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Wolfgang Amadeus
Wolfgang Amadeus
Wolfgang Amadeus
Mozart was born in
Salzburg, Austria in
1756
Mozart's House,
Salzburg
This is the birthplace of
Mozart in Getreide-gasse
Strasse, in the Austrian city
of Salzburg. It’s one of the
most visited sites in all of
Salzburg.
Mozart is considered
one of history’s
greatest geniuses. He
got an early start, and,
from then on, was
unstoppable.
At the age of three, Wolfgang sat in front of the harpsichord
attempting to find harmonic successions of thirds and before
the age of four, he had exhibited such extraordinary musical
powers that his father decided to give young Wolfgang
harpsichord lessons.
Wolfgang’s sister, Maria
Anna, who was nicknamed
“Nannerl,” was also a gifted
musician, so at 6 years old,
Wolfgang and his sister
toured all over Europe as
child prodigies. Do you know
what a prodigy is?
Maria Anna Mozart
A Child Prodigy
Mozart started
composing at
the age of 4.
It took him until
the ripe old age of
12 to write his first
complete opera!
Mozart was pushed
by his father to be
successful.
Leopold Mozart was an
accomplished composer
and musician in his own
right, and taught both of
his children to play
Violin & Harpsichord,
and to compose music.
Leopold Mozart
Leopold felt that it was proper,
and might also be profitable, to
exhibit his children's God-given
genius; so in mid-1763 the family
set out on a tour that took them
to Paris and London, visiting
numerous courts on the way.
Mozart astonished audiences with
his 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.
On the way back from the second European tour, Leopold and
the children passed through Rome on Easter. As with any
tourist, they visited St. Peter's on April 11, 1770 to hear the
famous “Miserere” sung at the Sistine Chapel.
The “Miserere” is a 10 minute piece written for 9 voices.. It
was so sacred that it was only performed once a year in the
Sistine Chapel on Easter. Nobody, except the performers, was
ever allowed to see the music. After each performance, the
musicians and singers were required to immediately turn in
their music to Roman Catholic authorities.
Upon arriving at their lodging that evening, the 14-year old
Mozart sat down and wrote out the entire 10-minute piece
from memory.
Here is an excerpt of a letter from Wolfgang’s father to his
mother:
"...You have often heard of the
famous Miserere in Rome, which is
so greatly prized that the performers
are forbidden on pain of
excommunication to take away a
single part of it, copy it or to give it
to anyone. *But we have it already*.
Wolfgang has written it down and
we would have sent to you in this
letter, but as it is one of the secrets
of Rome, we do not wish to let it fall
into other hands.”
Pope Clement XIV
A few weeks later, when the
young Wolfgang performed for
Pope Clement XIV as scheduled,
he told the Pope about his
accomplishment and showed
him the music score which he
had written.
Instead of banishing Mozart as
was the rule, the Pope
showered him with praise and
bestowed upon him the Cross of
the Order of the Golden Spur.
Mithridates,
King of Pontus
On Christmas day in 1770, Mozart’s first
major opera, Mithridates, King of
Pontus, was performed in Milan when he
was still only 14 years old. Critics praised
the work and stated that he was the
greatest composer since Handel, the
composer of the Hallelujah Chorus.
Handel
The film Amadeus was made
about Mozart’s life.
Although not everything in
the film is completely true, it
does give us a good look at
what kind of person Mozart
was.
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Antonio Salieri
The movie tells the story of two composers, Mozart, and a
rival composer, Antonio Salieri, who was an Italian Composer
working as the court composer in Vienna (a very important
position).
To say that Mozart was a composer
of unequalled genius is scarcely
scratching the surface of this man's
remarkable gifts. He wrote music complete and perfect, down to the
last accent and inflection, as fast as
he could think, and this astonishing
rate of production continues to
stupefy scholars today.
Mozart
Part 2
Mozart had
an incredible
gift, but he
really just
wanted to
have fun.
Although Mozart wrote a
tremendous amount of music, he
often was paid with gifts instead
of money.
He did make a good living by
musician’s standards, but what
money he did make he had
trouble keeping. He liked to play
billiards and to gamble at card
games, and he was terrible at
both of them.
Mozart could often be rude to
nobility and to other composers.
While he was blessed with a great musical
talent, he wasn’t as well blessed in people
skills. He knew that he was a genius, and
often offended other composers and royalty.
