Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: One of the Greatest Composers of All Time

Max Heindel once said, "Music is the soul of language." Indeed, throughout time, music has defined communication, culture and human progress just as much as politics and other arts have. Every generation, every era, and every age is characterized by some particular dominant musical genre, and as time passes, more and more artists stake their claim to fame and immortality in history.

For Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, his impact on music is of such force and significance that he's set the standard for everyone else. Mozart with only a brief stint on Earth, heavily influenced by his father and contemporary fine arts, developed music into what it is today, his works and legacy securing his place as one of the greatest men to have ever lived. Blessed with virtuoso skill and composition genius, Mozart is to music what Shakespeare is to literature and language. For if music is the soul of language, then Mozart would forever remain immortal.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, baptized Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart, was born at 8 A.M. on January 9th, 1756, in the backroom of 9 Getreidegasse in Salzburg, Austria. At the time, Salzburg was the provincial capital of the Archbishopric of Salzburg, one of two Holy Roman Empire states which did not have an Elector. At this time, Salzburg had already developed into a growing middle-sized city, with more than 16,000 inhabitants. The Benedictine University there, founded in 1623, served to provide education and cultural enrichment, and the growing middle class supplied increasing trade and supported the arts, opening Salzburg to the rest of Europe and preventing it from transforming back into a provincial town.

His father, Leopold Mozart, son of a bookbinder, was an accomplished musician himself, having served as vice Kapellmeister at court before embarking on teaching music to others. History records Leopold Mozart as a famous musician and composer in his own day, but posterity remembers him as the father of the musical angel, "the miracle which God let be born in Salzburg", as he himself even said once.

His mother, Anna Maria Pertl, the daughter of the prefect, and herself a gifted musician, was wedded to (Johann Georg) Leopold Mozart in 1747, and had seven children, only two of which survived infancy. The two turned out to be prodigiously gifted musicians, no doubt helped by the genetic advantages of both parents. Maria Anna Walberga Ignatia, Wolfgang's older sister, was birthed July 30th, 1751, and went on to achieve success, albeit at a lower level than her brother. Hence, the stage was set, two parents and a sister, all of whom were tremendously gifted in music, highlighted by the fact that Leopold had great things in mind for his son.

Strangely enough, however, Mozart's natural gift wasn't fully appreciated until he began playing with the clavier, his interest piqued by his father's tutelage of his sister on the instrument at the time. Leopold was delighted, and he added on even more instruction on top of his already strict disciplinarian program. Focusing hours and hours upon practice, father and son formed a bond which would determine the course of his life, himself never quite aware that it could be any different.

At the time, child prodigies were not uncommon, and many courts of royalty and aristocracy around Europe received in their homes young aspiring musicians and their hopeful parents. With Wolfgang's budding talent, Leopold felt it was a combination of duty and pride to have his children tour Europe and become famed for their rapidly developing skills on the piano, violin, and organ. Neglecting his own court and composition career, the father decided that he must do everything possible to advance the Gift of God given to him in his son.

The whole family's tour of Europe was a smash, as invitations flooded in when, following a fairly successful visit to the Elector of Bavaria in Munich, Leopold Mozart set out for Vienna. Little Mozart charmed everyone who heard him, easing through customs, and, thanks to rapid word of mouth, was invited to the Imperial Palace to play for Austrian royalty. He was so well received that he even managed to jump up on the Empress' lap, put his arms around her neck and give her a kiss.

It was in this phase of development that little Mozart's talents blossomed beyond the other child prodigies. He wrote his own composition at the age of 5, having previously learned and mastered his first piece of music in less than 30 minutes, an amazing feat. Although only 6 measures, his Andante in C was a just a harbinger of things to come. It is also interesting to note that throughout his entire life, Mozart never received any formal schooling, never attending a school or university, as his father's teachings sufficed.

