Johann Chrysostom Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, an Austrian composer who is widely regarded as one of the greatest composers of Western music, was born in Salzburg in 1756. Mozart’s father, Leopold, was a Kapellmeister in Salzburg and had published a book of violin instruction the year he was born, so the boy’s musical education began early. At the age of three, he recognized chords, at the age of four, he played short works on the harpsichord, and at the age of five, he began composing. He also performed his first concert at the age of five, in Munich, with his sister, Nannerl.
Leopold organized a concert tour of Western Europe for the family in 1763, which lasted until 1766. Nannerl would occasionally join Mozart in playing and improvising. Mozart’s first works were published in Paris during the tour, and Mozart composed the first of his symphonies after meeting Johann Sebastien Bach’s youngest son, Johann Christian. Mozart experimented with different musical genres over the next few years, writing a singspiel, an opera buffa, and a mass. He was appointed honorary Konzertmeister at the Salzburg court at the age of thirteen.
Mozart’s next tour was a trip through Italy from 1769 to 1771, which included a papal audience and the production of an opera in Milan. Later in 1771, he made a third trip to Italy, which lasted from 1772 to 1773. Mozart composed more symphonies and another opera during this period, as well as divertimentos, a serenata, an oratorio, and string quartets. By 1774, he had a salaried job in Salzburg and was receiving commissions from all over the world. However, he soon requested a leave of absence and was off traveling, at his father’s request, in search of a position more suited to his broad and deep talent.
In 1781, he was summoned to Vienna by the archbishop for whom he worked to witness Joseph II’s accession. His treatment there prompted him to request a release from his duties, and his employment problems would last for some time. When Joseph II decided to allow Italian opera to be performed at court, Mozart wrote Le nozze di Figaro, or The Marriage of Figaro, which premiered in 1786, and Don Giovanni, which premiered in Prague in 1787. Following the death of Gluck, Mozart was appointed to the court post of Kammermusikus after his return from Prague. He was appointed as an unpaid assistant to the Kapellmeister at St. Stephen’s Cathedral in 1791, and if he had outlived the current Kapellmeister, Leopold Hofmann, this might have been his dream job.
Mozart continued to compose symphonies, operas, and other works for a variety of ensembles, including the Jupiter symphony, Cosi fan tutte, and Die Zauberflöte or The Magic Flute, as well as his well-known clarinet concerto. In 1791, while on a trip to Prague, he became ill and died while working on a commissioned requiem, which was left unfinished but completed by Joseph Eybler and Franz Xaver Süssmayr. Amadeus by Peter Shaffer is based on several completely unsubstantiated characterizations and incidents that depict Mozart’s life, death, and relationship with composer Antonio Salieri.