pieces of music that were also based on his life experiences during that time period and his emotions.

In Salzburg, Austria, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was born on January 27, 1756. Wolfgang was the only son of Leopold and Maria Pertl Mozart to survive. Wolfgang began learning about music when he was three years old, watching his sister Nannerl play the keyboard. He was a musical prodigy, composing his first piece at 5, and beginning “tours” with his father at 6 years old. When Wolfgang turned 13, his father took him to Italy to show off this young boy’s talents. Before Mozart turned 21, he was appointed to be assistant concertmaster. It was at this time that he wrote his first opera. Mozart left on another tour in 1777, and then returned to Salzburg to be a court organist. He soon decided he was not so fond of this position, and resigned to become a freelance musician in Vienna. When he moved to Vienna, he married Constanze Weber, against his father’s wishes. Wolfgang lived in luxury during the beginning of his life in Vienna, he was producing popular operas. Soon, though, he began to lack money, and took loans that would leave him in debt for the rest of his life. In the final years of Mozart’s life, he was most productive, writing his most famous symphonies, The Magic Flute, and of course,

In 1747 Leopold Mozart married Maria Anna Pertl. Leopold and Maria Anna would have seven children, two of who would survive. Maria Anna born in 1752 who the family called Nannerl . Then in 1756 Wolfgang Amadeus who was nicknamed Wolfgangerl. Wolfgang Amadeus was not his original birth name it was shortened to this from Joannes Chrisostomos Wolfgangus Gottlieb. It is little wonder even two of the children survived; “Given Leopolds insistence that they be brought up on a diet of water and gruel, the wonder is that any survived at all.” (Siepmann, Mozart His life and Music) Leopold Mozart was very musical himself and was a skilled violinist, composer and an author. He wrote a well

Was he as famous in the past as his is now? To what extent did he impact the music industry? In the book Mozart: A Life by Peter Gay, he discusses the circumstances in which Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was raised, cultured and discovered. He separates the book into distinctive chapters, labeling them: The Prodigy, The Son, The Servant, The Freelance,