
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

1756-1791


Biography

Born in Salzburg, Austria on Jan. 27, 1756; full name Johannes Chrysostomus
 	Wolfgangus Gottlieb Mozart; he was baptized as Johannes
	Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart.  Mozart is named after his
	grandfather on his mother's side and after the Saint on his date of
 	birth, Johannes Chrysostomus.
Parents: Leopold Mozart - composer and violinist, concertmaster at the
	archiepiscopal court, and in 1763, vice-kapellmeister at Salzburg court;
  	and Anna Maria Pertl, daughter of Wolfgang Nikolaus Pertl, an official
	from Sankt Gilgen
Sibling: Maria Anna (Nannerl) Mozart
Age 3: started to play the keyboard
Age 5: started composing minuets
1763-1766 toured Europe with his father and sister played for Louis XV at
	Versailles and George III in London
1764 wrote his first three symphonies; also met Johann Christian Bach By his teenage years, he mastered the piano, violin, and harpsichord
1768 completed first opera, La finta semplice (The Simple Pretense)
1769-1773 made three trips to Italy
	In Rome, there was a myth that Mozart attended the performance of
	Allegri's Misere.  He wanted the score but when no one agreed he
	wrote down the music from memory.
1770 Mitridate, re di Ponte (Mithridates, King of Pontus) performed in Milan
	was Mozart's first major opera
1772 appointed concertmaster in the orchestra of Archbishop of Salzburg.
	During this period, he wrote many sacred works.
1777 toured with his mother hoping to find a court position; traveled to
	Mannheim where he met and fell in love with Aloysia Weber 1778, July Anna Maria Mozart died
1779 unable to find a court position, Mozart went back to Salzburg; appointed
	as court organist to the Archbishop of Salzburg
1781 resigned from his position due to increasing tension and disagreements
	between Mozart and the Archbishop.  Mozart stayed in Vienna instead
	of returning to Salzburg.  Mozart's resignation and his move to Vienna
	put a strain in his relationship with his father.
1782 married Constanze Weber in Vienna's St. Stephen's Cathedral.  After
	Mozart's death, Constanze married Danish diplomat Georg Nikolaus
	von Nissen.  In Vienna, Mozart supported his family by performing in
	public and private, teaching , and composing.  His first opera written
	after his residency in Vienna, Abduction from Seraglio became a
	success.
1786 The Marriage of Figaro, the first of three operas Mozart collaborated with
	librettist, Lorenza da Ponte, premiered at the 	Burg Theater.
1787 became composer of Imperial and Royal Chamber with an annual salary of
	800fl.  His father, Leopold, died on May 28, 1787.  Don Giovanni
	premiered in Prague at the National Theater.
1790 Cosi fan tutte premiered at Burg Theater.  Mozart declined an
	opportunity to compose in London.
1791 composed dance music for the Vienna Court; publishers began to pay
	fees for the rights to publish his works; appointed assistant to the
	Cathedral Kapellmeister at St. Stephens with no pay.  Mozart was
	already feeling ill in Prague while finishing La clemenza di Tito.
Dec. 5, 1791, a few minutes before 1AM, Mozart died of rheumatic fever.


The Mozart family: Maria Anna, Mozart, painting of Anna Maria, and Leopold.


His Works

music in three stages: 	early	1761-1772
			middle	1772-1781
			late	1781-1791	best known works
Mozart composed over 600 works including:
	21 stage and opera works, 15 Masses, over 50 symphonies, 25 piano
	concertos, 12 violin concertos, 27 concert arias, 17 piano sonatas, 26
	string quartets, and many other pieces.

His style was very unique, unlike many of the musical styles of his time.
People did not appreciate his radical music because they did not understand Mozart's complex and extraordinary music.  In his later years, Mozart incorporates many musical 
elements and style from different countries into his works.  His late works include three of his most famous operas, The Marriage of Figaro, Don Giovanni, Cosi fan tutte, written 
in collaboration with Lorenza da Ponte and his last three church pieces, Mass in C Minor, Ave Verum Corpus, and Requiem.  Both the Mass in C Minor and Requiem remain 
unfinished.

