Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was born in Salzburg, Austria on Jan. 27, 1756 and died Dec. 5th, 1791 in Vienna.
Often recognized as the greatest composer in Western musical history, Mozart began composing minuets by the age of 5.
Coming from a musical family and having a father with business acumen, the young Mozart was pressed into touring by the age of 6.
As a child he toured Germany, Paris and London where the first Mozart symphonies were penned.
The first published Mozart works came in Paris in 1764 which were four sonatas for clavier accompanied by violin.
By 1766 demand for Mozart’s music was so high that he was touring constantly and after the end of a tour of Vienna, Mozart took several years off to refine his skills.
After writing the first of many Mozart operas, he again toured Italy in 1769-70 where he wrote the Mitridate, re di Ponto.
By 1772 Mozart secured a position as concertmaster in the orchestra of the Archbishop of Salzburg, however his ambition later led him to France where he composed the Paris Symphony in 1778.
Back in Salzburg in 1779 he was retained as the organist for the court of the Archbishop, but later resigned only to return to Vienna.
It was in Vienna where Mozart stopped trying to secure a position in the courts and started playing music publicly and published his own work.
Mozart’s best success came in Vienna where the emperor, Joseph II, commissioned him as court composer. It was during this period he wrote Le Nozze di Figaro that contained ideas deemed revolutionary for the time.
After Figaro his career began to wane as well as his finances, although he had another great opera in 1787, Don Giovanni.
By 1791 as Mozart was working on an unfinished requiem he died from what was thought to be rheumatic fever.
No history of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart would be complete without mentioning that there were rumors of poisoning as the nobility were growing nervous about his outspokenness as a member of the Freemasons.
