Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

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(b Salzburg, 27 Jan 1756; d Vienna, 5 Dec 1791). Austrian composer, son of Leopold Mozart. He showed musical gifts at a very early age, composing when he was five and when he was six playing before the Bavarian elector and the Austrian empress. Leopold felt that it was proper, and might also be profitable, to exhibit his children's God-given genius (Maria Anna, ‘Nannerl’, 1751-1829, was a gifted keyboard player): so in mid-1763 the family set out on a tour that took them to Paris and London, visiting numerous courts en route. Mozart astonished his audiences with his precocious skills; he played to the French and English royal families, had his first music published and wrote his earliest symphonies. The family arrived home late in 1766; nine months later they were off again, to Vienna, where hopes of having an opera by Mozart performed were frustrated by intrigues.

They spent 1769 in Salzburg; 1770-73 saw three visits to Italy, where Mozart wrote two operas (Mitridate, Lucio Silla) and a serenata for performance in Milan, and acquainted himself with Italian styles. Summer 1773 saw a further visit to Vienna, probably in the hope of securing a post; there Mozart wrote a set of string quartets and, on his return, wrote a group of symphonies including his two earliest, nos.25 in G minor and 29 in A, in the regular repertory. Apart from a journey to Munich for the première of his opera La finta giardiniera early in1775, the period from 1774 to mid-1777 was spent in Salzburg, where Mozart worked as Konzertmeister at the Prince Archbishop's court; his works of these years include masses, symphonies, all his violin concertos, six piano sonatas, several serenades and divertimentos and his first great piano concerto k 271.

In 1777 the Mozarts, seeing limited opportunity in Salzburg for a composer so hugely gifted, resolved to seek a post elsewhere for Wolfgang. He was sent, with his mother, to Munich and to Mannheim, but was offered no position (though he stayed over four months at Mannheim, composing for piano and flute and falling in love with Aloysia Weber). His father then dispatched him to Paris: there he had minor successes, notably with his Paris Symphony, no.31, deftly designed for the local taste. But prospects there were poor and Leopold ordered him home, where a superior post had been arranged at the court. He returned slowly and alone; his mother had died in Paris. The years 1779-80 were spent in Salzburg, playing in the cathedral and at court, composing sacred works, symphonies, concertos, serenades and dramatic music. But opera remained at the centre of his ambitions, and an opportunity came with a commission for a serious opera for Munich. He went there to compose it late in 1780; his correspondence with Leopold (through whom he communicated with the librettist, in Salzburg) is richly informative about his approach to musical drama. The work, Idomeneo, was a success. In it Mozart depicted serious, heroic emotion with a richness unparalleled elsewhere in his works, with vivid orchestral writing and an abundance of profoundly expressive orchestral recitative.

Mozart was then summoned from Munich to Vienna, where the Salzburg court was in residence on the accession of a new emperor. Fresh from his success, he found himself placed between the valets and the cooks; his resentment towards his employer, exacerbated by the Prince-Archbishop's refusal to let him perform at events the emperor was attending, soon led to conflict, and in May 1781 he resigned, or was kicked out of, his job. He wanted a post at the imperial court in Vienna, but was content to do freelance work in a city that apparently offered golden opportunities. He made his living over the ensuing years by teaching, by publishing his music, by playing at patrons' houses or in public, by composing to commission (particularly operas); in 1787 he obtained a minor court post as Kammermusicus, which gave him a reasonable salary and required nothing beyond the writing of dance music for court balls. He always earned, by musicians standards, a good income, and had a carriage and servants; through lavish spending and poor management he suffered times of financial difficulty and had to borrow. In 1782 he married Constanze Weber, Aloysia's sister.

In his early years in Vienna, Mozart built up his reputation by publishing (sonatas for piano, some with violin), by playing the piano and, in1782, by having an opera performed: Die Entführung aus dem Serail, a German Singspiel which went far beyond the usual limits of the tradition with its long, elaborately written songs (hence Emperor Joseph II's famous observation, ‘Too many notes, my dear Mozart’). The work was successful and was taken into the repertories of many provincial companies (for which Mozart was not however paid). In these years, too, he wrote six string quartets which he dedicated to the master of the form, Haydn: they are marked not only by their variety of expression but by their complex textures, conceived as four-part discourse, with the musical ideas linked to this freshly integrated treatment of the medium. Haydn told Mozart's father that Mozart was ‘the greatest composer known to me in person or by name; he has taste and, what is more, the greatest knowledge of composition’.

In 1782 Mozart embarked on the composition of piano concertos, so that he could appear both as composer and soloist. He wrote 15 before the end of 1786, with early 1784 as the peak of activity. They represent one of his greatest achievements, with their formal mastery, their subtle relationships between piano and orchestra (the wind instruments especially) and their combination of brilliance, lyricism and symphonic growth. In1786 he wrote the first of his three comic operas with Lorenzo da Ponte as librettist, Le nozze di Figaro: here and in Don Giovanni (given in Prague,1787) Mozart treats the interplay of social and sexual tensions with keen insight into human character that - as again in the more artificial sexual comedy of Così fan tutte (1790) - transcends the comic framework, just as Die Zauberflöte (1790) transcends, with its elements of ritual and allegory about human harmony and enlightenment, the world of the Viennese popular theatre from which it springs.

Mozart lived in Vienna for the rest of his life. He undertook a number of journeys: to Salzburg in 1783, to introduce his wife to his family; to Prague three times, for concerts and operas; to Berlin in 1789, where he had hopes of a post; to Frankfurt in 1790, to play at coronation celebrations. The last Prague journey was for the première of La clemenza di Tito (1791), a traditional serious opera written for coronation celebrations, but composed with a finesse and economy characteristic of Mozart's late music. Instrumental works of these years include some piano sonatas, three string quartets written for the King of Prussia, some string quintets, which include one of his most deeply felt works (k 516 in G minor) and one of his most nobly spacious (k n C), and his last four symphonies - one (no.38 in D) composed for Prague in 1786, the others written in 1788 and forming, with the lyricism of no.39 in E♭, the tragic suggestiveness of no.40 in G minor and the grandeur of no.41 in C, a climax to his orchestral music. His final works include the Clarinet Concerto and some pieces for masonic lodges (he had been a freemason since 1784; masonic teachings no doubt affected his thinking, and his compositions, in his last years). At his death from a feverish illness whose precise nature has given rise to much speculation (he was not poisoned), he left unfinished the Requiem, his first large-scale work for the church since the C minor Mass of 1783, also unfinished; a completion by his pupil Süssmayr was long accepted as the standard one but there have been recent attempts to improve on it. Mozart was buried in a Vienna suburb, with little ceremony and in an unmarked grave, in accordance with prevailing custom.

