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Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (: German: English See FN

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was an influential composer of the Classical era. He showed musical talent from a young age, composing from age 5 and performing for European royalty by age 17. Though he achieved some fame, he struggled financially and worked prolifically until his early death at age 35 in 1791. Mozart composed over 600 works that are considered pinnacles of many classical music genres and had profound influence on subsequent Western art music.

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Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (: German: English See FN

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was an influential composer of the Classical era. He showed musical talent from a young age, composing from age 5 and performing for European royalty by age 17. Though he achieved some fame, he struggled financially and worked prolifically until his early death at age 35 in 1791. Mozart composed over 600 works that are considered pinnacles of many classical music genres and had profound influence on subsequent Western art music.

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chris orlan
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Mozart" redirects here. For other uses, see Mozart (disambiguation).

Mozart c. 1780, detail from portrait by Johann Nepomuk della Croce


Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (German: [vlfa amades motsat], English see fn.;[1] 27 January
1756 5 December 1791), baptised as Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart,[2]
was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical era.
Mozart showed prodigious ability from his earliest childhood. Already competent on keyboard and
violin, he composed from the age of five and performed before European royalty. At 17, he was engaged
as a court musician in Salzburg, but grew restless and travelled in search of a better position, always
composing abundantly. While visiting Vienna in 1781, he was dismissed from his Salzburg position. He
chose to stay in the capital, where he achieved fame but little financial security. During his final years in
Vienna, he composed many of his best-known symphonies, concertos, and operas, and portions of the
Requiem, which was largely unfinished at the time of his death. The circumstances of his early death
have been much mythologized. He was survived by his wife Constanze and two sons.
He composed over 600 works, many acknowledged as pinnacles of symphonic, concertante, chamber,
operatic, and choral music. He is among the most enduringly popular of classical composers, and his
influence on subsequent Western art music is profound; Ludwig van Beethoven composed his own early
works in the shadow of Mozart, and Joseph Haydn wrote that "posterity will not see such a talent again
in 100 years
Mozart's physical appearance was described by tenor Michael Kelly, in his Reminiscences: "a
remarkably small man, very thin and pale, with a profusion of fine, fair hair of which he was rather
vain". As his early biographer Niemetschek wrote, "there was nothing special about [his] physique. [...]
He was small and his countenance, except for his large intense eyes, gave no signs of his genius." His
facial complexion was pitted, a reminder of his childhood case of smallpox. There is a photofit of
Mozart, created from four contemporary portraits.[88] He loved elegant clothing. Kelly remembered him
at a rehearsal: "[He] was on the stage with his crimson pelisse and gold-laced cocked hat, giving the
time of the music to the orchestra." Of his voice his wife later wrote that it "was a tenor, rather soft in
speaking and delicate in singing, but when anything excited him, or it became necessary to exert it, it
was both powerful and energetic".[89]
Mozart usually worked long and hard, finishing compositions at a tremendous pace as deadlines
approached. He often made sketches and drafts; unlike Beethoven's these are mostly not preserved, as
his wife sought to destroy them after his death.[90]
He was raised a Catholic and remained a loyal member of the Church throughout his life.[91]
Mozart lived at the center of the Viennese musical world, and knew a great number and variety of
people: fellow musicians, theatrical performers, fellow Salzburgers, and aristocrats, including some
acquaintance with the Emperor Joseph II. Solomon considers his three closest friends to have been
Gottfried von Jacquin, Count August Hatzfeld, and Sigmund Barisani; others included his older

colleague Joseph Haydn, singers Franz Xaver Gerl and Benedikt Schack, and the horn player Joseph
Leutgeb. Leutgeb and Mozart carried on a curious kind of friendly mockery, often with Leutgeb as the
butt of Mozart's practical jokes.[92]
He enjoyed billiards and dancing, and kept pets: a canary, a starling, a dog, and a horse for
recreational riding.[93] He had a startling fondness for scatological humor, which is preserved
in his surviving letters, notably those written to his cousin Maria Anna Thekla Mozart around
17771778, and in his correspondence with his sister and parents. [94] Mozart also wrote
scatological music, a series of canons that he sang with his friends.[citation needed

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