Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was born in Salzburg on the 17th January, 1756.
His father, Leopold Mozart, belonged to a respectable tradesman's family
in the free city of Augsburg. Conscious of being gifted with no small
portion of intellectual endowments, he followed the impulse that led
him to aim at a higher position in life, and went to the then celebrated
University of Salzburg in order to study jurisprudence. As he did not,
however, at once succeed in procuring employment in this profession,
he was forced, from his straitened means, to enter the service of
Canon Count Thun as valet. Subsequently, however, his talents, and that
thorough knowledge of music by which he had already (according to the
custom of many students) gained some part of his livelihood, obtained
for him a better position. In the year 1743 he was received into the
band (Kapelle) of the Salzburg cathedral by Archbishop Sigismund; and
as his capabilities and fame as a violinist increased, the same Prince
shortly afterwards promoted him to the situation of Hof-Componist (Court
Composer) and leader of the orchestra, and in 1762 he was appointed
Hof-Kapellmeister (conductor of the Court music).
In 1747 Leopold Mozart married Anna Maria Pertlin, a foster-child of the
Convent of St. Gilgen. The fruits of this marriage were seven children,
two of whom alone survived,--Maria Anna, (the fourth), called Nannerl,
born in 1751; and the youngest, Wolfgang Amadeus Johannes Chrysostomus.
The daughter at a very early age displayed a most remarkable talent
for music, and when her father began to give her instructions in it, an
inborn and passionate love of this art was soon evident in her little
brother of three years old, who at once gave tokens of a degree of
genius far surpassing all experience, and really bordering on the
marvellous. In his fourth year he could play all sorts of little pieces
on the piano. He only required half an hour to learn a minuet, and one
hour for a longer movement; and in his fifth year he actually composed
some pretty short pieces, several of which are still extant.
[Footnote: The Grand Duchess Helene Paulowna, a few weeks ago, made a
present to the Mozarteum of the music-book from which Mozart learned
music, and in which he wrote down his first compositions.]
The wonderful acquirements of both these children, to which Wolfgang
soon added skilful playing on the violin and organ, induced their father
to travel with them. In January, 1702, when the boy was just six
years old, they went first to Munich, and in the autumn to Vienna, the
children everywhere on their journey exciting the greatest sensation,
and being handsomely remunerated. Leopold Mozart, therefore, soon
afterwards resolved to undertake a longer journey, accompanied by his
whole family. This lasted more than three years, extending from the
smaller towns in West Germany to Paris and London, while they visited,
on their way back, Holland, France, and Switzerland. The careful musical
instruction which the father perseveringly bestowed on his son, went
hand in hand with the most admirable education, and the boy was soon as
universally beloved for his amiable disposition and natural simplicity
and candor, as admired for his rare gifts and acquirements.
After nearly a year passed at home in unremitting musical instruction,
and practice of various instruments as well as composition, the father
once more set off with all his family to Vienna,--on this occasion with
a view to Wolfgang paving the way to Italy by the composition of an
opera, (Italy, at that time, being the Eldorado of music.) He succeeded
in procuring the scrittura of an opera buffa, "La Finta semplice;"
but, when finished, although the Emperor himself had intrusted the
composition to the boy, the cabals of envious singers effectually
prevented its being performed. But a German operetta which the lad of
twelve also wrote at that time, "Bastien und Bastienne," was given in
private, at the summer residence of the Mesmer family, in the suburb
called Landstrasse. The father, too, had some compensation by the
Emperor commissioning his son to compose a solemn mass for the
consecration of the new Waisenhaus church, which Wolfgang himself
directed with the conductor's baton, in presence of the Imperial Family,
on the 7th December, 1768.
Immediately on their return home, the young virtuoso was appointed
archiepiscopal Concertmeister. He passed almost the whole of the year
1769 in Salzburg, chiefly engaged in the composition of masses. We also
see him at that time eagerly occupied in improving his knowledge of
Latin, although two years previously he had composed a comedy in that
language,--"Apollo et Hyacinthus." From this study proceeds the first
letter which is still extant from his hand:--
1.
Salzburg, 1769.