In 1762, Mozart and his elder sister Maria Anna (best known as Nannerl) who was also a gifted keyboard player, were taken by their father on a short performing tour, of the courts at Vienna and Munich. Encouraged by their reception, they embarked the next year on a longer tour, including two weeks at Versailles, where the children enchanted Louis XV. In 1764 they arrived in London. Here Mozart wrote his first three symphonies, under the influence of Johann Christian Bach, youngest son of Johann Sebastian, who lived in the city. In Paris, Mozart published his first works:four sonatas for clavier: with accompanying violin in 1764.
They astonished their audiences wherever they performed. In London Wolfgang wrote his first symphonies and met Johann Christian Brahm, who had a very large influence on him. In Paris Wolfgang published his first works, four sonatas for clavier with accompanying voilin. In 1768 he composed his first opera, La Finta Semplice, which was presented for the first time a year later in his home town of Salzburg. In 1769 Wolfgang and his father set out on another tour of Italy.
In 1763, Leopold Mozart took a leave from his position at Salzburg court to take his family on a tour of Western Europe. Mozart and his sister performed in the major musical centers, including Stuttgart, Mannheim, Mainz, Frankfurt, Brussels, Paris, London, and Amsterdam. The family did not return to Salzburg until 1766. During that period of time touring, Mozart began to compose longer pieces with more structure and skill in them. He completed his first symphony at the age of nine and publishing his first sonatas in the same year.
The Dictionary of Composers. New York: Taplinger Publishing 1977. Sadie, Stanley, ed. The Norton Grove Encyclopedia ofMusic. New York: W.W.Norton & Company, 1994.
In January 1702, Handel entered Halle University as a law student, but was soon appointed organist of the Domkirche at Halle. In the year following, he abandoned his native town and settled in Hamburg where he studied the violin, then the harpsichord at the only opera house in all of Germany. At Hamburg, Handel wrote his first opera, Almira in 1705. This was quickly followed by Nero Florindo and Dafne. During the winter in 1706, Handel traveled to Italy, where he stayed until spring of 1710.
Schirmer History of Music. New York: Schirmer Books, 1982. Solomon, Maynard. Mozart: A Life. New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 1995.
born Leipzig, 22 May 1813; died Venice, 13 February 1883). He was the son either of the police actuary Friedrich Wagner, who died soon after his birth, or of his mother's friend the painter, actor and poet Ludwig Geyer, whom she married in August 1814. He went to school in Dresden and then Leipzig; at 15 he wrote a play, at 16 his first compositions. In 1831 he went to Leipzig University, also studying music with the Thomaskantor, C.T. Weinlig; a symphony was written and successfully performed in 1832.
He wrote two more operas, Ascanio in Alda 1771 and Lucio Silla 1772. In March 1773 that was the last time Wolfgang and his father travel to Italy, that when he became an assistant concertmaster. Before the age of 21 he developed a passion for violin concertos. In 1776 his passion turned to piano concertos. That went him culminating number 9 in E flat major.
Upon his eleventh birthday, commissions flooded in not only from the court but from the bourgeoisie, too. He wrote one act of an oratorio to be performed in March, and followed it by a Latin comedy, Apollo and Hyacinthus. In September of 1767, the Mozart family left for Vienna where, after recovering from small pox, Mozart would be inspired by his father to write his first opera, La Finta Semplice. So impressed with Vienna was Mozart that he and his father set off again for Italy alone in 1769. Traveling throughout the towns of Italy, his recitals were one success after the other, and his opera "Mitridate, re di Ponto" saw its twentieth consecutive performance in Milan.
In March of 1646 he moved to France to tutor Mlle de Montpensier in Italian. There he studied composition and harpsichord. Lully was able to hear the King’s grande bande perform, witness balls where the best French dance music was played. When Mlle de Montpensier was exiled from Paris, Lully was released from her service and gained the attention of King Louis XIV. In February 1653 he danced in “Ballet de la nuit” with the King and less than a month later was appointed the King’s “composituer de la musique instrumentale de Roi.” Over the next ten years Lully gained control over all the royal family’s court music.