Royalty Free Music - Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart- Biography

Wolfgang Amadaeus Mozart (1756-1791) was a prodigous and brilliant composer of the "classical" era. His music has a clarity of thought and sweetness of phrase that immediately identifies it as "Mozart", and is celebrated and enjoyed throughout the world.

He was born in Salzburg on January 27th 1756 into a music loving family. His Father (Leopold) and sister (known as Nannerl) both had talent as musicians, but they were soon outshone by the brilliance of the young Wolfgang. Leopold took his two children on tours around Europe to demonstrate their prodigious abilites, constantly striving to make money and improve the status of the family. Between 1773 and 1777 the young Mozart was employed as a musician at the Saltzburg court. However, Saltzburg soon lost it's attraction for the ambitious composer, and following a a visit to Paris with his mother (during which she sadly died), he determined to strike out on his own. After a series of struggles, Mozart managed to release himself from Saltzburg and the court position, despite his Father's best efforts to keep him there.

Mozart moved to Vienna and the new-found freedom suited him, he soon won over the Viennese with his virtuosity as a pianist and improviser. He met and married Constanze Weber in 1782, and two of their children survived infancy, (his Mass in C minor was written for another less fortunate child.) It was in Vienna that he met and befriended Haydn, who described him as "the greatest composer known to me either in person or by name". Wolfgang and Constanze lived a lifestyle that was not always in keeping with his fitful earnings, but they enjoyed Vienna society to the full. Of course, Mozart's mind was always on his music, and whilst he could construct whole passages in his head, he generally worked from drafts and sketches made at the keyboard, only then going on to write it out in detail. He composed operas, sonatas, concertos, symphonies and chamber music, the works simply flew from his hand. His exploration of form and style is more complex than his pieces at first appear, and he was superb at the technical nuts and bolts of composition, whilst always finding a pure, most inspired phrase and harmony. His output was truly extroadinary both in brilliance and number.

In September of 1791 Mozart fell ill whilst visiting Prague for the premier of one of his operas, and the illness accelerated until he was confined to his bed in November. He died on December 5th, leaving his unfinished "Requiem" to be completed by one of his pupils. An edict from the Emporer at that time had ruled that all funerals should involve minimal expenditure and attendance, and so Mozart was quietly buried in an obscure grave. Mozart's music however, flowed out into the world and blesses us today with it's sweeping eloquence and serene benedictions.

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