Life of Mozart

2855 Words6 Pages

Outline

I. Biographical Info

A. Early Childhood

B. Teenage Years

C. Main Career

D. Late Career

II. Affects and Influences of Character

A. Influences on Other Composers

B. Personality Issues

C. Relationships

D. Music To Boost Brain Power

E. Study of Rats and Mozart

F. Ending Conclusion

III. Assessment and Evaluation

A. Greatness of a Man

B. His Ideals

C. Mozart and Saleiri

D. The Legacy Lives On.

Chapter I

Mozart’s Prodigious Life

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 playing. Together with his sister Nannerl, Wolfgang received very intense training that by the age of six, he was a budding composer and accomplished musician. In 1762, his father presented his son as a performer to the imperial court in Vienna, and from 1763 to 1766, he took both children on a musical tour across Europe ( Crane Arizona Opera ). Wolfgang became the most celebrated child prodigy of his time as a keyboard performer with a great impression too, as a composer and improviser. Wolfgang adapted quickly to the high lifestyle through engagements with the French and English royal families, playing before the Bavarian elector and Austrian empress, to winning the admiration of so eminent a musicians as Johann Christian Bach (1735-1782). In 1766-1773, Wolfgang made three visits to Italy, and spent time in Vienna and Salzburg.

From his tenth birthday to his seventeenth, Wolfgang grew in stature as a composer to a degree of maturity equal to that of his most eminent older contemporaries; as he continued to expand his conquest of current musical styles, he outdid each of them. Through the years of 1766 to 1769, Wolfgang spent time in Salzburg writing instrumental works for school shows in German and Latin. Here he wrote his first real operas Bastien und Bastienne and the opera La Finta Semplice ( Crane Arizona Opera ). Though these works were naïve compared to his later Italian operas, it distinctly showed a latent sense for tact in Italian text setting. Despite being a child prodigy, Wolfgang couldn’t find a job open to him. So, once again with his father as escort, the ambitious 14 year old set off for Italy in 1769 to ...

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...ndest heart in the world - I love her, and she genuinely loves me. Tell me, could I wish for a better wife? [...]

I kiss your hands a thousand times and am ever your obedient son W. A. Mozart

Figure A – Letter written to Leopold by Mozart (“Mozart, Wolfgang Amadeus”, Encarta)

Works Cited

Campbell, Don. “How Music Makes You Smarter.” New Discoveries. Center for New Discoveries in Learning., 1 June 2000: 20-22.

Crane, Jake. “Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756 – 1791).” Arizona Opera

http://azopera.com © 1996-2000 Arizona Opera. All rights Reserved.

"Mozart, Wolfgang Amadeus." Microsoft® Encarta® Online Encyclopedia 2002 http://encarta.msn.com © 1997-2002 Microsoft Corporation. All Rights Reserved.

Kliewer, Gary. “The Mozart Effect.” New Scientist. © 1999 New Scientist, KBI Limited., 6 November 1999.

“Mozart, Wolfgang Amadeus.” Biography® Resource Center 2001. http://biography.com © 2001 Crystal Reference. All Rights Reserved.

“Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.” The Classical Music Pages. Sadie, Stanley. http://w3.rzberlin.mpg.de/cmp/mozart.html © 1988-1994 Grove Concise Dictionary of Music. London: © Macmillan Press Ltd., 1 February 1996. All rights Reserved.

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