You can see that this letter is addressed to
Haydn, with whom he studied a little and
was a good friend.
The Abduction from the Seraglio
Now a grown man,
Mozart initially
thrived in
Vienna. He was in
great demand as a
performer and
composition teacher,
and his first opera, "The Abduction from
the Seraglio", was a hit. But life was not
easy. He was a poor businessman, so
finances were always tight, especially
after his marriage to Constanze Weber,
of whom his father never approved.
Constanze
Mozart fell ill in September of 1791, and by November was bedridden. One
night, a stranger, masked and dressed in grey, accosted Mozart and
commissioned him to compose a requiem, or funeral music for a dead
person. The stranger was representing a wealthy nobleman who frequently
asked great composers to produce works for him, but to Mozart, as ill as he
was, it appeared that this stranger was a messenger from “the world
beyond” sent to warn the composer that it was time to compose his own
requiem for his looming and untimely death.
Through sleepless, delirious nights, the messenger haunted Mozart's
thoughts and he feverishly worked upon his requiem. He was found at his
desk unconscious and taken to bed, the physician announced that Mozart
was seeing his last days, but Mozart already knew that he was dying.
On December 5, 1791 at the
age of thirty-five, he said
farewell to his family and
turned his face to the wall,
and shortly afterwards he was
dead.
Mozart's wife
Constanze,
whom he
married against
his fathers
wishes, told
anyone who'd
listen that she
believed Court
Composr
Antonio Salieri
had conspired
against her
husband.
Salieri denied having conspired against
Mozart or having had anything to do with
his death, however near the end of his life,
he suffered from nervous breakdowns
which resulted in periodic hospitalization.
It is rumored that at such times he would
make outrageous claims. Perhaps spurred
on by Constanze Mozart's accusation, he
claimed he had killed the great composer,
but once back to his normal frame of mind,
he would recant. It is these stories that are
the basis for the film Amadeus.
Mozart died in Vienna, Austria in 1791. He was buried in an
unmarked communal grave. When Constanze returned with
flowers one week later, she could not find the grave. The exact
location is unknown to this day.
Was Salieri a bad person? It doesn’t seem so. Most of his music lessons he gave for
free, and he also served as the president of a society that helped support the widows
and children of musicians.
Did Salieri kill Mozart? It’s highly unlikely. Mozart certainly never considered him an
enemy. In all his letters, Mozart referred to Salieri in the warmest of terms and even
asked him to tutor one of his children. Salieri and Mozart even composed a cantata for
voice and piano together. When Salieri attended Mozart’s opera “The Magic Flute,”
Mozart wrote about it in a letter to his wife, "He (Salieri) heard and saw with all his
attention, and from the overture to the last choir there was no piece that didn't elicit a
bravo or bello out of him." In addition, there is no proof that even during his nervous
breakdowns that Salieri ever admitted to killing Mozart. Salieri's two nurses, as well as
his family doctor, attested that he never said any such thing.
How good was Mozart?
When the famous composer, Haydn, heard
some of Mozart’s works, he told Leopold,
"Before God and as an honest man I tell you
that your son is the greatest composer known
to me either in person or by name: He has
taste, and, furthermore, the most profound
knowledge of composition."
Mozart died young (35), but left behind an enormous
amount of music. If you listened to all of it back to
back for 8 hours a day, it would take 3 months to hear
it all!!! How long would it take to hear all of your
favorite band’s music back to back?
In his short life, he composed over 600
works, including 21 stage and opera works,
15 Masses, over 50 symphonies, 25 piano
concertos, 12 violin concertos, 27 concert
arias, 17 piano sonatas, 26 string
quartets...the list is endless. And what
makes these numbers doubly
unfathomable is the peerless craft with
which each piece of music was created.
Studies have proven that
listening to Mozart’s music has
a stimulating effect on our
brain.
It is a fact that listening to his
music for a period of 20
minutes or more will
temporarily raise your I.Q. up
20 points! This is called the
Mozart Effect.
(Since you have been listening
to Mozart’s music for this
presentation, you should all
remember this information
perfectly!)
More studies are being done to see if the Mozart Effect can
have a PERMANENT effect on people if they listen to it at a
very early age. Many CD’s of Mozart’s music are available
for parents to boost their baby’s IQ’s. Some experts say the
earlier the better, and recommend that pregnant mothers
use headphones to play music for their unborn babies.
What did Mozart look like? Who knows! Every portrait of him looks entirely different.