Despite the many fictional portrayals of Mozart in film and book, he did not, in fact:
� Suffer under a harsh stage father;
� Behave and speak with a crudity other than what was normal for his time; or,
� Die in abject poverty causing him to be buried in an unmarked pauper�s grave.
Mozart�s life was interesting enough without these dramatic embellishments.
Childhood: Born in Salzburg, in what is now known as Austria, little Wolfgang really did begin to play the piano at age 3. He eagerly copied his older sister Maria Anna (generally called Nannerl), age 7, as their father gave her lessons. Nannerl herself was quite talented, though not to the same prodigious extent as her younger brother, and the family�s earliest European tours featured both youngsters.
By all accounts, their father Leopold Mozart loved his children very much, and stood in awe of his small son�s musical accomplishments. In the boy�s earliest efforts at composition, he played his small works for his father, who transcribed them to paper.
Young Wolfgang, with his father and sometimes sister in tow, performed for royalty all over Europe from the age of 6. During the next 11 years, the boy met numerous leading musicians and composers from Vienna to London to Milan, and developed a reputation for himself not only as a performer, but also a very able composer in his own right.
Young Adulthood: When Leopold and Wolfgang returned to their native Salzburg in 1773, they found favor with a noble patron there, Prince-Archbishop Hieronymus Colloredo, who ruled Salzburg at the time. Under Colloredo�s patronage, Wolfgang was appointed court musician, and here began several highly productive years as a composer.
During this time, Mozart wrote a series of violin and piano concertos, which are still considered staples of the repertoire for these instruments. However, the young composer was restless in Salzburg, and longed for greater � and more financially rewarding � opportunities. For one thing, he wanted to work in opera, but these were only infrequently performed in Salzburg. Despite several trips to leading European cities in search of employment elsewhere, such employment was not forthcoming.
Adulthood & Independence: In 1781, when W. A. Mozart was 25 years old, he finally managed to break away from Salzburg. The occasion was a trip to Vienna in the shadow of his employer Colloredo, who had been called there to attend the coronation of the Emperor Joseph II. While there, however, Mozart was offended by Colloredo�s refusal to allow him to perform for the Emperor in a salon. This opportunity would have paid Mozart a fee equal to half of the annual salary Colloredo afforded him.
Mozart attempted to resign, but Colloredo refused. Later, Colloredo quite literally had the young composer kicked out of his establishment � with his steward administering the physical punishment to Mozart�s backside. This rift with his erstwhile employer also damaged Wolfgang�s relationship with his father, who admonished his son for offending their patron. Relations were cool between father and son to the end of Wolfgang�s life.
However, Mozart had gotten a taste of the potentially lucrative opportunities to be had as a freelancer in Vienna. For a while, he managed to make a handsome living there. He wed Constanze Weber, whose family he and his father had met during their earlier European travels. Mozart secured an appointment as Chamber Composer to Emperor Joseph II. Life seemed promising for the young couple, and they settled down in a high-priced district to enjoy an interlude of being pleasantly well-off.
But financial trouble was around the corner. In 1786, the local aristocracy, funding a war effort, had little money to spare on entertainment, and times grew difficult for all musicians. Wolfgang and Constanze moved their family to much less expensive lodgings on the outskirts of Vienna. Mozart�s production of compositions fell off. He began to borrow money from friends.
Yet, the fictional portrayal of his death in poverty was an exaggeration. By 1791, Mozart�s fortunes had begun to look up again, and he started to pay off his debts. His volume of compositions improved as well. Mozart�s compositions during this time included some of his most critically-acclaimed and popular pieces, including the opera The Magic Flute and his final piano concerto, the K.595 in B-Flat.
However, in the fall of 1791, Mozart fell ill. The nature of his affliction may never be known exactly, but leading theories implicate an attack of recurrent rheumatic fever. This is a secondary problem associated with untreated streptococcus infection (i.e., �strep throat� that is not treated with antibiotics), that occurs in about 3% of untreated cases. It can cause damage to the heart, as well as some of the symptoms suffered by Mozart, and he is known to have suffered attacks of this illness earlier in life.
He was cared for in his illness by his wife Constanze and her younger sister Sophie. He was preoccupied during this time with trying to complete his Requiem, though evidence that he dictated it to a student (still less to Antonio Salieri) is quite sparse.
On December 5, 1791, W.A. Mozart succumbed to his illness. However, his burial in a common grave, without graveside mourners, was usual practice in his day and does not reflect on his public popularity or financial status. In fact, a series of memorial concerts held after his death was well-attended � which would tend to provide evidence for his high esteem in the public eye, or rather, ear. Also, we have seen that while he and his family were not well-off at the time of his death, neither was he a pauper.
The death of Mozart at age 35 will always seem tragic; what more might he have contributed to the musical canon, had he lived a longer life? Yet even so, his remarkable 30-year career as a composer left hundreds of striking works, for which we can be grateful.
About the Author
This article is written by Yoke Wong . She has published a series of piano courses , free piano lessons, piano sheet music , and many piano playing articles.
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