Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart – The Prodigy of Prodigies

There is a whole spectrum of classical music composers throughout history who have left a deep impact on the fine art of music. Before Mozart, it was Johann Sebastian Bach, Georg Friedrich Haendel, Antonio Vivaldi and Tomaso Albinoni. These were household names. After the birth of Mozart in 1756 in Salzburg Austria, this was one composer who usurped the throne of music from all his predecessors as the never-ending fountain of music, all in the short life span of thirty-four years. His childhood was an exciting one as a child prodigy. From an early age, he had an ambitious thirst for recognition which drove him to the distant courts of Europe from Salzburg, Austria in search of fame and wealth. His family struggled financially in his early years when he was compelled to become a child performer. It was observed that he became an eccentric at an early age. He was a slender and non-descript boy but a soft-spoken musician who had a mischievous glint in his eye. He was liable at any moment to crack a dirty joke or play a prank. All said and done, the compositions he created in his short life were sublime and divinely inspired works of extreme sophistication. He defined an entire age of music history and inspired music composers who followed him. Nearly every opera he wrote premiered to popular and critical acclaim. He also won a vast variety of audiences as a skilled performer on the harpsichord and later, the clavier or the pianoforte. All this was possible because of his prodigious talents. Bulk of his career was spent in the concert halls of Vienna, playing solo concerts of his own planning. His sister was also a talented performer and his father was a skilled musician. The Mozart family was well exposed to European nobility as a result of their extensive travel. This experience allowed his music to become universally acknowledged. His voluminous output includes some of the most sophisticated and complex works of music in the entire history of music. His father, Leopold Mozart, had considerable musical skills. He made a moderate living as a composer and a teacher. He was also a violinist in the court of the Prince Archbishop of Salzburg. He was eventually made the Kapellmeister. He wrote an educational textbook on violin playing which sold successfully. He taught his children several languages along with academic subjects and rounded off their education, giving special time to their prodigious musical talents. Wolfgang, from his childhood, was able to recreate effortlessly musical pieces that he had been taught. He was not only striking the correct chords but he was doing that delicately and with precision. By the age of four, he was able to compose pieces which were approved by his father. His first ever compositions have survived in the form of Nannerl Notenbuch. They were hardly a couple of minutes’ long but they projected a fine understanding of musical composition and theory. They are very significant because a toddler has written them. He took u violin practice at that age and began transcribing new compositions of his own. When his father observed how keenly Wolfgang focused on music, he gave up composing himself and began to focus on teaching his children. Wolfgang suffered serious health scare when he was touring Vienna at the age of seven as he had contracted small pox. He was lucky to survive during that harsh outbreak. He started writing larger music opuses and when he was fourteen; he wrote his first opera - `Mitridate, re di Ponto’. No one has written a full opera at that age. At that age, Mozart had realized that he possessed superior and extraordinary talent. The opera received moderate success. He received commissions to write other operas. The works that followed were Ascanio en Alba and Lucio Silla. Archduke Ferdinand was impressed with these operas when he attended their premieres. He was the Governor of Milan at that time. Wolfgang was appointed court musician at Salzburg to Prince Archbishop Hieronymus Colloredo. He had no respect for this Archbishop. During this tenure, he wrote several violin concerti. Then, he started writing many piano concerti. Mozart was not satisfied with his pay at the court. He wrote a new opera, La Finta Giardiniera. He wrote his thirteenth opera in 1781, `Idomeneo, re di Creta’. It was performed in Munich and was received successfully. Mozart had always told the world that music written should never be painful to the ear. After leaving the court at Salzburg, Mozart found work in Vienna and achieved success. He started living in a degree of relative comfort. He performed tours as a pianist and a famous tour involved a competition with Muzio Clementi. At the end of that tour, Mozart was hailed as the finest keyboard player in Vienna. He also received regular commissions to compose. In 1782, at the age of 25, he wrote his opera `Die Entfuhrung aus dem Serail’. It was among his biggest critical successes and was performed widely all over Europe. During this time, Mozart started a love affair with Aloysia Weber and she had become a famous singer. She ditched him later and married an actor by the name of Joseph Lange. Mozart then turned his attention on her younger sister, Constanze. She became his wife and remained so until his death nine years later. They had six children in these nine years and only two of them survived infancy. With the help of the patronage of Gottfried van Swieten, a Viennese government official, Mozart had access to volumes of scores of Johann Sebastian Bach and Georg Frideric Haendel. These studies had a big influence on many of Mozart’s later works as there was a shift in his work to a more Baroque style of writing. The influence is marked in his finest opera, Die Zauberflote, the Mass in C Minor and his last Jupiter symphony # 41. Mozart met Franz Joseph Haydn in the early part of 1784. The two formed a good friendship and collaborated frequently. They often played together in string quartet ensembles. Not many people are aware that Mozart wrote six string quartets that were dedicated to Haydn. Both composers drew inspiration from each other and this is what Haydn had to say about him, “I tell you before God and as an honest man that Mozart is the greatest composer known to me by person and repute; he has taste and what is more, the greatest skill in composition.” We can understand the evolution of the musical style of Mozart by reading one of his diary entries, “It is a mistake to think that the practice of my art comes easy to me. I assure the world that I give much care to the study of composition. There is scarcely a famous master in music whose works I have not frequently