Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

(1756-1791)

BIRTH

January 27, 1756

PLACE

Salzburg, Austria

NAME

Joannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart

DEATH

December 5, 1791

PLACE

Vienna, Austria

FAMILY

FATHER

Leopold Mozart

(1719–1787)

MOTHER

Anna Maria Mozart

(1720–1778)

WIFE

Constanze Mozart

(1762-1842)

HOMES

NICKNAMES

Wolferl

RELIGIOUS VIEWS

CHRISTIAN

CATHOLIC

MEMBERSHIPS

ACCADEMIA FILARMONICA DI BOLOGNA MEMBER, FREEMASON, ZUR WOHLTATIGKEIT LODGE MEMBER

AWARDS

ORDER OF THE GOLDEN SPUR KNIGHT

Austrian composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart wrote more than 600 works, including The Marriage of Figaro, Don Giovanni, The Magic Flute, and the Requiem, before his death at 35. Mozart was a court musician in Salzburg but chafed under Archbishop Colloredo. In 1782 he married Constanze Weber, and his opera The Abduction from the Seraglio was a success. His last three symphonies date from 1788. He fell ill that autumn and died in Vienna on December 5, 1791.

COMPOSEREDUCATORMUSICIAN

EARLY LIFE

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was born on January 27, 1756, in Salzburg, then the seat of an independent prince-archbishopric, the youngest child of Leopold Mozart, a violinist and composer in the archbishop's court orchestra, and Anna Maria Pertl. He was baptized Joannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus. His father taught him and his older sister, Maria Anna, known as Nannerl, and Wolfgang was composing by the age of five. From 1762 Leopold took the children on concert tours to Munich, Vienna, Paris, London, and other cities, where they performed for royalty. In Italy between 1769 and 1773 he studied with Padre Martini and composed operas for Milan.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's career developed from court employment into an ambitious effort to live by composition, performance, and teaching. After youthful journeys had established his reputation, he served the Salzburg court and produced church music, symphonies, concertos, and dramatic works. A journey through Mannheim and Paris in 1777–1778 brought musical contacts but failed to secure the independent position he wanted. His mother died in Paris. Returning to Salzburg, he resumed court duties while finding the constraints of employment increasingly difficult.

In 1781 Mozart's relationship with Archbishop Colloredo broke down in Vienna, and he left Salzburg service. He remained in the imperial capital, giving lessons, performing, and composing for subscribers, patrons, and theaters. The Abduction from the Seraglio, staged in 1782, established his success in German opera. That year he married Constanze Weber. During the following years his piano concertos served both as compositions for publication and as vehicles for his own public performances. His chamber music included the six quartets dedicated to Joseph Haydn, whose work he studied closely.

Collaboration with the librettist Lorenzo Da Ponte produced The Marriage of Figaro in 1786, Don Giovanni in 1787, and Così fan tutte in 1790. These operas joined intricate musical construction to sharply differentiated characters and complex ensembles. Prague's enthusiasm for Figaro helped lead to the commission for Don Giovanni. Mozart's appointment as an imperial chamber composer in 1787 provided a salary but did not free him from the need to seek commissions and audiences. His financial circumstances fluctuated, and surviving letters document requests for loans as well as professional plans. An account of uninterrupted wealth or complete public rejection would oversimplify those years.

The final three symphonies were composed in 1788, showing a breadth of expression beyond the theatrical works. In 1791 he completed The Magic Flute, with Emanuel Schikaneder, and La clemenza di Tito, commissioned for the coronation celebrations in Prague. He also wrote the Clarinet Concerto for Anton Stadler. The Requiem remained unfinished when Mozart died in December 1791 at thirty-five; others completed versions used for performance. Later legends about poisoning and a mysterious death should not replace the surviving documentary evidence.

CAREER

DEATH

Mozart fell seriously ill on 20 November 1791, and took to (what turned out to be) his deathbed; he suffered from swelling, pain, and vomiting. There is a serious controversy about whether his illness had started earlier, with a long and demoralizing period of decline, or was sudden. Mozart was nursed in his final days by his wife and her younger sister Sophie and was attended by the family doctor, Thomas Franz Closset. By Sophie's testimony Mozart spent some of his final hours in conversation with his student and friend Süssmayr, discussing the problem of getting his Requiem completed. Mozart died in his home on 5 December 1791 at 12:55 am. The New Grove describes his funeral: The expression "common grave" refers to neither a communal grave nor a pauper's grave, but an individual grave for a member of the common people (i.e., not the aristocracy). Common graves were subject to excavation after ten years; aristocrats' graves were not. The cause of Mozart's death is not known with certainty. The official record of hitziges Frieselfieber ("severe fever", referring to a rash that looks like millet seeds) is more a symptomatic description than a diagnosis. Researchers have suggested more than a hundred causes of death, including acute rheumatic fever, streptococcal infection, trichinosis, influenza, mercury poisoning and a rare kidney ailment. The contemporary Viennese public health official, who consulted with Mozart's doctors at the time, insisted that Mozart most likely died in an epidemic, asserting that many people in Vienna had died at the same time with the same symptoms.

St Marx Cemetery

Leberstraße 6–8, 1030 Vienna, Austria

GRAVE