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Mozart 1756 - 1791 (35)

I pay no attention whatever to anybody's praise or blame. I simply follow my own feelings.


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Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was one of the greatest composers of all time classical music; he started composing at 6 and until 35 he created over 600 works of symphonic, concertante, chamber, operatic, and choral music. He was born in Salzburg, Austria, (Holy Roman Empire at that time) on January 27, 1756. His father, Leopold Mozar worked at the orchestra of the Archbishop, he was a mediocre composer but experienced music teacher. He ha d 5 children but only 2 survived, Wolfgang and his sister. Their father was their only teacher, teaching them music, foreign language, reading and writing. While he was teaching his 7 years old daughter, the 3 year Wolfgang watched carefully and played with his fingers on the table the pieces that his sister was playing on the piano. At 4, Wolfgang played flawlessly small pieces on the piano, at 5 he composed his first Minuette, at 6 he could write down his compositions. He was presented to the public as a prodigy child in September 1761 and since then, led by his strict and authoritarian father, he began studying and composing music and giving concerts at royal courts and aristocratic houses throughout Europe. His first trip was in Munich and Vienna, where he played in front of the Empress Maria Theresa, subsequently he gave concerts in Frankfurt, Mainz, Aachen, Paris and finally London. They returned for a year in Salzburg and then had their first out of three tour in Italy. It was a common situation at that time for musicians to give concerts in aristocratic houses hoping for gifts, support and orders for paid compositions. His father worked as his manager, arranging the concerts and constantly pushing him for more studying and more working.

In 1778 Mozart was in Manheim for concerts and was hosted in the house of a German family of music lovers, the Webers. He started hanging out with the eldest daughter, Aloisia, a very beautiful girl who was also a great soprano. They worked together and fall in love, Mozart wrote to his father that he would marry her. His father did everything to separate them, forbade the marriage stating that it would destroy his career. Motzart in the end obeyed; he flew from Weber’s house abandoning Aloisia. In 1781 Mozart was in Vienna where the Webber family had moved the previous year. He visited the family, Aloisia was married and paid no attention to him, who felt in love with her younger sister, Konstantza. This time he disobeyed his father and married her without his blessing. They had 6 children of which only 2 survived, and judging by his tender letters they lived happily, although most of the time he was away on tour. Mozart fell seriously ill in November 1791 and died on December 5, maybe from streptococcus judging by the symptoms. At that time there were suspicions that he might had been poisoned by his opponent conductor in the royal court Salieri, but this allegation have been proved untruth.