works:
Masses, mass movements

• Missa solemnis k 139/47 a, c, ‘Waisenhausmesse’ (1768)
• Missa brevis k 49/47 d, G (1768)
• Missa brevis k 65/61 a, d (1769)
• Missa k 66, C, ‘Dominicus’ (1769)
• Missa k 167, C, ‘In honorem Ssmae Trinitatis’ (1773)
• Missa brevis k 192/186 f, F (1774)
• Missa brevis k 194/186 h, D (1774)
• Missa brevis k 220/196 b, C, ‘Spatzenmesse’ (1776)
• Missa [longa] k 262/246 a, C (1775)
• Missa k 257, C, ‘Credo’ (1776)
• Missa brevis k 258, C, ‘Spaur’ (1776)
• Missa brevis k 259, C, ‘Organ solo’ (1776)
• Missa brevis k 275/272 b, B♭ (1777)
• Missa k 317, C, ‘Coronation’ (1779)
• Missa solemnis k 337, C (1780)
• Missa k 427/417 a, c (inc., 1783)
• Requiem k 626, d (inc., 1791)
• 2 Kyrie settings

Other sacred music

• 4 litanies k 109/74 e, 125, 195/186 d, 243 (1771-6)
• Dixit Dominus, Magnificat k 193/186 g, C (1774)
• Vesperae de Dominica k 321, C (1779)
• Vesperae solennes de confessore k 339, C (1780)
• c 20 motets etc, incl.Exsultate, jubilate k 165/158 a (1773), Ave verum corpus k 618 (1791)
• 17 church sonatas, org, orch

Oratorios, sacred dramas etc

• Pt.i of Die Schuldigkeit des ersten Gebots, sacred drama k 35 (1767)
• La Betulia liberata, oratorio k 118/74 c (1771)
• Davidde penitente, oratorio k 469 (1785)
• 2 sacred cantatas
• 3 masonic cantatas

Dramatic music

• operas - La finta semplice k 51/46 a (1769)
• Bastien und Bastienne k 50/46 b (1768)
• Mitridate, rè di Ponto k 87/74 a (1770)
• Lucio Silla k 135 (1772)
• La finta giardiniera k 196 (1775)
• Il rè pastore k 208 (1775)
• Zaide k 344/336 a (inc., 1780)
• Idomeneo k 366 (1781)
• Die Entführung aus dem Serail k 384 (1782)
• Der Schauspieldirektor k 486 (1785)
• Le nozze di Figaro k 492 (1786)
• Don Giovanni k 527 (1787)
• Così fan tutte k 588 (1790)
• Die Zauberflöte k 620 (1791)
• La clemenza di Tito k 621 (1791)
• other works - Apollo et Hyacinthus, Latin intermezzo k 38 (1767)
• Ascanio in Alba, festa teatrale k 111 (1771)
• Il sogno di Scipione, serenata k 126 (1772)
• Les petits riens, ballet k A10/299 b (1778)

Secular vocal music

• several duets and ensembles
• c 50 arias and scenes
• c 30 songs, incl., Das Veilchen k 476 (1785), Als Luise die Briefe k 520 (1787), Abendempfindung k 523 (1787)
• canons

Symphonies

• no.1k 16, E♭ (1765)
• no.4k 19, D (1765)
• k A223/19 a, F (1765)
• no.5k 22, B♭ (1765)
• k A221/45 a, G, ‘Lambach’ (1766)
• no.6k 43, F (1767)
• no.7k 45, D (1768)
• k A214/45 b, B♭(1768)
• no.8k 48, D (1768)
• k 81/73 l, D (1770)
• k 97/73 m, D (1770)
• k 95/73 n D (1770)
• no.11k 84/73 q, D (1770)
• no.10k 74, G (1770)
• k A216/74 g, B♭ (1770-71)
• k 75, F (1771)
• no.12k 110/75 b, G (1771)
• k 96/111 b, C (1771)
• no.13k 112, F (1771)
• no.14k 114, A (1771)
• no.9k 73, C (1772)
• no.15k 124, G (1772)
• no.16k 128, C (1772)
• no.17k 129, G (1772)
• no.18k 130, F (1772)
• no.19k 132, E♭ (1772)
• no.20k 133, D (1772)
• no.21k 134, A (1772)
• no.26k 184/161 a, E♭ (1773)
• no.27k 199/161 b, G (1773)
• no.22k 162 C (1773)
• no.23k 181/162 b, D (1773)
• no.24k 182/173 d A, B♭ (1773)
• no.25k 183/173 d B, g (1773)
• no.29k 201/186 a, A (1774)
• no.30k 202/186 b, D (1774)
• no.28k 200/189 k, C (1774)
• no.31k 297/300 a, D, ‘Paris’ (1778)
• no.32k 318, G (1779)
• no.33k 319, B♭ (1779)
• no.34k 338, C (1780)
• no.35k 385, D, ‘Haffner’ (1782)
• no.36k 425, C, ‘Linz’ (1783)
• no.38k 504, D, ‘Prague’ (1786)
• no.39k 543, E♭ (1788)
• no.40k 550, g (1788)
• no.41k 551, C, ‘Jupiter’ (1788)
• symphony movements [ no.37: slow introduction to sym.by M. Haydn]

Concertos

• piano - 7 arrangements (1767, 1772)
• k 175, D (1773)
• k 238, B♭ (1776)
• k 246, C (1776)
• k 271, E♭ (1777)
• k 414/385 p, A (1782)
• k 413/387 a, F (1783)
• k 415/387 b, C (1783)
• k 449, E♭ (1784)
• k 450, B♭ (1784)
• k 451, D (1784)
• k 453, G (1784)
• k 456, B♭ (1784)
• k 459, F (1784)
• k 466, d (1785)
• k 467, C (1785)
• k 482, E♭ (1785)
• k 488, A (1786)
• k 491, c (1786)
• k 503, C (1786)
• k 537, D, ‘Coronation’ (1788)
• k 595, B♭ (1791)
• Conc., 2 pf k 365/316 a, E♭ (1779)
• Conc., 3 pf k 242, F (1776)
• violin - k 207, B♭ (?1773)
• k 211, D (1775)
• k 216, G (1775)
• k 218, D (1775)
• k 219, A (1775)
• Concertone, 2 vn k 190/186 E, C (1774)
• Sinfonia concertante, vn, va k 364/320 d, E♭ (1779)
• Bn Conc. k 191/186 e (1774)
• 2 fl concs. k 313-4/285 c-d, G, D (1778)
• Ob Conc. k 314/285 d, C (1778)
• Conc. fl, harp k 299/297 c, C (1778)
• 3 hn concs. k 417, 447, 495, all E♭ (1783-7)
• Cl Conc. k 622, A (1791)
• various conc.movements

Miscellaneous orchestral music

• 3 cessations (1769)
• 7 divertimentos (1771-80)
• 6 serenades, incl. k 250/248 b, D, ‘Haffner’ (1776) k 320, D, ‘Posthorn’ (1779)
• 1 notturno
• Masonic Funeral Music k 477/479 a, c (1785)
• A Musical Joke k 522, F (1787)
• Eine kleine Nachtmusik k 525, G (1787)
• marches, minuets, German dances, länder, contredanses

Music for wind ensemble

• Serenade for 13 inst(s)s k 361/370 a, B♭ (?1781-2)
• Serenade k 375, E♭ (1781)
• Serenade k 388/384 a, c (1782-3)
• various divertimentos
• horn duos
• miscellaneous movements

