A Biographical Sketch of Mozart - Essay Example

Mozart: A Biographical Sketch An Austrian composer and a prolific artist, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was born on the 27th of January, in 1756. His full name is Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Gottlieb Mozart and he was baptized as Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart. He was born in the city of Salzburg, the capital of what is now Austria (Abert). Leopold Mozart, Wolfgang Mozart’s father was a leading musician of Europe. He established his renowned identity as deputy Kapellmeister to the court orchestra of the Archbishop of Salzburg, a successful composer of instrumental music and the author of the infamous book titled, "A Treatise on the Fundamental Principles of Violin Playing" published in 1956 (Halliwell 12). When Leopold began to discover the hidden talent his son possessed, he gave up on his composing and dedicated his life to unveiling and developing the skills his son was endowed with to full capacity. It was Leopold who was responsible for transferring his flair with instruments onto young Mozart and teaching him how to play the clavier, organ and violin. This is where Mozart’s magical journey in the world of symphonies, sonatas, operas, concertos and masses essentially formulated and began. Early Life The formative years of Mozart’s musical career were influenced by a very important set of journeys made by his family throughout Europe. These journeys started off with an exhibition at Munich in 1762, followed by one in Vienna and then in Prague. Later, for three and a half years a series of concert tours took place in Mozart’s life which brought him and his family to the courts of Munich again along with Paris, London and Mannheim. This concert tour was a marked point in the history of Mozart’s musical journey. He met a great number of musicians and composers through this time who later went on to have great influences on his style of music. One such particular composer was Johann Christian Bach, who Mozart met during his time in London in 1764. Mozart spent a year in Salzburg and then in 1769 he took off again with his father for another journey to Italy which lasted till 1773. The primary focal point of these journeys was to show the world Mozart’s talents as a budding composer and successfully so Mozart was accepted as a member of the renowned Academia Filarmonica when he met G.B. Martini in Bologna (Einstein 67). His other successes through this journey included a replication of Gregorio Allegri’s Miserere and an opera written and performed in Milan ‘Mitridate Rè di Ponto’ in 1770. The opera was such an invigorating sensation that Mozart and Leopold were made to return to Milan for the compositions and premiers of another two operas, Ascanio in Alba and Silla (Cairns). The end of his Italian journey is marked by his first and one of his most prolific works, performed to date, called ‘Exultate, Jubilate’. Journey’s Made Following the journey to Italy, Mozart’s return to Salzburg made him the court musician, employed by Salzburg Prince-Archbishop Hieronymus Colloredo. Some of his works produced through this time are widely acknowledged and performed today, such as his violin concertos, now staples of the repertoire and the E flat piano concerto, considered to be a breakthrough composition in the history of music. However, Mozart’s love for the opera was undeniably evident and opportunities for developing this passion in Salzburg were rather rare. Discontented with the situation, Mozart began to seek employment elsewhere and made two very important journeys with his father for the purpose, one to Vienna and another to Munich. Even though neither journey was successful, Mozart’s journey to Munich did result in the premiere of his very successful opera ‘La finta giardiniera’. (Cairns 78) Not having found any employment, Mozart made another set of journeys with his mother Anna Maria from 1777-1778 to Munich, Mannheim and Paris. All the three failed to attain him employment. In 1778 while at Paris, Mozart’s mother passed away, making the journey an especially unhappy one. Vienna In 1781, Mozart’s opera ‘Indomeneo’ premiered in Munich with substantial success (Cairns 80). He was then summoned to Vienna to perform at the celebration for Emperor Joseph II. Unhappy with the way he was treated by his employer, Archbishop Colloredo, Mozart attempted to resign and was finally granted permission after a long haul of denying, in a rather grossly insulting way. Mozart