Mozart: The Life Of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

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On January 27, 1756 in Salzburg, Austria, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was born. He was capable of playing multiple instruments. He started playing publicly at the age of six. Mozart aligned himself with a variety of European venues and patrons, composing hundreds of works that included sonatas, symphonies, masses, concertos and operas, marked by vivid emotion and sophisticated textures.
Central Europe in the mid-18th century was going through a period of transition. The remnants of the Holy Roman Empire had divided into small semi-self governing principalities. The result was competing and recognition. Political leadership of small city-states like Salzburg, Vienna, and Prague was in the hand pf the aristocracy and their wealth would commission artists and musicians to amuse, inspire and entertain. The music if the Renaissance and Braque periods was transiting toward more full-bodied compositions with complex instruments. The small city-state of Salzburg would be the birthplace of most talented composers of all-time.
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was the son of Leopold and Maria Mozart. Leopold was a successful composer, violinist, and assistant concert master an the Salzburg court, Wolfgang's mother Maria, was born to a middle class family of local community leaders.
In 1762, Wolfgang's father took Wolfgang and his sister to the court of Bowaria in Munich in what was to the first of several European tours. The siblings traveled to the courts of Paris, London, The Hague, and Zurich performing as child prodigies.

By the mid 1780s, Wolfgang and Constanze Mozart’s extravagant lifestyle was beginning to take its toll. Despite his success as a pianist and composer, Mozart was falling into serious financial difficulties. Mozart associated...

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...his funeral drew few mourners and he was buried in a common grave. Both actions were the Viennese custom at the time, for only aristocrats and nobility enjoyed public mourning and were allowed to be buried in marked graves. However, his memorial services and concerts in Vienna and Prague were well attended. After his death, Constanze sold many of his unpublished manuscripts to undoubtedly pay off the family’s large debts. She was able to obtain a pension from the Emperor and organized several profitable memorial concerts in Mozart’s honor.
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s death came at a young age, even for the time period. Yet his meteoric rise to fame and accomplishment at a very early age is reminiscent of more contemporary musical artists whose star had burned out way too soon. At the time of his death, Mozart was considered one of the greatest composers of all time.

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