Wolfgang Omadeous Mozart

            Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was one of the most famous composers in history. He was born in 1756, to Anna Maria and Leopold Mozart and he began his musical legacy in a town called Salzburg. When he was only three, he had an amazing talent for composing, and he learned how to play the clavier, an early piano, by watching his older sister Maria, as they were the only children who survived infancy. His father saw that he had a great talent and he taught him how to play the clavier, and after that Wolfgang learned the basics of composition and took up the violin. In royal courts, Mozart and his sister performed all over Europe, their father took them on tours to promote them, through this the two became quite famous. Once, Mozart and his father took an exceedingly long tour to Italy, during the tour they heard a very popular piece that had been performed by the Vatican choir, later Mozart, from memory, copied the whole thing almost exactly as it was. Later this was discovered and he came close to getting in serious trouble, had the Pope not stepped in, the reason he had gotten in trouble in the first place was because the choir did not want anyone to have their music, but the Pope was so impressed that Mozart had done this by memory that he welcomed him into the order of the Golden Spur. This was a great honor that the pope had given him and his popularity continued to skyrocket as a result of it. After his big tour, he went back home and became the assistant concertmaster when he was only 17 years old. He stayed in Salzburg four years, and while he was there he composed many great pieces, but in the year 1777, he left to get better work in a larger town, however, by 1778, he came home without any success. Fortunately, he was offered a job in 1781, from the Archbishop of Viena, which he accepted at once, but then he discovered that the payment was even less than his last job and the treatment was so poor he quit in short order, but he remained in the city and performed and composed for various people. The years following that were likely the most joyful ones of his life, he married in 1782, to Constanze Weber, but like his family, only two of their children survived through infancy. Around this time he created the “Die Entfuhrung” opera, which was quite popular and built up his following even more. During the 1780’s, he was having some health problems, these were probably caused by too much traveling. His profit increased when he teamed up with another composer and made some very popular music. He had the opportunity to become Chamber Composer for the court of Emperor Joseph II, even with this, the years that followed were impoverished and painful for him and his family, and even though he had one last wave of popularity between1790 to 1791, he tragically died not long after that. It was a common occurrence for people to die young but even for his time, it was an early death. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was an extremely famous and gifted composer and performer and some of his music is still widely enjoyed today.