Chamber music without keyboard

• str qnts- k 1 74, B♭ (1773)
• k 515, C (1787)
• k 516, g (1787)
• k 406/516 b, c (1788)
• k 593, D (1790)
• k 614 E♭ (1791)
• str qts- k 80/73 f, G (1770)
• 3 divertimentos k 136-8/125 a-c, D, B♭, F (1772)
• k 155-60/134 a-b, 157-9, 159 a, D, G, C, F, B♭, E♭ (1772-3)
• k 168-73, F, A, C, E♭, B♭, d (1773)
• 6 ‘Haydn’ qts: k 387, G (1782) k 421/417 b, d (1783) k 428/421 b, E♭ (1783) k 458, B♭, ‘Hunt’ (1784) k 464, A (1785) k 465, C, ‘Dissonance’ (1785)
• k 499, D, ‘Hoffmeister’ (1786)
• Adagio and Fugue k 546, c (1788)
• 3 ‘Prussian’ qts: k 575, D (1789) k 589, B♭ (1790) k 590, F (1790)
• 4 fl qts
• Ob qt
• Qnt, hnand str
• Cl qnt k 581, A (1789)
• 2 duos, vnand va(1783)
• Str trio k 563, E♭ (1788)
• other pieces

Chamber music with keyboard

• Qnt, pf and wind k 452, E♭ (1784)
• Pf qt k 478, g (1785)
• Pf qt k 493, E♭ (1786)
• 7 pf trios
• Trio, pf, cl, va k 498, E♭ (1786)
• vnsonatas - 16 youthful works (1762-6)
• k 301/293 a, G (1778)
• k 302/293 b, E♭ (1778)
• k 303/293 c, C (1778)
• k 305/293 d, A (1778)
• k 296, C (1778)
• k 304/300 c, e (1778)
• k 306/300 l, D (1778)
• k 378/317 d, B♭ (1779-81)
• k 379/373 a, G (1781)
• k 376/374 d, F (1781)
• k 377/374 e, F (1781)
• k 380/374 f, E♭ (1781)
• k 454, B♭ (1784)
• k 481, E♭ (1785)
• k 526, A (1787)
• k 547, F (1788)
• 2 sets of variations for pf, vn

Keyboard music

• sonatas - k 279-83/189 d-h, C, F, B♭, E♭, G (1775)
• k 284/205 b, D (1775)
• k 309/284 b, C (1777)
• k 311/284 c, D (1777)
• k 310/300 d, a (1778)
• k 330/300 h, C (1783)
• k 331/300 i, A (1783)
• k 332/315 k, F (1783)
• k 333/315 c, B♭ (1784)
• k 457, c (1784)
• k 533, F (1788)
• k 545, C (1788)
• k 570, B♭ (1789)
• k 576, D (1789)
• 5 sonatas for kbdduet
• sonata for 2 kbds
• 16 sets of variations
• many miscellaneous pieces, incl.Fantasia k 397/385 g, d (1782-7)
• Fantasia k 475, c (1785)
• Rondo k 485, D (1786)
• Rondo k 511, a (1787)
• Fugue for 2 kbds k 426, c (1788)
• pieces for mechanical organ and armonica

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Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791) was an Austrian composer whose mastery of the whole range of contemporary instrumental and vocal forms - including the symphony, concerto, chamber music, and especially the opera - was unrivaled in his own time and perhaps in any other.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was born on Jan. 27, 1756, in Salzburg. His father, Leopold Mozart, a noted composer and pedagogue and the author of a famous treatise on violin playing, was then in the service of the archbishop of Salzburg. Together with his sister, Nannerl, Wolfgang received such intensive musical training that by the age of 6 he was a budding composer and an accomplished keyboard performer. In 1762 Leopold presented his son as performer at the imperial court in Vienna, and from 1763 to 1766 he escorted both children on a continuous musical tour across Europe, which included long stays in Paris and London as well as visits to many other cities, with appearances before the French and English royal families.

Mozart was the most celebrated child prodigy of this time as a keyboard performer and made a great impression, too, as composer and improviser. In London he won the admiration of so eminent a musician as Johann Christian Bach, and he was exposed from an early age to an unusual variety of musical styles and tastes across the Continent.

Salzburg and Italy, 1766-1773

From his tenth to his seventeenth year Mozart grew in stature as a composer to a degree of maturity equal to that of his most eminent older contemporaries; as he continued to expand his conquest of current musical styles, he outstripped them. He spent the years 1766-1769 at Salzburg writing instrumental works and music for school dramas in German and Latin, and in 1768 he produced his first real operas: the German Singspiel (that is, with spoken dialogue) Bastien und Bastienne and the opera buffa La finta semplice. Artless and naive as La finta semplice is when compared to his later Italian operas, it nevertheless shows a latent sense of character portrayal and fine accuracy of Italian text setting. Despite his reputation as a prodigy, Mozart found no suitable post open to him; and with his father once more as escort Mozart at age 14 (1769) set off for Italy to try to make his way as an opera composer, the field in which he openly declared his ambition to succeed and which offered higher financial rewards than other forms of composition at this time.

In Italy, Mozart was well received: at Milan he obtained a commission for an opera; at Rome he was made a member of an honorary knightly order by the Pope; and at Bologna the Accademia Filarmonica awarded him membership despite a rule normally requiring candidates to be 20 years old. During these years of travel in Italy and returns to Salzburg between journeys, he produced his first large-scale settings of opera seria (that is, court opera on serious subjects): Mitridate (1770), Ascanio in Alba (1771), and Lucio Silla (1772), as well as his first String Quartets. At Salzburg in late 1771 he renewed his writing of Symphonies (Nos. 14-21).

In these operatic works Mozart displays a complete mastery of the varied styles of aria required for the great virtuoso singers of the day (especially large-scale da capo arias), this being the sole authentic requirement of this type of opera. The strong leaning of these works toward the singers' virtuosity rather than toward dramatic content made the opera seria a rapidly dying form by Mozart's time, but in Lucio Silla he nonetheless shows clear evidence of his power of dramatic expression within individual scenes.

Salzburg, 1773-1777

In this period Mozart remained primarily in Salzburg, employed as concertmaster of the archbishop's court musicians. In 1773 a new archbishop took office, Hieronymus Colloredo, who was a newcomer to Salzburg and its provincial ways. Unwilling to countenance the frequent absences of the Mozarts, he declined to promote Leopold to the post of chapel master that he had long coveted. The archbishop showed equally little understanding of young Mozart's special gifts. In turn Mozart abhorred Salzburg, but he could find no better post. In 1775 he went off to Munich, where he produced the opera buffa La finta giardiniera with great success but without tangible consequences. In this period at Salzburg he wrote nine Symphonies (Nos. 22-30), including the excellent No. 29 in A Major; a large number of divertimenti, including the Haffner Serenade; all of his six Concertos for violin, several other concertos, and church music for use at Salzburg.

Mannheim and Paris, 1777-1779

Despite his continued productivity, Mozart was wholly dissatisfied with provincial Austria, and in 1777 he set off for new destinations: Munich, Augsburg, and prolonged stays in Mannheim and Paris. Mannheim was the seat of a famous court orchestra, along with a fine opera house. He wrote a number of attractive works while there (including his three Flute Quartets and five of his Violin Sonatas), but he was not offered a post.