Early Works:

La finta semplice (1768)
Bastien und Batienne (1768)
Mitridate, re di Ponto (1770)

Middle Works:

Missa in C, Coronation Mass (1779)

Late Works:

Idomeneo, re di Creta (1781)
The Abduction from Seraglio (1782)
Mass in C minor (1783)
The Marriage of Figaro (1786)
Don Giovanni (1787)
Cosi fan tutte (1790)
La Clemenza di Tito (1791)
The Magic Flute (1791)
Requiem (1791)

Mozart's Sacred Works

Masses and Kyries


Much of what is known today about Mozart comes either directly from correspondences about him, to him, and from him, or indirectly from biographers who gathered 
information from interviews with people close to him, such as his wife, Constanze, his works, and material from people who have come in contact with Mozart.  The following is a 
brief summary of the early biographers who have tried to tell the story of Mozart's life.

1. Friedrich Schlichtegroll was a teacher and a scholar.  Published Mozart's obituary in 1793.  This obituary was part of a volume of obituaries referred to as Nekrolog.  The two 
had never met.  Most of the information was obtained from Nannerl, Mozart's sister, and Johann Andreas Schachtner, a friend of the family in Mozart's early years.  Therefore 
what Schlichtegroll knew and wrote about was the period before Vienna.

2. Franz Xaver Niemetschek was a citizen of Prague, a teacher and writer.
Unlike Schlichtegroll, Niemetschek did neet with Mozart and was acquainted with Mozart's friends in Prague.  After the death of Mozart, Constanze sent Carl, the elder son, to 
live with him from 1792-97.  Through these relationships with the family, Niemetschek gathered the information needed to write a biography of Mozart.  His main source was 
Constanze and Mozart's friends in Prague.
Therefore his emphasis was on Mozart's years in Vienna and his many trips to Prague.

3. Friedrich Rochlitz was the editor of Allgemeine Musikalische Zeitwig (AMZ), a journal, which was published by Breitkopf & Hartel.  Constanze had sent Rochlitz some ancedotes 
to publish.  At first she wanted him to do a biography but after meeting Nissen, she gave Nissen the opportunity instead.  Most people believed that Rochlitz is an unreliable 
source.

4. ITFC Arnold, a novelist, wrote Mozarts Geist, published in 1803.  He takes most of the biography directly from the three sources already published.
He does add in some new information.

5. In 1828, Nissen published a biography of Mozart which included an appendix written by Constanze and J.H. Fewerstein after Nissen's death in 1826.
Much of
this biography included what had been previously written by Schlichtegroll, Niemetschek, and Rochlitz.  In The Mozart's Myths, Stafford writes:
"Sometimes Nissen corrects the chunks he borrows, and occasionally he tells the reader that he has done this...unfortunately, he does not always correct and revise in this way.  
Assembling his narrative with scissors and paste, he allows
contradictions to creep in."   Nissen, knowing that it was untrue, wrote that
the unfinished Requiem was taken by the messenger immediately after Mozart's death.

6. Vincent and Mary Novello's diary of their interviews during 1829 with Nannerl, Constanze, and Mozart's sister in law, was discovered and published in 1955.  They were 
collecting this information in hopes of publishing a book, which never happened.  Since almost forty years had gone by since Mozart's death, then these accounts might have 
been based more on already published biographies than on the participants' own memories.


Mozart and Constanze


During the late 1790, Mozart had many financial problems contributed by the following factors.
	i. decline in popularity from 1788 in Vienna
	ii. subscription concerts - from success in 1785 to only one subscriber
	iii. no savings from his most successful years 1785-86
	iv. steady increase in popularity in foreign countries. "His music was
		now circulating via performances and publications throughout
		Europe, especially in German-speaking regions and in France,
		where his words were frequently listed on the programs of the
		Concert Spirituel." (Maynard Solomon) However, there were no
		performance rights or copyright laws.  Composer paid only for
		his service of physically playing or conducting what he
		composed.
	v. Constanze's numerous pregnancies and her health
	vi. numerous expenses for appearances at court functions
	vii. supported a household of six including his son, Karl Thomas, the
		expected baby, Franz Xaver Wolfgang, and two servants.



Karl and Franz Xaver Mozart: 1798-99.


However, during his last year, he slowly began to experience a reversal of fortune.
	i. gradually middle class society and Schikaneder theatre vs. court
		opera and aristocratic salon
	ii. relationship with his wife - loving, affectionate, and concerned
		with Constanze's health
	iii. an offer to go to London by British opera manager Robert May
		O'Reilly
	iv. May - became unpaid assistant to the cathedral kapellmeister at St.
		Stephen's.  If Mozart lived for more than two years, he would
		have been the next kapellmeister with salary of 2000 fl.
	v. late 1791, offers from Dutch and Hungarian nobility to compose a few
		works
	vi. fees were received by Mozart for the publication and manuscript
		rights to some of his works
