Mozart is a name which everyone associates with classical music. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was one of the most famous and influential composers in history. Mozart wrote beautiful pieces straight out of his head, he was a true musical genius. He worked for much of his life in Vienna, employed by the Austrian Emperor. In the 18th century, Austria was a major European power. It’s Empire encompassed much of Eastern Europe. Because of this, Mozart’s position was hugely prestigious. Mozart was born in 1756 in Salzburg and died in 1791. Such was the fame of Mozart that Beethoven’s early career was in the shadow of Mozart.
Mozart was a composer of the classical period, as a child he had been a great fan of, and met Bach. Mozart mainly wrote operas in German and Italian. When he first proposed to write an opera in German, he was laughed down, Italian having been the typical language of classical operas. Mozart’s German operas were highly successful, however, and ushered in a new genre of music, sung in German rather than more traditional musical languages. These included: The Marriage of Figaro, Don Giovanni, or Così fan tutte
Mozart taught students, his main way of making money, but for a long period he was unemployed, leading to extensive financial problems. Mozart’s most famous student was Hummel.
The personality of Mozart has led to huge amounts of debate. He is often portrayed and described as highly arrogant and aloof. Others have suggested that he was only described in this way by contemporaries because of their jealousy of his incredible talents. Mozart had a very suspicious death. Some claim that rival composer Sallierri, who was supposedly jealous, poisoned him. This is the view taken by the film ‘Amadeus’. It is more likely that Mozart died of natural causes, however, as there is very little hard evidence to suggest that he was murdered.
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