Paris was a vastly larger theater for Mozart's talents (his father urged him to go there, for "from Paris the fame of a man of great talent echoes through the whole world," he wrote his son). But after 9 difficult months in Paris, from March 1778 to January 1779, Mozart returned once more to Salzburg, having been unable to secure a foot-hold and depressed by the entire experience, which had included the death of his mother in the midst of his stay in Paris. Unable to get a commission for an opera (still his chief ambition), he wrote music to order in Paris, again mainly for wind instruments: the Sinfonia Concertante for four solo wind instruments and orchestra, the Concerto for flute and harp, other chamber music, and the ballet music Les Petits riens. In addition, he was compelled to give lessons to make money. In his poignant letters from Paris, Mozart described his life in detail, but he also told his father (letter of July 31, 1778), "You know that I am, so to speak, soaked in music, that I am immersed in it all day long, and that I love to plan works, study, and meditate." This was the way in which the real Mozart saw himself; it far better reflects the actualities of his life than the fictional image of the carefree spirit who dashed off his works without premeditation, an image that was largely invented in the 19th century.

Salzburg, 1779-1781

Returning to Salzburg once more, Mozart took up a post as court conductor and violinist. He chafed again at the constraints of local life and his menial role under the archbishop. In Salzburg, as he wrote in a letter, "one hears nothing, there is no theater, no opera." During these years he concentrated on instrumental music (Symphony Nos. 32-34), the Symphonie Concertante for violin and viola, several orchestral divertimenti, and (despite the lack of a theater) an unfinished German opera, later called Zaide.

In 1780 Mozart received a long-awaited commission from Munich for the opera seria Idomeneo, musically one of the greatest of his works despite its unwieldy libretto and one of the great turning points in his musical development as he moved from his peregrinations of the 1770s to his Vienna sojourn in the 1780s. Idomeneo is, effectively, the last and greatest work in the entire tradition of dynastic opera seria, an art form that was decaying at the same time that the great European courts, which had for decades spent their substance on it as entertainment, were themselves beginning to sense the winds of social and political revolution. Mozart's only other work in this genre, the opera seria La clemenza di Tito (1791), was a hurriedly written work composed on demand for a coronation at Prague - and it is significantly not cast in the traditional large dimensions of old-fashioned opera seria, with its long arias, but is cut to two acts like an opera buffa and has many features of the new operatic design Mozart evolved after Idomeneo.

Vienna, 1781-1791

Mozart's years in Vienna, from age 25 to his death at 35, encompass one of the most prodigious developments in so short a span in the history of music. While up to now he had demonstrated a complete and fertile grasp of the techniques of his time, his music had been largely within the range of the higher levels of the common language of the time. But in these 10 years Mozart's music grew rapidly beyond the comprehension of many of his contemporaries; it exhibited both ideas and methods of elaboration that few could follow, and to many the late Mozart seemed a difficult composer. Franz Joseph Haydn's constant praise of him came from his only true peer, and Haydn harped again and again on the problem of Mozart's obtaining a good and secure position, a problem no doubt compounded by the jealousy of Viennese rivals.

Mozart disparaged many of his less gifted contemporaries in scathing terms; Leopold often entreated him to write in a simple and pleasing style ("What is slight can still be great"). Replying to such a plea, Mozart (letter of Dec. 28, 1782, from Vienna) wrote of his own work in a way that might apply to much of his music: "These concertos [K. 413-415] are a happy medium between what is too easy and what is too difficult … there are passages here and there from which only connoisseurs can derive satisfaction; but these passages are written in such a way that the less learned cannot fail to be pleased, though without knowing why."

The major instrumental works of this period encompass all the fields of Mozart's earlier activity and some new ones: six symphonies, including the famous last three: No. 39 in E-flat Major, No. 40 in G Minor, and No. 41 in C Major (the Jupiter-a title unknown to Mozart). He finished these three works within 6 weeks during the summer of 1788, a remarkable feat even for him.

In the field of the string quartet Mozart produced two important groups of works that completely overshadowed any he had written before 1780: in 1785 he published the six Quartets dedicated to Haydn (K. 387, 421, 428, 458, 464, and 465) and in 1786 added the single Hoffmeister Quartet (K. 499). In 1789 he wrote the last three Quartets (K. 575, 589, and 590), dedicated to King Frederick William of Prussia, a noted cellist. The six Quartets dedicated to Haydn undoubtedly owe something to Mozart's study of the earlier work of Haydn, perhaps most to the self-asserted "new and special manner" of Haydn's Op. 33 of 1781, a phrase that may refer to the complete participation in these works of all four instruments in the motivic development. Mozart's works entirely meet the standards set by Haydn up to now, and surpass it.

Other chamber music on the highest level of imagination and craftsmanship from Mozart's Vienna years includes the two Piano Quartets, seven late Violin Sonatas, the last Piano Trios, and the Piano Quintet with winds; and in the last five years of his life, the last String Quintets and the Clarinet Quintet. This decade also saw the composition of the last 17 of Mozart's Piano Concertos, almost all written for his own performance. They represent the high point in the literature of the classical concerto, and in the following generation only Ludwig van Beethoven was able to match them.

A considerable influence upon Mozart's music during this decade was his increasing acquaintance with the music of Johann Sebastian Bach and George Frederick Handel, which in Vienna of the 1780s was scarcely known or appreciated. Through the private intermediacy of an enthusiast for Bach and Handel, Baron Gottfried van Swieten, Mozart came to know Bach's Well-tempered Clavier, from which he made arrangements of several fugues for strings with new preludes of his own. He also made arrangements of works by Handel, including Acis and Galatea, the Messiah, and Alexander's Feast.

In a number of late works - especially the Jupiter Symphony, Die Zauberflöte (The Magic Flute), and the Requiem - one sees an overt use of contrapuntal procedures, which reflects Mozart's awakened interest in contrapuntal techniques at this period. But in a more subtle sense much of his late work, even where it does not make direct use of fugal textures, reveals a subtlety of contrapuntal organization that doubtless owed something to his deepened experience of the music of Bach and Handel.

Operas of the Vienna Years

Mozart's evolution as an opera composer between 1781 and his death is even more remarkable, perhaps, since the problems of opera were more far-ranging than those of the larger instrumental forms and provided less adequate models. In opera Mozart instinctively set about raising the perfunctory dramatic and musical conventions of his time to the status of genuine art forms. A reform of opera from triviality had been successfully achieved by Christoph Willibald Gluck, but Gluck cannot stand comparison with Mozart in pure musical invention. Although Idomeneo may indeed owe a good deal to Gluck, Mozart was immediately thereafter to turn away entirely from opera seria. Instead he sought German or Italian librettos that would provide stage material adequate to stimulate his powers of dramatic expression and dramatic timing through music.

The first important result was the German Singspiel entitled Die Entführung aus dem Serail (1782; Abduction from the Seraglio). Not only does it have an immense variety of expressive portrayals through its arias, but what is new in the work are its moments of authentic dramatic interaction between characters in ensembles. Following this bent, Mozart turned to Italian opera, and he was fortunate enough to find a librettist of genuine ability, a true literary craftsman, Lorenzo da Ponte. Working with Da Ponte, Mozart produced his three greatest Italian operas: Le nozze di Figaro (1786; The Marriage of Figaro), Don Giovanni (1787, for Prague), and Cosi fan tutte (1790).

