Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
(1756-1791)
was born in Salzburg in Austria, the son of Leopold, Kapellmeister to the Prince-Archbishop of
Salzburg. By the age of three he could play the piano, and he was composing by the time he was five; minuets from this period
show remarkable understanding of form. Mozart's elder sister Maria Anna (best known as Nannerl) was also a gifted keyboard
player, and in 1762 their father took the two prodigies 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 ...
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Lucia Silla. The
latter showed signs of the rich, full orchestration that characterizes his later operas.
A trip to Vienna in 1773 failed to produce the court appointment that both Mozart and his father wished for him, but did
introduce Mozart to the influence of Haydn, whose Sturm und Drang string quartets (Opus 20) had recently been published.
The influence is clear in Mozart's six string quartets, K168-173, and in his Symphony in G minor, K183. Another trip in search
of patronage ended less happily. Accompanied by his mother, Mozart left Salzburg in 1777, travelling through Mannheim to
Paris. But in July 1778 his mother died. Nor was the trip a professional success: no longer able to pass for a prodigy, Mozart's
reception there was muted and hopes of a job came nothing.
Back in Salzburg Mozart worked for two years as a church organist for the new archbishop. His employer was less kindly
disposed to the Mozart family than his predecessor had been, but the composer nonetheless ...
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richness with passages of subtle delicacy.
In 1758 Mozart dedicated to Haydn the six string quartets that now bear Haydn's name. Including in this group are the quartets
known as the Hunt, which make use of hunting calls, and the Dissonance, which opens with an eerie succession of dissonant
chords. Overwhelmed by their quality, Haydn confessed to Leopold Mozart, 'Before God and as an honest man I tell you that
your son is the greatest composer known to me either in person or by name.' The pieces are matched in excellence in Mozart's
chamber music output only by his String Quintets, outstanding among which are those in C, K515, G minor, K516 and D,
K593.
Also in 178 Mozart and Lorenzo da ...
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"Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart." Essayworld.com. September 5, 2006. Accessed April 24, 2024. http://www.essayworld.com/essays/Wolfgang-Amadeus-Mozart/51873.
"Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart." Essayworld.com. September 5, 2006. Accessed April 24, 2024. http://www.essayworld.com/essays/Wolfgang-Amadeus-Mozart/51873.
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