Mozart was not a man, but an angel. It's common saying
anything that link Mozart's music with the utopia of heaven's music. It happens because
Mozart is the soul and the pure essence of the classic spirit, and the classic spirit is
made of perfection, of balance, of precision, of infinite and endless beauty... it's made
by the heaven's laws. When you hear a symphonic work of Mozart, or an opera, or a concert,
or a sonata, whatever, it reaches directly into your heart, into your soul, and is fully
understood, without mysteries, without fear, without doubt. And it's bright as the sun,
clear as the air, great as the sea, and passionate like fire.
ACS.
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 ozart was born in
Salzburg, Austria, the son of composer, musical author, and violinist, Leopold Mozart and
his wife, Anna Maria Pertl. His given names were Johann Chrysostom Wolfgang Theophilus,
the last of which is Gottlieb in German, and Amadeus in Latin. He used Wolfgang and
Amadeus in his signature, so he is generally known by these two names.
He displayed marked musical gifts very early, playing the keyboard confidently when
aged four, composing his first pieces for it aged five, and quickly mastering the violin.
Leopold was keen to exhibit his son's extraordinary talents, along with those of his
gifted pianist-daughter, Maria-Anna (called Nannerl) (1751--1829), and he undertook a
series of tours across Europe with them when Mozart was just six years old.
In 1767 the family went for five months to Vienna, where Mozart wrote an opera buffa
(comic opera) for the Emperor, La finta semplice (trans, the Pretend Simpleton); and a
Singspiel (a German-language opera with some spoken dialogue), Bastien und Bastienne
(1769), commissioned by Dr Franz Anton Mesmer. However, in Vienna the Italian musicians at
court, including the composer Antonio Salieri, made it difficult for him to produce his
operas. He returned to Salzburg, and was appointed honorary Konzertmeister to Archbishop
Sigismund von Schrattenbach.
There followed three extended visits by father and son to Italy (1770--2). Musical
experience gained on these tours helped mould Mozart's style, especially in dramatic
music. He was prolific, writing sacred vocal pieces and instrumental works too. By 1772 he
had written about 25 symphonies (some are lost), and his first quartets. Further quartets
and symphonies followed during and after a visit to Vienna in 1773, when he came into
contact with Haydn's music. Between 1775--6 he composed two operas: La finta giardiniera
(trans The Lady Who Disguised Herself as a Gardener) and Il re pastore (The Shepherd
King); five violin concertos; the Haffner Serenade, and masses for the Salzburg Court
Chapel. Bach, Haydn, Handel, and the Italian composers were all major influences on him at
the time.
Unhappy with the austere and unmusical Archbishop Colloredo of Salzburg, who was
appointed at the death of Sigismund, Mozart left his service in 1777 and, travelling with
his mother, sought employment elsewhere. They stayed at Mannheim, where he composed some
piano concertos and flute quartets, and fell in love with a coloratura soprano, Aloysia
Weber. In 1778 his mother died in Paris. He composed the Paris symphony the same year. His
father then persuaded him to return to Salzburg. Mozart visited the Webers on his way back
to find that Aloysia seemed to have forgotten him entirely.
Back in Salzburg, Mozart reluctantly accepted the post of court organist (1779). At
this time he composed the Coronation Mass (1779), the Sinfonia Concertante in E Flat Major
for Violin, Viola and Orchestra, and the Serenade in D Major. In 1780 he received an
important commission from Munich, the opera seria (serious opera) Idomeneo . In 1781
Colloredo summoned Mozart to Vienna for the coronation of Emperor Joseph II. Again, he
left the archbishop's service, this time after a stormy scene, but remained in Vienna,
which became his home for the rest of his short, full life.
Aloysia Weber had married a court actor and Mozart had turned his attentions to her
sister Constanze, whom he married in 1782 - the year of his Singspiel , Die Entführung
aus dem Serail (The Abduction from the Harem). Married life was humorous and happy, but
financially insecure. Mozart eked out his income by teaching. They had six children, two
of whom survived. He became a Freemason in 1784, and in the same year he produced six
piano concertos. In 1785 he composed a futher three, and in 1786 three more. These marked
the rich flowering of his maturity, along with the six quartets dedicated to Haydn; the
Linz and Prague symphonies; and the three Italian comic masterpieces composed to libretti
by Lorenzo da Ponte: Le nozze di Figaro (1786, The Marriage of Figaro, after
Beaumarchais), Don Giovanni (first performed in Prague, 1787), and Così fan tutte (1790,
trans Thus All Women). The string quintets in C major and G minor (1787), the last three
symphonies (1788) - including his masterpiece of counterpoint, the Symphony no.41 in C
Major, the Jupiter - the quartets for the King of Prussia, and a clarinet quintet mark the
peak of his instrumental powers.
The letters to fellow Masons in his last three years make sad reading, reflecting his
countless anxieties about finance or health. He hoped for new commissions or a court post
on the accession of Emperor Leopold II, but nothing was forthcoming. In 1791 he applied
unsuccessfully for the post of Kapellmeister of St Stephen's Cathedral. His last complete
works were the masonic Singspiel , Die Zauberflöte (1791, The Magic Flute); an opera
seria, La clemenze di Tito (1791, The mercy of Tito), and a clarinet concerto for
Leopold's coronation. Commissioned by an unknown stranger to compose the Requiem Mass,
Mozart became obsessed with the idea that it was for his own death, and he died before the
work was finished after a three-week fever. No convincing evidence about the cause of
death has come to light, although there has been much speculation about it. Deeply in debt
at the time of his death, Mozart did not live long enough to enjoy the financial rewards
from the success of The Magic Flute , and was buried in a pauper's grave.
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This Austrian composer and child prodigy was a
major figure in the classical period who wrote in most musical forms of the time,
especially opera, symphony, concertos, and chamber music; his notable works are too
numerous to mention. Mozart had a great and lively mind, which he engaged in such
experiments as deciding progressions by playing dice and billiards, placing players in
adjacent rooms echoing each other (Notturno for Four Orchestras, K. 269), and the encoding
of Masonic rituals in The Magic Flute. Mozart was capable of the most earthshaking and
profound works (Requiem, K. 626, written as he lay on his deathbed), the sweetest of arias
in his many operas, and the most beautiful of melodic invention and variation (the piano
concertos, Eine Kleine Nachtmusik, and much more). His feeling for the balance of lines
that have separate functions (melody, accompaniment, sostenuto, and melisma) is revealed
in the quintets, the Sinfonia Concertante in E-flat, and the string quartets. Many
structures in his symphonies are copies of innovations by Haydn, in some ways more
conservative, but their drive, surprising modulations, and memorable melodies are purely
Mozart.
-- Blue Gene Tyranny |
Mozart 