Figaro is based on a play by Pierre Caron de Beaumarchais, adapted skillfully by Da Ponte to the requirements of opera. In Figaro the ensembles become even more important than the arias, and the considerable profusion of action in the plot is managed with a skill beyond even the best of Mozart's competitors. Not only is every character convincingly portrayed, but the work shows a blending of dramatic action and musical articulation that is probably unprecedented in opera, at least of these dimensions. In Figaro and other late Mozart operas the singers cannot help enacting the roles conceived by the composer, since the means of characterization and dramatic expression have been built into the arias and ensembles. This principle, grasped by only a few composers in the history of music, was evolved by Mozart in these years, and, like everything he touched, totally mastered as a technique. It is this that gives these works the quality of perfection that opera audiences have attributed to them, together with their absolute mastery of musical design.

In Don Giovanni elements of wit and pathos are blended with the representation of the supernatural onstage, a rare occurrence at this time. In Cosi fan tutte the very idea of "operatic" expression - including the exaggerated venting of sentiment - is itself made the subject of an ironic comedy on fidelity between two pairs of lovers, aided by two manipulators.

In his last opera, The Magic Flute (1791), Mozart turned back to German opera, and he produced a work combining many strands of popular theater but with means of musical expression ranging from quasi-folk song to Italianate coloratura. The plot, put together by the actor and impresario Emanuel Schikaneder, is partly based on a fairy tale but is heavily impregnated with elements of Freemasonry and possibly with contemporary political overtones.

On concluding The Magic Flute, Mozart turned to work on what was to be his last project, the Requiem. This Mass had been commissioned by a benefactor said to have been unknown to Mozart, and he is supposed to have become obsessed with the belief that he was, in effect, writing it for himself. Ill and exhausted, he managed to finish the first two movements and sketches for several more, but the last three sections were entirely lacking when he died. It was completed by his pupil Franz Süssmayer after his death, which came on Dec. 5, 1791. He was given a third-class funeral.

Further Reading

The most important source materials on Mozart available in English are The Letters of Mozart and His Family, Chronologically Arranged, edited by Emily Anderson (3 vols., 1938; 2d ed. 1966); and Otto Erich Deutsch, Mozart: A Documentary Biography (1964). The most comprehensive study in English of Mozart is Alfred Einstein, Mozart: His Character, His Work (1945).

Studies of individual works or groups of works include Edward J. Dent, Mozart's Operas: A Critical Study (1913; 2d ed. 1947); Georges de Saint-Foix, The Symphonies of Mozart (1947); C. M. Girdlestone, Mozart's Piano Concertos (1948); Siegmund Levarie, Mozart's Le Nozze de Figaro: A Critical Analysis (1952); and The Mozart Companion, edited by H. O. Robbins Landon and Donald Mitchell (1956). A wide variety of analysis is in the special Mozart issue of the Musical Quarterly (1956), reprinted as The Creative World of Mozart, edited by Paul Henry Lang (1956). For analyses of his works see Felix Salzer, Structural Hearing (2 vols., 1952; rev. ed. 1962).

Mozart, Wolfgang Amadeus (b Salzburg, 27 Jan. 1756, d Vienna, 5 Dec. 1791). Austrian composer. He wrote the music for Noverre's Les Petits Riens (Paris, 1778) and wrote many dances and sets of dances. His concert music, however, has been used by several choreographers, including Balanchine (Symphonie concertante, Divertimento No. 15), Arpino (Secret Places), van Manen (Quintet), and Kylián (Six Dances, Petite mort).

Mozart, Wolfgang Amadeus (1756–91), Austrian musician and composer. Born in Salzburg, though seldom remaining long in one place, he travelled extensively throughout Europe, where he performed or conducted many of his compositions. In his short life of only 35 years, Mozart wrote over 600 works in every kind of musical form available to him, including 22 operas. The last of these, and his final completed composition, is the famous ‘magic opera’, Die Zauberflöte (The Magic Flute, 1791), principally based upon a fairy tale by A. J. Liebeskind (originally, Lulu, oder die Zauberflöte) in Wieland's collection of oriental tales called Dschinnistan (1786). Other sources for the magical and ritual elements may have included Philipp Hafner's play Megära (1763) and the novel Sethos (1731) by Jean Terrasson. Emanuel Schikaneder (1751–1812), long‐time friend of the Mozart family and a well‐known actor who had toured south Germany and Austria (playing especially such Shakespearian roles as Hamlet, King Lear, and Macbeth), settled finally in Vienna in 1789 where he managed the Theater auf der Wieden, and fostered there the fashionable Singspiel (‘song‐play’, often comic, in which musical numbers are separated by dialogue). Schikaneder, as actor‐manager and librettist (possibly assisted by the obscure C. L. Giesecke), eager to promote his theatre, suggested to Mozart that the two of them should collaborate in an opera for Schikaneder's theatre. Having recently composed the three Italian comic operas to libretti by Lorenzo da Ponte (1749–1838)—Le nozze di Figaro, Don Giovanni, and Così fan tutte—Mozart was eager to write a German opera again. Also, he had just completed, supposedly in only 18 days, a commission to write an opera seria (a ‘serious opera’). This was La Clemenza di Tito, composed for the coronation of the emperor Leopold II as king of Bohemia, in Prague on 6 September 1791. But Mozart was thinking now most of all about Die Zauberflöte. He had written Singspiele before this one, but nothing so ample—fairy tale, magic, quasi‐religious devotion, low comedy all generously combined. Mozart's previous best of this kind was Die Entführung aus dem Serail (The Abduction from the Harem, 1782) with its exotic Turkish setting (reminiscent of another foreign location in Idomeneo, 1781, placed in ancient Crete). But Die Zauberflöte is the apotheosis of the Singspiel and of the exotic fairy tale, a remarkable grafting together of forms that was to prove an important influence on later German opera, such as Richard Strauss's Die Frau ohne Schatten (The Woman without a Shadow, 1919).

Mozart was attracted to Schikaneder's libretto partly because he could develop a number of contrasting dramatic roles. Moreover, like Schikaneder, Mozart was an earnest Freemason, having been initiated into the Craft in 1784. He evidently believed that his new opera should exalt Masonic ideas and principles in a way meaningful for both initiated and uninitiated, and he transforms much of the original fairy tale into musical writing of considerable solemnity, ritual, magic, and symbolism. The overture to the opera opens in E flat major, with its three flats in the key signature, three being an important number to 18th‐century Freemasons. But there are many other features of Die Zauberflöte generally descriptive or interpretive of Freemasonry, most notably the lofty idealism and super‐denominational religious spirit that permeates the whole opera. Yet Mozart combines such seriousness with farcical clowning, presenting the opera on two levels, the spirituality of Tamino–Pamina and the earthy Papageno–Papagena relationship.