Yet, through all the joy, there was a price to pay. Little Mozart was never strong as a child, and the extensive travel and his family's busy performance schedule took its toll. He fell seriously ill numerous times on tour, including but not limited to scarlet and typhoid fever. It is estimated that Mozart spent over 3,720 days on the road or at sea, fully a third of his life. He grew accustomed to it, and later, remarked that "when I am . . . traveling in a carriage, or walking after a good meal, or during the night when I cannot sleep; it is on such occasions that ideas flow best and most abundantly." Mozart enjoyed travel, and contrary to popular belief, many of his pieces took inspiration when he was riding around Europe. A legendary story has it that when Mozart heard Gregorio Allegri's Miserere in the Sistine Chapel, he went home and reproduced the closely-guarded Vatican work entirely from memory, only making a few errors which he went back and corrected later.

Mozart's first big break came when Archbishop Graf Schrattenbach passed away in 1771, Hieronymus Graf Colloredo becoming his successor. Mozart already was commissioned to write several pieces on his three tours of Italy in the late 1760's, and when Colloredo appointed Mozart the court concert master, a strained relationship began, yet marked the start of his epic composition career. In 1778, he asked for and received leave for Milan, as his tensions with the Archbishop was mainly due to musical taste, as Mozart did not want to follow the whims of the Church, and made this vocal to Colloredo. He decided to go on tour again, with his mother this time. At Mannheim, meeting the Mannheim Orchestra (considered the best in Europe at the time), Mozart fell in love with Aloysia Weber, cousin of German composer Carl Maria von Weber, but the relationship never worked out. His mother's death on tour, while in Paris of July 1778, shocks Mozart, marking the end of an unsuccessful visit.

Upon his return to Salzburg, Mozart is dismissed after a spat with the Archbishop, leaving him with the freedom to pursue his own composition and life of an independent artist. After spending time with the Weber family, with the object of his affection Aloysia already married, Mozart turns his attention to her younger sister, Costanze, and the two marry in 1782, against the wishes of his father. They went on to have six children (the last child born the year of Mozart's death), only two of which survived infancy. It was common during this age to marry for convenience and love for pleasure, although Wolfgang and Costanze are depicted to have been faithful to each other, and that she was very supportive of his musical career. However, Mozart was not the only one who suffered from frail health. Because of numerous child-bearing, Costanze was said to have been bed-ridden for extensive periods at a time, on top of the occasional financial difficulties.

It is also important to note the influences of others upon Mozart's life and his work. He joined the Freemasons in 1784, at this time considered a politically volatile organization. Such an organization has evolved much from the early days of the 1600's in which the transition of a guild of actual masons and stone workers into a group of intelligent, speculative gentlemen ignited an eternal issue of political and religious affiliation/allegiance. In late 18th century Austria, Freemasons were frowned upon by the aristocracy and the clergy for supporting Third Estate, middle class ideals.

After meeting Joseph Haydn in Vienna in his earlier years there, the two lived together in the same Masonic Lodge and even played in a string quartet, and the two became lifelong friends. Haydn was never in doubt of his own talents in comparison to that of Mozart's which led him to confide to 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 what is more, the most profound knowledge of composition."

Mozart's career flourished in Vienna and Prague, as he was given commission to produce his masterpieces, on top of performing and ushering in popular piano concertos. However, while the Emperor sponsors him, Mozart is never fully employed, a cause of financial difficulties. At this time, his annual income of about 10,000 florins (Austrian currency), equivalent to at least $42,000 US in 2006, places him in the top 5% bracket at the time (late 1700s). Most of it came from contracts and commissions, on top of lessons and individual performances. While he could afford to spend lavishly, moving into a flat with servants in the mid 1780's, musicians are never known for extreme wealth, and soon, Mozart landed himself in considerable debt. Although his rising income went hand in hand with his lifestyle, he often resorted to borrowing money from family and friends.

One of his most important pieces was the Le Nozze di Figaro (the Marriage of Figaro). A prime example of comic opera, the setting in the palace of Count Almaviva with one hectic and ultimately comically resolved is a testament to Mozart's skill with opera and the effect of character development. Figaro, a young valet of the Count, is to be wed to Susanna, and an interesting and exciting series of events happen which end in the Count's embarrassment, the Countess' forgiveness, and an ending in which all are content. The opera, now central to any operatic repertoire, was banned at first for its mockery of the aristocracy, and only when Emperor Joseph II was convinced that the inflammatory parts of the play were removed was permission given to premiere.

