Transcript presentacio mozart wikispace

“There's an almost miraculous
quality to his creativity, whether you
consider Mozart's beginnings as a
child prodigy (he composed his first
symphony at the age of 8) or his
versatility in mastering every musical
form of his era.”
-Thomas May
Wolfgang Amadeus
Mozart was born in
Salzburg, Austria on
January 27, 1756.
Anna Maria (Pertl) Mozart
gave birth to seven children.
Only two of them survived --Wolfgang and his sister
Maria Anna.
Leopold Mozart was a respected
composer and theorist in his own
right but sacrificed his own career
to further his son’s.
Wolfgang and his
sister, Nannerl, took
music lessons from
their father, Leopold.
By the time he was only four years
old, Wolfgang was composing songs
on the piano and by six he was on tour
performing for royalty.
At age 11,
Mozart wrote his
first opera,
Bastien und
Bastienne, soon
followed by La
finta semplice.
At the age of 13, Mozart found a job in
the court of the Archbishop of Salzburg,
where he worked for 12 years.
Mozart moved to Vienna to seek his fortune
but despite his reputation, he had a hard time
finding work. Luckily, he met Joseph Haydn.
Haydn was quoted as saying to
Leopold Mozart,
“I tell you before God,
and as an honest
man, that your son is
the greatest composer
that ever lived.”
Things went better when Mozart visited
Prague. His opera The Marriage of Figaro
was a huge success.
The next year,
1787, Prague
commissioned him
to write an opera to
celebrate the
emperor's niece –
Don Giovanni
Mozart drove his rivals nuts because composing
was so easy for him. Musical ideas sprang into his
head, fully formed as if he were taking dictation.
His speed became legendary. When a beggar
approached him on the street, he whipped out a
sheet of paper and wrote a minuet trio. He told
the beggar to take it to a publisher who bought it on
the spot.
Mozart’s final composition was his
Requiem. He believed from the
beginning that he was writing this
“funeral mass” for his own death.
He worked anxiously to complete
the work only augmenting his
illness. He died with the piece
unfinished at the age of 35. A
student, Franz Sussmayr, completed
it after his death. This is the
version most commonly heard.
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart is buried in
an unmarked grave outside Vienna.
“His greatest compositions cut
to the quick and establish an
immediate bond with the
listener, as if Mozart had
discovered a code in sound to
articulate the emotional reality
that lies at the core of our
humanity.”
-Thomas May.