The opera begins with the entrance of Tamino, who is pursued by a huge serpent but lacks the arrows with which to defend himself. He calls for help, falls unconscious, and at this moment three Ladies dressed in black and carrying spears enter and kill the serpent. When Tamino recovers consciousness, he meets the bird‐catcher Papageno, who boasts that he has killed the serpent himself. The Ladies return, lock up the lying Papageno's mouth with a padlock, and show Tamino a portrait of Pamina, daughter of the Queen of the Night, who is alleged to have been abducted by Sarastro. Tamino falls at once in love with Pamina and determines to find and release her. Now the Ladies remove the padlock from Papageno's mouth, give him a chime of magic bells, and to Tamino a magic flute, bidding them to carry on their journey to find Pamina, which will be guided safely by three boys or Genii. In subsequent scenes, we discover that Sarastro (‘Zoroaster’) is no monster, but rather the chief priest of the Temple of Wisdom, and the Queen of the Night is in fact the wicked character. Tamino is put through three tests by which he is made worthy of Pamina, while Papageno parodies this grand journey of initiation on a very different level, being united at last with his bird‐wife Papagena. At the same time, the unholy Queen of the Night is vanquished, while the reign of knowledge and the just law of nature endures. Tamino and Pamina thus represent ideal beings who seek to realize an ideal union, while Papageno and Papagena are children of nature who yet long for and achieve a simple union of a lesser kind; for all sorts and conditions of people may live in Sarastro's world of harmony and true wisdom. Mozart's opera was first performed on 30 September 1791; the composer died nine weeks later, in Vienna, on 5 December.

Bibliography

• Angermüller, Rudolph, Mozart's Operas (1988).
• Dent, Edward J., Mozart's Operas: A Critical Study (2nd edn., 1947).
• Einstein, Alfred, Mozart: His Character; His Work (1945).
• Mann, William, The Operas of Mozart (1977).

— P. G. Stanwood

Mozart, Wolfgang Amadeus (Salzburg, 1756-91, Vienna), Austrian composer and musical prodigy, toured Europe with his father and sister when he was seven, visiting, among other cities, London and Paris. In 1762 and 1768 he played to Maria Theresia at Schönbrunn. He composed numerous symphonies, concertos, and divertimenti, as well as much chamber and keyboard music. The catalogue of his works (Köchel-Verzeichnis, by L. Köchel), contains 626 K numbers, as well as a number of interpolations marked by an added ‘A’. Of Mozart's liturgical music, all of which is to Latin texts, the best-known work is the unfinished Requiem Mass.

Mozart composed a number of songs with German words, including poems by Uz, J. C. Günther, Canitz, J. M. Miller, Hermes, C. F. Weiße, Goethe, Blumauer, Hagedorn, J. G. Jacobi, and Hölty. Most of his operas have Italian libretti, Il rè pastore (1775) by Metastasio, Idomeneo, Rè di Creta (1781) by Varesco; the libretti for Le nozze di Figaro (1786), Don Giovanni (1787), and Così fan tutte (1790) are by L. Da Ponte. The libretto of the last Italian opera, La clemenza di Tito (1791), again goes back to Metastasio.

Mozart's two German operas are of Singspiel type: Die Entführung aus dem Serail (1782, text by G. Stephanie after C. F. Bretzner) and Die Zauberflöte (1791), text by E. Schikaneder.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, the genius musician, was born 250 years ago today and the world is celebrating his birth and his music. In Salzburg, where he was born, dignitaries from around the globe will attend a giant birthday bash this evening. Over the next year, Salzburg will host 260 all-Mozart concerts and 55 Masses devoted to his sacred music. In New York this evening, the Philharmonic will debut a three-week "Magic of Mozart" tribute, and the Metropolitan Opera will present a production of The Magic Flute.

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From our Archives: Today's Highlights, January 27, 2006

Mozart, Wolfgang Amadeus (mōt'särt, Ger. vôlf'gäng ämädā'ʊs mō'tsärt), 1756-91, Austrian composer, b. Salzburg. Mozart represents one of the great peaks in the history of music. His works, written in almost every conceivable genre, combine luminous beauty of sound with classical grace and technical perfection.

Early Years

A remarkable prodigy, Mozart was taught to play the harpsichord, violin, and organ by his father, Leopold, and began composing before he was five. When Mozart was six, he and his older sister, Marianne, were presented by their father in concerts at the court of the Empress Maria Theresa in Vienna and in the principal aristocratic households of central Europe, Paris, and London. His progress as a composer was amazing; by the age of 13 he had written concertos, sonatas, symphonies, a German operetta, Bastien und Bastienne (1768), and an Italian opera buffa, La finta semplice (1769). During a tour in Italy (1768-71) he absorbed Italian style, received great acclaim for his concerts in Rome and other major cities, and successfully produced his opera Mitridate, re di Ponto (1770).

In 1771 Mozart was appointed concertmaster to the archbishop of Salzburg. However, he was dissatisfied with his position and the restrictions placed on his work, and after six years he went on tour in search of a better post. He traveled with his mother, visiting numerous cities, including Munich, Mannheim (where he fell in love briefly with the singer Aloysia Weber), and Paris. Despite the successful performance in Paris of his Symphony in D (1778), known as the Paris Symphony, Mozart did not receive much attention there.

Maturity

After resuming his post at Salzburg in 1779, Mozart composed Idomeneo (1781) for the Bavarian court. One of the best examples of 18th-century opera seria, it marks the first opera of Mozart's maturity. In the year of its production he resigned from the archbishop's service and moved to Vienna, where in 1782 he married Constanze Weber, the sister of Aloysia. Financial difficulties beset him almost immediately, since he was unable to secure a suitable position and had to earn his living by teaching and giving public concerts.

In Vienna, Mozart met Haydn, and the two developed a long and warm friendship that benefited the work of each. Mozart's six string quartets (1782-85) dedicated to Haydn are testimony of his influence. Die Entführung aus dem Serail (The Abduction from the Seraglio, 1782), a singspiel combining songs and German dialogue, brought Mozart some success.

The Viennese court opera was dominated by Italian tradition, and in his next operas Mozart turned to the style of the Italian opera buffa. With the librettist Lorenzo Da Ponte he created the comic masterpiece Le Nozze di Figaro (The Marriage of Figaro, 1786), which, after a lukewarm reception in Vienna, became a sensation in Prague. From that city also came the commission that resulted in Don Giovanni (1787). Although it has come to be regarded as one of the most brilliant operas ever written, it was considered rather difficult by his public, which preferred his more frivolous works.

At the death of Gluck (1787), Mozart succeeded him as chamber musician and court composer to Joseph II. His salary was far less than Gluck's had been, however, and his financial troubles persisted to the end of his life. An example of the elegant pieces written for social occasions at this time is the famous serenade for strings, Eine Kleine Nachtmusik (1787).

Last Works

In the space of three months in 1788 Mozart composed his last three symphonies-No. 39 in E Flat, No. 40 in G Minor, and No. 41 in C, called the Jupiter Symphony; they all display a complete mastery of classical symphonic form as established by Haydn. In 1789 Mozart traveled to Berlin, where he was presented to King Frederick William II. Mozart's last three string quartets (1789-90) were written for the king, an accomplished cellist. Returning to Vienna, Mozart composed his clarinet quintet (1789); his last opera buffa, Così fan tutte (1790), and his last piano concerto, the Piano Concerto in B Flat (1791).