Another world recognized piece of Mozart is Ein kleine Nachtmusik, A Little Night Music (Serenade), premiered in 1787, written in Vienna at the same time as Don Giovanni. Its fame through posterity is mainly staked on the recognizable and delightful Allegro in sonata form, beginning the piece with a rocket. While not readily as popular at the time as his other works, it became one of Mozart's most celebrated compositions, even today, as it continues to serve as a readily accessible piece of music used in commercials, games, and media.

Don Giovanni, written in 1787, was an instant smash hit premiering in Prague on October 29th, 1787. Of the many operas written about the legend of Don Juan, Mozart's remains the most timeless, as there were subsequent operas about Mozart's work itself. Billed as dramma giocoso, or playful drama, this opera belonged in a class of its own, neither comic nor tragic, at the same time cleverly sidestepping Imperial censorship in its satirical label of noblemen. The story, revolving around a young licentious nobleman named Giovanni, carries through with hilarity and melodrama, as he goes through numerous women, before finally being dragged to Hell, and staking the play's place as one of the greatest operas in history.

Mozart's last, greatest, and perhaps unfinished piece was the Requiem Mass. Some scholars maintain that he had written it with his impending death in mind, and even today, on his 250th birthday, the obscure history surrounding this powerful composition remains something of a strange fascination to musicians and historians alike. The quality of the piece, however, dispels the contemporary myth that his friend and confidant, Sussmayr (also a fellow composer), finished it at Costanze's beckoning. "Music," Mozart once remarked, "even in situations of the greatest horror, should never be painful to the ear but should flatter and charm it, and thereby always remain music." With a dark, somber, powerful and beautifully enriching text, the Requiem Mass in D minor showed that Mozart, even to his death, was as much a genius as his father had prayed to God for.

Mozart's death was surrounded in controversy as well. Many believe that a combination of rheumatic fever and generally poor health conditions was what finally put an end to the genius of music at the age of 35 at 1 A.M. on January 5th, 1791 in his home. While legend has it that he was aware of his impending death, and that no one really commissioned him for Requiem, later sources show that Count Franz von Walsegg did anonymously commission him for such a work, and that most of the piece was composed when Mozart was still healthy. Buried in an unmarked grave (regular communal grave), at the time of his death, Mozart had already declined in popularity, no longer the star attraction in Vienna, and much gratitude is owed to later composers and friends who honored this great man by continuing to play his works. Modern DNA testing has never identified which grave is Mozart's, and it is unlikely that the location of his final resting place will ever be confirmed.

Although space and time confine the extent to which Mozart's masterpieces can be discussed, it is important to note that there are many other concertos, sonatas, operas, and chamber music which stake a claim for Mozart in the history of music. Although Mozart is dead today, his memory lives on in the genius he set to pen and piano, the stroke of brilliance he put into his compositions. Many people, especially in today's culture, see Mozart as an effortless, divinely-inspired creator of music, when in fact, he labored many hours and days over particular sections of his pieces, and his original score show numerous revisions and editing. Indeed, the adage that genius is ninety-nine percent perspiration and one percent inspiration applies here.

Mozart's style was archetypal of the Classical era. His clarity and balance, carried over from the Baroque style, was marked by a certain "shocking voluptuousness", as Charles Rosen put. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was able to explore themes to a degree most composers and musicians were incapable of, his chromatic harmony rare in his time. While contemporaries valued Mozart's contribution to music for its pleasantness, its harmony, and its complexity, we value Mozart for his everlasting contribution to opera, to orchestral music, and to piano.

While Bach and Beethoven, among others, can be compared to Mozart on the world's stage for a seat as history's most timeless composer, the influence of Mozart is incomparable. Both Beethoven and Tchaikovsky have composed works in tribute to him, not the only great composers who have expressed profound admiration for him. No other composer has come close to the amount of recordings his works have sold, and as Rossini mentioned, "He is the only musician who had as much knowledge as genius, and as much genius as knowledge."

Influenced by a strict father in a musical family, placed in a society which valued child prodigies, and left with essentially no other route in life, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart has made the most of what life has provided him and passed it onto the rest of the world in his music. Today, on his 250th birthday, the world remains in awe of this man, the man who bestrode the world like a colossus and left a lasting impression on not just fine arts, but the entire human culture. Indeed, if music is the soul of language, then Mozart would forever remain immortal.