and diligently studied.” At his most productive, Mozart in 1785, wrote three new clavier concerti in a season. The success of his concerts and composition commissions afforded his family a degree of wealth that they had not experienced until then. However, the money was spent foolishly and frivolously in this period of financial excess. They moved into a lavish apartment in central Vienna with an annual rent of four hundred florins and their eldest son, Karl Thomas, was sent to an elite boarding school. The family kept several full-time servants. With this extravagant lifestyle, they were not able to save much and this would prove to be serious mistakes made by Mozart. In 1784, he became a Freemason and the institution became important for him for the remainder of his life. He started moving around in Freemasonry circles and attended the lodge meetings regularly. He wrote several compositions for the Masonic Lodge. The most famous piece is a funeral march he composed on the occasion of the death of his Masonic brothers. In 1785, Mozart shifted his focus to operas and wrote The Marriage of Figaro, Don Giovanni and Cosi fan Tutte. The public reception to these operas was positive, despite the audience finding some parts of the operas complex to follow. He lost his father this year before the premiere of Don Giovanni. The news of his father’s death affected him profoundly. Mozart sought an appointment as Emperor Joseph II’s chamber composer. It gave him an annual income of eight hundred florins. He had to write dances for the annual balls and galas at Hofburg Palace. Mozart and Haydn stand as archetypes of the Classical style in music. It has to be remembered that Mozart began composition of very intricate pieces in an era when the popular genre was `style galant’. This style was a reaction to the Baroque period style. Music in that age was embellished and defined by ornamentation or complicated measures inserted throughout a piece of music. Popular musical forms included cantatas and sonatas. Baroque music was also defined by its seriousness. Many consider it unpleasant to listen to. Style galant depended on its being light-hearted and its vast range of appeal. Mozart’s prodigious bloodline and his worldly education allowed him to evolve into one of the classical masters in history. Once in his diary, he wrote, “Show the whole world that you are not afraid; be silent, if you choose but when it is necessary – speak in such a way that people will remember it.” People forget that behind the beauty of the creations of Mozart, there was a man full of pain who was at the mercy of same joys and sorrows as any other human. As far as his physical appearance went, he was rather averagely built and gave no indication about the genius that lay within him. His hair was light. He was not tall but had large, expressive eyes. His face was scarred and pitted due to a bout of smallpox that he had as a child when he was eleven. He was soft-spoken but mischievous and with a good sense of humour. While at work in the court, he had a reputation of being a practical jokester. He was deeply fond of scatological or toilet humour. Mozart had a keen interest in the fashion of his day in terms of clothes. He had an extravagant wardrobe of fashionable clothes. His hobbies included dancing and billiards. For a while, he got interested in fencing. He had a special fondness for animals and kept multiple pets at home. He had a dog, a horse and different kinds of birds. Concerning his work ethics, he always composed several drafts before he settled on a final product. He wrote once in his diary on why he wrote simple and recognizable tunes, “The golden mean, the truth, is no longer recognized or valued. To win applause, one must write stuff so simple that a coachman might sing it, or so incomprehensible that it pleases simply because no sensible man can comprehend it.” As the 1780s were drawing to a close, the financial situation of the Mozart family was worsening. He produced his final three symphonies in such a situation. In 1789, he wrote an opera, Cosi fan Tutte. In 1791, in the months leading up to his death, h wrote the liturgical motet Ave Verum Corpus and Die Zauberflote (The Magic Flute) and his incomplete Requiem. In September 1791, Mozart fell seriously ill while attending the premiere of his opera, `La Clemenza di Tito’ in Prague. By November, he was bedridden. He used to suffer with considerable physical pain along with swelling and bouts of vomiting. He was suffering with uremia and kidney disease. In his last days, Mozart was looked after by his wife and his sister and his family physician. Even with his suffering, he tried his level best to complete his Requiem. He died on 5th December, 1791. It is pure myth that Antonio Salieri poisoned him out of jealousy. That was not the case! However, it is true that Mozart had premonitions about his death a month before he passed away. The parish register records registering his death stated kidney disease and swelling, suggesting a compromised immune system. Mozart had become a living legend in his own lifetime; he is the prime example of being a Prodigy of Prodigies! Ludwig van Beethoven, despite Haydn being his tutor, besides admiring Haydn hailed Mozart once in his diary and wrote, “I have always reckoned myself among the greatest admirers of Mozart and shall do so till the day of my death.” Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart summed up every important trait of the Classical musical style. His approach to music composition and his innovative style of writing influenced all his successors for a long, long time. There was a stage play by an English playwright, Peter Shaffer, called `Amadeus’. It was turned into an important film by Milos Forman. Though the film depicted many scenes surrounding the life of Mozart effectively, I am not one of the followers of the theory of Antonio Salieri poisoning Mozart out of envy and I did not like Tom Hulce portraying Mozart as a naughty buffoon. To summarise, the unique childhood of this composer contributed very strongly to his musical style and the influence he commanded. He mixed around with several musicians and artists from the European continent. Many of them had well-situated social connections and court appointments, while others challenged his methods of writing and exposed him to new styles and genres for creating music. Mozart died a premature death at the age of thirty-five, cutting short a productive period in his career as a music composer and leaving his Requiem unfinished. One thing is certain; that after his death, he was admired and recognized throughout the world. His legacy will live on in every new wave of musical transition.