Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (27 January 1756 – 5 December 1791) was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical period. Despite his brief life, his rapid pace of composition and proficiency from an early age resulted in more than 800 works representing virtually every classical genre of his time. Many of these compositions are acknowledged as pinnacles of the symphonic, concertante, chamber, opera, and choral repertoires. Mozart is widely regarded as one of the greatest composers in the history of Western music, with his music admired for its “melodic beauty, its formal elegance and its richness of harmony and texture”.
Born in Salzburg, Mozart showed prodigious ability from his earliest childhood. At age five, he was already competent on keyboard and violin, had begun to compose, and performed before European royalty. His father, Leopold Mozart, took him on a grand tour of Europe and then three trips to Italy. At 17 he was a musician at the Salzburg court but grew restless and travelled in search of a better position. Mozart’s fruitless journey in search of employment led him to Paris, Mannheim, Munich, and eventually back to Salzburg. During this time he wrote his five violin concertos, the Sinfonia Concertante, and Concerto for Flute and Harp, as well as sacred pieces and masses, the motet Exsultate Jubilate, and the opera Idomeneo, among other works.
While visiting Vienna in 1781, Mozart was dismissed from his Salzburg position. He stayed in Vienna, where he achieved fame but little financial security. During Mozart’s early years in Vienna he produced several notable works, such as the opera Die Entführung aus dem Serail, the Great Mass in C minor, the “Haydn” Quartets and a number of symphonies. Throughout his Vienna years Mozart composed more than a dozen piano concertos, many considered some of his greatest achievements. In the final years of his life he wrote many of his best-known works, including his last three symphonies, culminating in the JupiterSymphony, the serenade Eine kleine Nachtmusik, his Clarinet Concerto, the operas The Marriage of Figaro, Don Giovanni, Così fan tutte and The Magic Flute, and his Requiem. The Requiem was largely unfinished at the time of his death at age 35, the circumstances of which are uncertain and much mythologised.
Mozart fell ill while in Prague for the premiere, on 6 September 1791, of his opera La clemenza di Tito, which he wrote that year on commission for Emperor Leopold II‘s coronation festivities. He continued to work professionally for some time and conducted the premiere of The Magic Flute on 30 September. His health deteriorated on 20 November, at which point he became bedridden, suffering from swelling, pain, and vomiting.
Mozart was nursed in his final days by his wife and her youngest sister and was attended by the family doctor, Thomas Franz Closset. He was occupied by the task of finishing his Requiem. Evidence that he dictated passages to his student Franz Xaver Süssmayr is minimal.
Mozart died in his home on 5 December 1791 (aged 35) at 12:55 am.