In Die Zauberflöte (The Magic Flute, 1791), with libretto by the actor Emmanuel Schikaneder, Mozart returned to the German opera in the singspiel, bringing this form of light musical entertainment to a height of lyrical and symbolic art. Its composition was interrupted by a commission from a wealthy nobleman for a requiem mass and by the composition of La Clemenza di Tito (1791), an opera seria for the coronation of Leopold II as king of Bohemia.

After the production of Die Zauberflöte, Mozart worked feverishly on the requiem, with the foreboding that it would commemorate his own death. He died at the age of 35 without finishing it; the work was completed by his pupil Franz Süssmayr. A thematic catalog of Mozart's works was made by Ludwig von Köchel and published in 1862; an edition revised by Alfred Einstein appearing in 1937. Mozart's works are usually identified by their numbers in this list.

Leopold Mozart

Mozart's father Leopold, 1719-87, besides being the teacher and promoter of his famous son, was a capable composer and author of A Treatise on the Fundamental Problems of Violin Playing (1756; tr. 1951), of interest today as a record of 18th-century musical practice.

Bibliography

See W. A. Mozart's letters, ed. by E. Anderson (tr., 2 vol., 2d ed. 1966), and selected letters, ed. by R. Spaethling (tr., 2000); biographies by O. Jahn (tr. 1891, 3 vol.; repr. 1970), A. Einstein (4th ed. 1959), O. E. Deutsch (2d ed. 1965), E. Blom (rev. ed. 1937, repr. 1985), M. Solomon (1995), P. Gay (1999), R. W. Gutman (2000), and J. Rushton (2006); studies on his quartets by T. F. Dunhill (1927), his operas by E. J. Dent (2d ed. 1947, repr. 1970), his symphonies by G. de Saint-Foix (tr. 1947, repr. 1968); J. Liebner, Mozart on the Stage (1972, repr. 1980), H. C. Robbins Landon, 1791: Mozart's Last Year (1988, repr. 1999); W. Stafford, The Mozart Myths (1991).

Mozart, Wolfgang Amadeus (1756–1791), Austrian composer, widely considered one of the most gifted figures in the history of Western music. Born in the archbishopric of Salzburg, a territory of the Holy Roman Empire, Mozart by the age of six had already acquired a reputation throughout Europe as a musical prodigy. According to his father, Wolfgang was already composing minuets at the age of four, and he was barely six when he performed on the harpsichord for the Habsburg imperial family in Vienna. Yet Mozart's astonishing precocity as a composer and performer should not obscure the role of his father, Leopold, in nurturing his genius. Leopold, the son of an Augsburg bookbinder, became a musician at the Salzburg court in 1739 and in 1763 secured an appointment as deputy kapellmeister. He was himself an accomplished musician and composer who in 1756, the year of Wolfgang's birth, published what would become a highly influential treatise on violin playing. He was therefore able to provide Wolfgang and his sister, Maria Anna ("Nannerl"; 1751–1829), with superb musical tutelage. Leopold could be a demanding and irascible father, proud of his son's talents but also possessive and manipulative, and the bitter conflicts that marked his relationship with Wolfgang in later years have made it easy for some biographers to portray Leopold in an unflattering light. But even those scholars inclined to highlight his shortcomings (see, for example, Maynard Solomon's brilliant but controversial biography) acknowledge Leopold's crucial role in fostering the talents and career of his son.

This role was evident above all in the series of European tours he arranged for Wolfgang between 1763 and 1772, when Leopold journeyed with his son to such major musical capitals as Vienna, Paris, Naples, Milan, Mannheim, and London. These journeys were undertaken with the purpose of landing Wolfgang a position more suitable to his talents than what was then available in Salzburg. Mozart failed to secure a permanent appointment and for most of the period up to 1781 would remain formally in the service of the Salzburg court. But the grand tours of the 1760s and early 1770s did have the effect of exposing the young composer to an exceptionally broad array of musical influences and genres. In this respect the extensive travels of Wolfgang's youth certainly helped foster what would become a key element of his gifts as a composer, namely his universality. Mozart would not only master every musical genre of his day, but leave a lasting imprint on each—sacred music, keyboard and chamber music, concertos and symphonies, opera—and although a composer of his talents was certainly more than the sum of his musical influences, the range of styles and genres to which his father helped expose him fostered the conditions under which Wolfgang's genius could flourish.

But the young Mozart's travels also bred a growing dissatisfaction with his patrons at the Salzburg court, where he spent most of the years from 1773 to 1780. Mozart's unhappiness came partly in response to the policies of the new archbishop, Hieronymus Colloredo (in office 1772–1803), whose reform-minded efforts to lower court expenditures and curtail the use of instrumental music in the Mass further reduced what to Mozart already seemed a dearth of musical opportunities. Growing tension between the two, heightened by the efforts of the Mozart family to find employment elsewhere, culminated in the composer's unceremonious dismissal (in Mozart's words, "with a kick on the ass") by the archbishop's court chamberlain in 1781. Mozart's break with the archbishop later acquired legendary and dramatic force as the romantic embodiment of the clash between unrequited genius and mediocrity.

But the incident also pointed to the growing importance of Vienna, where Mozart now resolved to make his fortune, as a musical and cultural capital. The 1780s, which coincided with the reign of the reformist Joseph II (ruled 1765–1790), marked the high point of Enlightenment culture in the Habsburg capital. The city's expanding musical and theatrical venues help explain why Mozart could take a step so unusual for a composer of his day, namely that of embarking on a freelance musical career in lieu of one based on court patronage. Legends to the contrary, Mozart enjoyed considerable success in Vienna. The concerts he presented earned him noteworthy sums, due substantially to the popularity of his concertos, while the city's lively stage provided a vehicle for Mozart's operatic ambitions. The Viennese premier of his German Singspiel, Die Entführung aus dem Serail (1782; The abduction from the seraglio), was a major success, as was Le nozze di Figaro (1786; The marriage of Figaro), his first of three collaborative efforts with the Italian librettist Lorenzo da Ponte (1749–1838). The Viennese reception of Don Giovanni (1788) and Così fan tutte (1790), for which da Ponte also wrote librettos, was more muted, though the former had earlier premiered to an enthusiastic audience in Prague. Die Zauberflöte (1791; The magic flute) masterfully blended North German chorale, Viennese popular comedy, and Italianate coloratura, while its Masonic themes of brotherhood, reason, and justice (Mozart had become a Freemason in 1784) mark the opera as one of the highest expressions of the Viennese Enlightenment. There Mozart's universality is once again evident, not only in the opera's synthesis of diverse musical traditions but also in the transcendence of its moral universe.

