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Elliott Chinn
Mozart
Do you know any musical geniuses? Artists such as Mozart,
Beethoven, Bach, and Tchaikovsky were well known in their era and
were very well respected. Mozart is one of my favorite composers of
all time. Considered to be the greatest and most creative musical
composer of all time, Mozart was a famous man.
"One day", Andreas Schachtner writes to Maria Anna,
"I returned on a Thursday from Church with your father to your home.
Little Wolfgang was scribbling away. Papa: 'What are you doing?'
Wolfgang: 'I am writing a clavier concerto, the first part is almost
finished'. Papa: 'Let me see, that must be something very special!'
Papa took the paper and showed my smudge of notes, most of which
were written over ink-blots ... At first, we laughed, but Papa then
began to observe the most important matter, the music. He stared
long at the sheet and finally tears of joy and wonder fell from his
eyes.
Wolfgang was five at the time.
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was born in Salzburg January
1756. With his father being a local orchestra conductor, Mozart grew
up in and around music. Mozart was an Austrian conductor who was
a violist and a violinist. A child prodigy, he was taught to play the
harpsichord, the violin, and the organ by his father. By age six, he
was being presented to all of the European Royalty. At 13 years of
age, he had written symphonies, concertos, and sonatas and was
well known throughout the music world.
The year 1786 saw Mozart team up with respected Lorenzo da
Ponte for the comic operas that were to become his most famous
works; these included ‘The Marriage of Figaro’ and ‘Don Giovanni’.
However, these years also saw a substantial decline in health for the
classical composer, and he died on December 5th, 1791. His
physician reported his death as a fever; some believe the killer to be
rheumatic fever, while others believe he was poisoned. By the time of
his death at age 35, he had produced more than 600 works,
symphonies, operas, concertos, quartets, and cantatas, almost all of
them of the most astonishing quality. He is regarded by many as the
greatest natural musician whomever lived. His mature compositions
are distinguished by their melodic beauty, formal elegance and
richness of harmony and texture.
Notable works include Piano Concerto No. 21 in C (1785),
Serenade No. 13 in G for Strings ("Eine kleine Nachtmusik,1787),
Symphony No. 40 in G Minor (1788), Symphony No. 41 in C
("Jupiter," 1788) and the operas "Le Nozze di Figaro" ("The Marriage
of Figaro," 1785-86); "Don Giovanni" (1787): "Cosi fan tutte" (1790);
and "Die Zauberflöte" ("The Magic Flute") (1790-1).
Despite all of his hard times, most of his music remained happy
and cheerful. Ironic to most of the great artists we know, he liked
jokes and puns and often laughed. His operas were often humorous
and people enjoyed them. That is the short, yet prosperous life of
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.