The Astounding Genius of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

On January 27, 1756, a musical genius was born in Salzburg, Austria and baptized the next day Joannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart. Theophilus is the Greek equivalent of the Latin "Amadeus." Though Mozart recognized Amadeus as his middle name, he never used it and was only called Wolfgangl or Wolferl by his family. Those who weren't his friend or family called him Maestro. He and sister Nannerl were the only survivors of seven children.

Mozart's father Leopold studied philosophy and jurisprudence before turning to music as a violinist. Leopold was an accomplished composer but quit musical composition when he realized his son's remarkable talents.

Mozart's mother, Maria Anna, seldom traveled with her husband and children, but did accompany them to Paris in 1778 where she died.

Mozart's sister Nannerl was also a prodigy of the keyboard and played innumerable duets with her more talented brother. She was said to be fashionable, attractive, and eventually married and lived in St. Gilgen, the home town of her mother. She, like her father, did not approve of Mozart's marriage to Constanze. She lived out her last years in Salzburg almost blind and destitute.

Mozart was able to pick out harmonies from a keyboard at the age of four and learned some pieces at this age. He wrote two very brief pieces, an Andante and Allegro, at the age of five. However, since all of his early work is written in his father's hand it is difficult to know how much work is Mozart's and how much is paternally influenced. There is no doubt, however, that Leopold's influence was great and encouraging, not unlike Beethoven's affection on his son.

Mozart's first of many public appearances throughout Europe occurred at 1761 at Salzburg University. By 1762, at the ripe age of six he and his sister had played in Vienna, Munich, Pressburg, Passau and Linz.

Several observers examined his spectacular talents and all recognized him as bonafide child prodigy. An associate of Voltaire, Friedrich Melchior von Grimm, said that he "is such an extraordinary phenomenon that one is hard put to believe what one sees with one's eyes and hears with one's ears." M. Solomon documents a look at what contemporary observers thought of the child wunderkind in an article in 19th Century Music, Fall, 1991.

According to an Augsburg newspaper in 1763 he played violin and harpsichord by sight, improvised, played with a cloth covering the keyboard, could add a bass to a given theme and name any note sounded. His sister and a family friend documented occasions when, at four or five, he correctly declared that an accompanying violin was tuned an eighth lower than his and another time when he played a second violin part by sight without ever taking a single violin lesson.

He developed a passion for mathematics, riddles, puzzles, and at the age of eleven he performed card tricks and learned fencing. He never set foot in a classroom. It is believed he was instructed only by his father, especially in music and math. He read science books, history and philosophy, and enjoyed the plays of Moliere and Shakespeare. He spoke German, Latin, Italian, and French, and made some attempt to learn English. He wrote poems, fragments and sketches of two plays, and many eloquent letters in several languages.

His favorite pet was a fox terrier and he loved birds. His favorite drink was homemade punch; he smoked a pipe on occasion and was an ardent billiards player. His favorite item of clothing was a red coat with mother-of-pearl button, which he wore with a gold-braided cocked hat.

He was somewhere between five feet one and five feet four, blue eyes, fair hair that was attended by a barber almost daily as an adult, and had a prominent nose.

He could play harpsichord, piano, organ, violin, viola and glockenspiel. When he joined friends in a string quartet he preferred to play the viola. His versatility with instruments extended to the fact that he wrote music for the glass harmonica, an instrument consisting of revolving water-filled glasses that produced musical tones when rubbed (invented by Ben Franklin).

His father believed in divine predestination and refused to inoculate his children against smallpox, claiming it was God's responsibility not his. "It depends on this grace whether He wishes to keep, the prodigy of nature in the world . . . or to take it to Himself." Subsequently Mozart did contract smallpox and nearly died as a child.

In 1768, Mozart was appointed Konzertmeister to the Archbishop of Salzburg. The position brought prestige and freedom to travel but not much money. In 1772, the archbishop died and his successor didn't share the same enthusiasm for music of Mozart. From 1772 to 1781, Mozart was forced to perform menial tasks until he complained and was ejected from the palace.

He moved to Vienna where he tried to make a living. He met Haydn and played for him. Haydn remarked to Mozart's father that Mozart, just 25 years old, was the greatest composer he had ever heard. The two composers became friends and played chamber music. They both flowered as composers after their meeting.

In 1782, Mozart married Constanze Weber. He had tried unsuccessfully to win the affections of her sister Aloisia. Constanze was criticized for her inability to manage Mozart's finances. Only two of their six children reached adulthood, Karl Thomas and Franz Xaver.

Mozart wrote quickly and prolifically. The Symphony No. 36, the "Linz," (a four-movement work) was composed, copied, rehearsed with the Linz court orchestra, and performed in a period of four days. The overture to Don Giovanni was composed and copied the night before the first performance of the opera. Constanze fed him punch and told him fairy tales to keep him working into the night.

Mozart found his birthplace, Salzburg, provincial and backward. This beautiful town is nestled next to the Alps and has become the place for the Salzburg Festival every July and August where Mozart's work is honored.

