Music 133
5/05/2013
Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart is the greatest musician the earth has ever seen. Though Mozart young life of thirty-five years he composed over 600 pieces of music, which are some of the finest pieces composed up to this very date. Many have said that Mozart phenomenal works were inspired by his life and surroundings therefore making him a musical genius. Mozart's talents have attributed from and are a cause of, his life, his music, and his musical era. Wolfgang Mozart was born on January 27, 1756 in Salzburg, Austria. His father, Leopold Mozart, was a musician and recognized Wolfgang's talents at an early age. By age three Wolfgang was able to find chords on a keyboard and by age four he began to learn composition, violin and harpsichord. Mozart never studied at school or university, but he was close to Salzburg university with his compositions. He composed for his friends when they finished studies successfully. Nevertheless he learned several instruments, composition (he reached perfection in counterpoint in the Viennese years), mathematics and the languages Italian, French, English and Latin.
Mozart's father Leopold Mozart was one of Europe's leading musical teachers. His influential textbook A Treatise on the Fundamental Principles of Violin Playing, was published in 1756, the year of Mozart's birth He was deputy Kapellmeister to the court orchestra of the Archbishop of Salzburg, and a prolific and successful composer of instrumental music. Leopold gave up composing when his son's outstanding musical talents became evident. They first came to light when Wolfgang was about three years old, and Leopold, proud of Wolfgang's achievements, gave him intensive musical training, including instruction in clavier, violin, and organ. Leopold was Wolfgang's only teacher in his earliest years. A note by Leopold in Nannerl's music book – the Nannerl Notenbuch – records that little Wolfgang had learned several of the pieces at the age of four. Mozart's first compositions, a small Andante and Allegro, were written in 1761, when he was five years old. During Mozart's formative years, his family made several European journeys in which the children were exhibited as child prodigies. These began with an exhibition in 1762 at the Court of the Elector of Bavaria in Munich, then in the same year at the Imperial Court in Vienna and Prague. A long concert tour spanning three and a half years followed, taking the family to the courts of Munich, Mannheim, Paris, London, The Hague, again to Paris, and back home via Zürich, Donaueschingen, and Munich. During this trip Mozart met a great number of musicians and acquainted himself with the works of other composers. A particularly important influence was Johann Christian Bach, who met Mozart in London in 1764–65. Bach's work is often taken to be an inspiration for Mozart's music. The family again went to Vienna in late 1767 and remained there until December 1768. On this trip Mozart contracted smallpox, and his healing was believed by Leopold as proof of God's plans concerning the child. In Milan Mozart wrote an opera Mitridate Rè di Ponto, performed with success. This lead to further opera commissions, and Wolfgang and Leopold returned twice from Salzburg to Milan for the composition and premieres of Ascanio in Alba and Lucio Silla .Toward the end of the final Italian journey Mozart wrote the first of his works that is still widely performed today, the solo cantata "Exsultate, jubilate".
Following his final return with his father from Italy, Mozart was employed as a court musician by the ruler of Salzburg Prince-Archbishop Hieronymus Colloredo. Mozart was a "favorite son" in Salzburg, where he had a great number of friends and admirers, and he had the opportunity to compose in a great number of genres, including symphonies, sonatas, string quartets, serenades, and the occasional opera. Some of the works he produced during this early period are very widely performed today. For