took the hit in his stride and decided to stay in Vienna as he noticed great opportunities to develop his career there and earn a good living as a free lance composer. Mozart’s career in Vienna started grandly. In 1781, he performed alongside Muzio Clementi as a pianist before the emperor and was soon able to establish himself as the finest keyboard player in all of Vienna. In 1782, Mozart composed another opera ‘The Abduction from the Seraglio’ (Cairns 82), which is what primarily fully established and set Mozart in light as a great composer. The same year, Mozart got married to Constanze Weber, whom he had six children with later, out of which only two survived infancy (Abert). During 1782-1783, Mozart got acquainted with the works of J. S. Bach and G. F. Handel. Studying their work had a great influence on his musical language, as can be evidently seen in Mozart’s fugal passages in the ‘Musical Flute’ and in Symphony No.41’s finale. Mozart also became friends with Joseph Haydn through his time in Vienna and played with him in impromptu string quartets quite often. Mozart’s 6 quartets dedicated to Haydn in 1782-1785, K. 387, K. 421, K. 428, K. 458, K. 464, and K. 465, put him in awe of Mozart’s brilliance at composition and furthered Mozart’s reputation as an impeccably tasteful and profound composer (Einstein 195). In the same years, Mozart also put on a series of concertos, appearing as the piano soloist. These concertos along with all the other successes being enjoyed by Mozart brought him a good amount of money. The Mozart family’s lifestyle became rather extravagant and such was the reason for the financial crisis faced by the family a few years later (Solomon 109). Back to Opera In 1785, Mozart re-shifted his focus from piano solos and concertos to operas and started an operatic collaboration with Lorenzo da Ponte (Steptoe 78). In 1787-1788 he produced two very successful endeavors with ‘Marriage of Figaro’ and ‘Don Giovanni’. In 1787, Mozart got employment under Emperor Joseph as his chamber composer (Wolff 212). However, musicians in Vienna in 1788-1791 saw difficult times when Austria was at war, and a general decline was witnessed in prosperity across all factions. The financial situation at the Mozart household started taking a downturn, forcing Mozart to borrow money. During this time his output rate sank as well, and shut down by depression, Mozart’s work suffered. However, the major works of this period did still include his last three symphonies, 39-41, and ‘Cossi fan tutte’, the last of the three Lorenzo Da Ponte operas which premiered in 1790 (Steptoe 199). Final Years In 1790, Mozart made some final journeys to Germany to improve his financial status. However, they were only met with partial success. However, his last few years were marked by some improvements in the financial front and were enhanced by certain measures of productivity in the professional front as well. During this time, Mozart wrote a great deal of music, widely popular till today, including the opera ‘The Magic Flute’, the Clarinet Concerto K. 622- the last in his great series of string quintets (K. 614 in E flat), the final piano concerto (K. 595 in B flat), the revised version of his 40th Symphony, the unfinished Requiem and the motet ‘Ave Verum Corpus K. 618’ (Cairns 107). While Mozart was in Prague for the premiere of his opera ‘La Clemenza Di Tito’, he fell severely ill. During this illness he did conduct the premiere of the Magical Flute, but later the same month, his illness intensified and he became bed ridden due to the influence of grave fever, swelling and excruciating pain. Mozart died on the morning of 5TH December 1791 (Landon). References Abert, Hermann. W. A. Mozart. Cliff Eisen, Stewart Spencer (trans.). New Haven: Yale University Press. 2007 Einstein, Alfred. Mozart: His Character, His Work. New York City: Oxford University Press. 1965 Steptoe, Andrew. The Mozart-Da Ponte Operas: The Cultural and Musical Background to Le nozze di Figaro, Don Giovanni, and Così fan tutte. Oxford: Clarendon Press. 1990 Solomon, Maynard. Mozart: A Life. New York City: HarperCollins. 1995 Halliwell, Ruth. The Mozart Family: Four Lives in a Social Context. New York City: Clarendon Press. 1998 Wolff, Christoph. Mozart at the Gateway to His Fortune: Serving the Emperor, 1788–1791. New York: Norton. 2012 Cairns, David. Mozart and His Operas. Berkeley, California: University of California Press. 2006 Landon, Howard Chandler Robbins. 1791: Mozarts Last Year. London: Flamingo. 1991 Read More