Mozart's father wrote that Mozart's character was driven by two continually opposing elements, which caused him to switch between contrasting moods of indolence and impatience. He jumped between "either too much or too little, never the golden mean." Biographer A.H. King notes that he had a habit of writing masterpieces in pairs with contrasting moods and keys. An example is the two serenades, K375 in E flat and K388 in C minor; the former dedicated to the sister-in-law of an obscure court painter and the latter to the Prince of Liechtenstein.

The one city that loved Mozart more than any other was Prague, Czechoslovakia. He was treated royally when he visited and the citizens gave his Don Giovanni a sensational response. The Villa Bertranka, where he stayed while he wrote the opera, is now a national museum. When Mozart died, Prague went into a long period of mourning.

When in Vienna he worked feverishly on two operas and the Requiem. As he worked on the Requiem, he began to complain about his condition, claiming that he had been poisoned. His wife accused Salieri, a rival composer, as the culprit. The play Amadeus and the subsequent movie played on this drama. Constanze claimed that Salieri poisoned her husband to her dying day, though most scholars believe his death was the result of either typhus, kidney disease, or rheumatic fever, depending on the source.

Part of the recent interest in Mozart has come from the popularity of the film and play Amadeus. The play, written by Peter Shaffer, ran in London, Washington, and New York and was translated into German and Hungarian, and other languages. The play went through various revisions trying to add more drama. Shaffer found that the more he cast Salieri as the figure who ruined Mozart, the better the play was received. Milos Forman directed the film; both he and Shaffer are adamant that they were not "making an objective 'The Life of W. Mozart.' This cannot be stressed too strongly." Rather they cast Salieri as deeply envious of Mozart's godlike gifts as a composer. His jealousy for Mozart's abilities drives him insane and vows to God that he will destroy Mozart. Both the film and the play concern themselves with the most productive time in Mozart's life, beginning with the dismissal of his services from the Archbishop of Salzburg in 1781 until his death ten years later.

In reality, Antonio Salieri (1750-1825) held high posts in the Viennese imperial musical world from 1774 to 1824. He was an accomplished composer who worked closely with Mozart, Beethoven, and Shubert. A rumor that started after Mozart's death was that Salieri, himself, claimed that he had poisoned Mozart, but two of his attendants attested that he said nothing of the sort. Mozart scholar A. Peter Brown claims that Salieri's music performed in Amadeus was simpleminded and unworthy of his true abilities. He further notes that "by showing Salieri as a barely competent musician, the disparity of musical talent is deepened, thereby furthering Shaffer's dramatic plan."

In addition, the Emperor Joseph II receives condescending treatment from Shaffer and Forman; he is cast as naive and poor musician uttering outrageous comments about Mozart's music as having too many notes for the ear to understand. Brown states that Joseph was a musical sophisticate who attended and participated in the management of his theaters.

Salieri is portrayed as a character that wonders what everyone wonders: How could someone be given such miraculous gifts and the rest of us kept in the dark? His wonder is our wonder - the fascination of a child prodigy turns to envy, jealousy, and dark wishes.

Another interesting note about the way Amadeus portrayed concertmasters. In the play Salieri and Mozart conducted their pieces, center-stage with batons waving. It was the custom in the eighteenth century for the composer to direct from a keyboard with a few leading gestures aimed at the singers.

He died December 5, 1791, 35 years of age, in Vienna. No official notice of his death was given by the city. He was buried in a pauper's grave, the location of which is not known today. He made good money throughout his life but never was able to keep it. During the most successful part of his career he was making the equivalent of $50,000 a year by today's standards. He indulged himself in clothes and frequent trips to the "health" spa in Baden. Speculation of the cause of his death has brought a variety of theories. In August of 2009, a new study concluded that he died of complications due to strep throat.

His final opera, The Magic Flute, was an enormous popular success at the time of his death and would have paid him very well. He had received commissions in Hungary and the Netherlands, and it seemed that he was on the verge of solving his financial problems.

1991 celebrated the bicentenary of Mozart's death. To celebrate his life there have been recent PBS specials, a novel by Anthony Burgess, a MacIntosh computer commercial features piano concerto K. 466 and the Little G Minor Symphony K. 183/173dB, Don Giovanni sells Cheer laundry detergent, The Marriage of Figaro drives a Sirocco commercial and other works grace sales for coffee and jeans.

Mozart's popularity has soared in the twentieth century, especially in the past ten years. King notes that of the 23 piano concertos and single concerto movements only about 12 were regularly played until the 1930's. Until 1970 there was only one major book written about the 41 symphonies, Dobson's The Symphonies of Mozart, published in French in 1932. The first English study of his chamber music was done in 1927 (Dunhill's Mozart String Quartets). Almost all major studies of his music, life and writings have occurred since the twenties, except Pole's The Story of Mozart's Requiem, 1879.

Ludwig Kochel catalogued all of Mozart's music, listing the compositions in chronological order and publishing the list in 1862. The works are listed with a "K" number (K 551, for instance, is Symphony No. 41, the "Jupiter").

Key Sources:

Solomon, Maynard. Mozart: A Life, Harper, New York, 2005.

Leeson, Daniel. Opus Ultimum: The Story of the Mozart Requiem, Algora Publishing, New York, 2004.