Although Mozart's annual income during most of his Viennese years was relatively comfortable and roughly approximated that of a merchant or higher government official, his failure to achieve financial security is legendary. Personal extravagance, aggravated by the need to maintain a style of living proper to his status as a composer, was partly responsible. Later scholars have sometimes blamed Mozart's financial insecurity on his wife Constanze (née Weber), the daughter of a Mannheim court musician, whom Mozart had married in 1782. But charges that Constanze, after "entrapping" Mozart in marriage, drove the pair to financial ruin through her spendthrift ways, appear to be groundless. Evidence suggests that she was a supportive wife and a competent if not shrewd household manager. At least in his later years, what was chiefly responsible for Mozart's precarious finances were deteriorating health, which reduced the income he would otherwise have earned through teaching, performing, and composing. The causes of his death in 1791 remain a subject of speculation, with rheumatic fever the most widely accepted explanation. Serious scholars have dismissed the sensationalist claim, first advanced in the 1820s and later revived in stage (1979) and film (1985) versions of Peter Shaffer's Amadeus, that Mozart died of poisoning at the hands of the composer Antonio Salieri (1750–1825).

Bibliography

Braunbehrens, Volkmar. Mozart in Vienna, 1781–1791. Translated by Timothy Bell. New York, 1990.

Gutman, Robert W. Mozart: A Cultural Biography. New York and London, 1999.

Landon, H. C. Robbins. 1791: Mozart's Last Year. London, 1988.

Sadie, Stanley. "(Johann Chrysostom) Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart." In The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, edited by Stanley Sadie, vol. 17, pp. 276–347. London and New York, 2001.

Solomon, Maynard. Mozart: A Life. New York, 1995.

—JAMES VAN HORN MELTON

(moht-sahrt)

An eighteenth-century Austrian composer; one of the great figures in the history of music. A child prodigy, Mozart began composing music before he was five. He, Franz Josef Haydn, and Ludwig van Beethoven are the leading composers of the classic era. Mozart wrote chamber music, symphonies, operas, and Masses. Three of his best-known compositions are the short work for orchestra Eine Kleine Nachtmusik (A Little Night Music) and the operas Don Giovanni and The Marriage of Figaro.

Quotes:

"Neither a lofty degree of intelligence nor imagination nor both together go to the making of genius. Love, love, love, that is the soul of genius."

"My great-grandfather used to say to his wife, my great-grandmother, who in turn told her daughter, my grandmother, who repeated it to her daughter, my mother, who used to remind her daughter, my own sister, that to talk well and eloquently was a very great art, but that an equally great one was to know the right moment to stop."

"As death, when we come to consider it closely, is the true goal of our existence, I have formed during the last few years such close relations with this best and truest friend of mankind, that his image is not only no longer terrifying to me, but is indeed very soothing and consoling! And I thank my God for graciously granting me the opportunity of learning that death is the key which unlocks the door to our true happiness."

Biography

Perhaps the classical composer most quoted in film soundtracks, Mozart's music has appeared in approximately 310 feature films. Many of this Austrian composer's operas have received full film and television productions including Die Entführung aus dem Serail (The Abduction From the Seraglio) in five complete productions and the theme for TV's Where on Earth Is Carmen Sandiego?, and Così Fan Tutte (All Women Do So) with nine productions and quoted in Propellerblume (The Whirligig,1997). Die Zauberflöte (The Magic Flute) has had ten European and American television presentations, and was quoted in 11 films including Miss Congeniality (2000), Face/Off (1997), Parting Glances (1986), and Letter From an Unknown Woman (1948). Don Giovanni has had 15 full productions with excerpts appearing in romantic drama contexts including La Cérémonie (1995), Jalousie (1991), Babette's Feast (1988), Parting Glances, and the wonderfully titled Tense Moments From Opera (1922). Il Nozzi de Figaro (The Marriage of Figaro) can be found in 13 complete productions and also appears in various filmic variations in The Adventures of Pinocchio (1996), The Shawshank Redemption (1994), So This Is Love (1953), and Under Your Spell (1936).

In Stanley Kubrick's Eyes Wide Shut (1999), after seemingly being followed by a mysterious man (or perhaps only walking in the same direction), Tom Cruise's Dr. Hartford character (called Fridolin in Schnitzler's Traumnovelle) enters a coffeehouse in which Mozart's Requiem plays quietly in the background. It makes a strange juxtaposition to the comfortable Christmas season warmness of the patrons who seem content to let it be just some classical music wallpaper. Cruise picks up the newspaper and reads about an ex-beauty queen found dead of an overdose, who may be the masked prostitute who saved him the previous night when he was exposed as an intruder at a gathering of a high-society religio-sex cult. The Mozart piece, which has functioned as a subtle form of presaging, is interrupted by the stark punctuations of a Ligeti piano work as the camera focuses on the news headlines. Like colors, bits of dialogue, and certain store signs throughout the film, this music is among the subliminal, encoded elements that create another level of meaningful associations just below the surface story. The Requiem is also heard in Elizabeth (1998), The Big Lebowski (1998), Primal Fear (1996), The Mother and the Whore (1973), and many other films.

The most quoted of Mozart's instrumental music is Eine Kleine Nachtmusik (A Little Night Music), heard in nine films including Anne Frank (2001), Sophie's Choice (1982), Alien (1979), and Picnic at Hanging Rock (1975). Elvira Madigan (1967) used the composer's Piano Concerto No. 21, which became quite popular. Other piano concerti occur in movies such as Chain of Command (2000), My Big Fat Father (1992), Out of Africa (1985), and Incompreso (1966). The string quartets and divertimenti have also been widely used.

Movies about the composer's life have included Mozart -- Aufzeichnungen Einer Jugend (Mozart -- Records of a Young Man, 1976), Das Leben Mozarts (The Life of Mozart, 1967), The Life and Loves of Mozart (1955), Unsterblicher Mozart (Immortal Mozart, 1954), and The Mozart Story (1948). But the one that best captures the spirit of the composer, if not always the historical letter, is Milos Forman's production of Peter Shaffer's Amadeus (1984), winner of eight Academy awards, with Tom Hulce as an exuberant, ribaldly amorous, soul-searching, natural non-conformist, and charmingly naïve genius. ~ "Blue" Gene Tyranny, Rovi

Die Entfuhrung aus dem Serail (Salzburger Festspiele) Buy this Movie	Mitridate, Re di Ponto Buy this Movie	Don Giovanni Buy this Movie	Don Giovanni (Glyndebourne Festival Opera) Buy this Movie
Le Nozze di Figaro (Glyndebourne Festival Opera) Buy this Movie	Mozart: The Requiem From Sarajevo Buy this Movie	The Magic Flute Story: An Opera Fantasy Buy this Movie	Mitridate, Re di Ponto (The Royal Opera) Buy this Movie

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• Genres: Ballet, Chamber Music, Choral Music, Concerto, Keyboard Music, Opera, Orchestral Music, Symphony, Vocal Music

Biography

Austrian musician Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791) was among the most prolific, versatile, and popular composers of all time. An extraordinary musical prodigy, he had a career of enormous productivity from his childhood until his untimely death at 35. His music embodied the ideals of the Classical era in its clarity, lyricism, charm, and gracefulness, to which he also often brought a deeply expressive passion. Mozart wrote nearly every type of music, including 41 numbered symphonies, 27 piano concertos, 18 piano sonatas, 23 string quartets, liturgical music, and many operas, including Le nozze di Figaro, Don Giovanni, Così fan tutte, and Die Zauberflöte. ~ Stephen Eddins, Rovi

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