Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was born in Salzburg, Austria, on January 27,
1756. The son of Leopold, Kapellmeister at the court of the Salzburg
Archbishop, Wolfgang Amadeus disclosed his remarkable musical powers at
a tender age. He began composition at the age of five, completed a piano
sonata at seven, and a symphony at eight. Taught the harpsichord, also
very early in his childhood, he revealed such phenomenal abilities at
improvisation and sight reading that he was the wonder and awe of all
who came into contact with him. His ambitious father exhibited this
formidable prodigy for several years before the crowned heads of Europe;
and wherever he appeared the child was acclaimed. Goethe said: “A
phenomenon like that of Mozart remains an inexplicable thing.” In Milan
in 1770 he was commissioned to write an opera _Mitridate, rè di Ponto_,
successfully performed that year. In Bologna he became the only musician
under the age of twenty to be elected a member of the renowned Accademia
Filarmonica. And in Rome he provided dramatic evidence of his
extraordinary natural gifts by putting down on paper the entire complex
score of Allegri’s _Miserere_ after a single hearing.
As he outgrew childhood he ripened as a composer, gaining all the time
in both technical and creative powers. But he was a prodigy no more, and
though he was rapidly becoming one of the most profound and original
musicians in Europe he was unable to attract the adulation and
excitement that had once been his. Between 1772 and 1777, as an employee
in the musical establishment of the Salzburg Archbishop, he was treated
like a menial servant. The remarkable music he was writing all the time
passed unnoticed. Finally, in 1782, he made a permanent break with the
Archbishop and established his home in Vienna where he lived for the
remainder of his life. Though he received some important commissions,
and enjoyed several triumphs for his operas, he did not fare any too
well in Vienna either. He had to wait several years for a court
appointment, and when it finally came in 1787 he was deplorably
underpaid. Thus he lived in poverty, often dependent for food and other
necessities of life on the generosity of his friends. And yet the
masterworks kept coming in every conceivable medium—operas, symphonies,
sonatas, quartets, concertos, choral music and so forth. A few people in
Vienna were aware of his prodigious achievements, and one of these was
Joseph Haydn who called him “the greatest composer I know either
personally or by name.” During the last years of his life Mozart was
harassed not only by poverty but also by severe illness. Yet his last
year was one of his most productive, yielding his last three symphonies,
the _Requiem_, the opera _The Magic Flute_ (_Die Zauberfloete_), the
_Ave Verum_, and a remarkable piano concerto and string quintet. He died
in Vienna on December 5, 1791 and was buried in a pauper’s grave with no
tombstone or cross for identification.
Through his genius every form of music was endowed with new grandeur,
nobility of expression and richness of thought. He was a technician
second to none; a bold innovator; a creator capable of plumbing the
profoundest depths of emotion and the most exalted heights of
spirituality. Yet he could also be simple and charming and graceful, in
music remarkably overflowing with the most engaging melodies conceived
by man, and characterized by the most exquisite taste and the most
consummate craftsmanship. Thus Mozart’s lighter moods in music are often
also endowed with extraordinary creative resources and original
invention; yet they never lose their capacity to delight audiences at
first contact.
The music Mozart wrote directly for popular consumption were the hundred
or so _Dances_ for orchestra: _Country Dances_, _German Dances_,
_Minuets_. The greatest number of these consist of the _German Dances_.
These are lively melodies in eight-measure phrases and with forceful
peasant rhythms. Some of the best _German Dances_ are those in which
Mozart utilized unusual orchestral resources or instruments to suggest
extra-musical sounds. _The Sleighride_ (_Die Schlittenfahrt_), K. 605,
in C major, simulates the sound of sleigh bells in the middle trio
section, sounded in the tones A-F-E-C. _The Organgrinder_ (_Der
Leiermann_), K. 602, imitates the sound of a hurdy-gurdy. In _The
Canary_ (_Der Kanarienvogel_), K. 571, flutes reproduce the chirping of
birds.
The _Country Dance_, or _Contretanze_, is sometimes regarded as the
first modern dance, forerunner of the quadrille. Structurally and
stylistically these are very much like _German Dances_ with a
peasant-like vitality and earthiness. Here, too, Mozart sometimes
realistically imitates non-musical sounds as in _The Thunder Storm_
(_Das Donnerwetter_), K. 534, in which the role of the timpani suggests
peals of thunder.
Mozart’s most popular Minuet—indeed, it is probably one of the most
popular minuets ever written—comes from his opera _Don Giovanni_,
libretto by Lorenzo da Ponte, and first performed in Prague in 1787. The
hero of this opera is, to be sure, the Spanish nobleman of the 17th
century whose escapades and licentious life finally bring him to doom at
the hands of the statue of the Commandant come to life to consign him to
the fires of hell. The Minuet appears in the fifth scene of the first
act. Don Giovanni is the gracious host of a party held in his palace,
and there the guests dance a courtly minuet while Don himself is making
amatory overtures to Zerlina.
In a lighter mood, also, is the _Eine kleine Nachtmusik_ (_A Little
Night Music_), K. 525, a serenade for string orchestra (1787). This work
is consistently tuneful, gracious, charming. The first movement has two
lilting little melodies, which are presented and recapitulated with no
formal development to speak of. The second movement is a Romance, or
Romanza, a poetic song contrasted by two vigorous sections; the main
thought of this movement is then repeated between each of these two
vigorous parts. After that comes a formal minuet, and the work ends with
a brisk and sprightly rondo.
Mozart’s popular _Turkish March_—in the pseudo Turkish style so popular
in Vienna in his day—comes out of his piano Sonata in A major, K. 331
(1778), where it appears as the last movement. This march is extremely
popular in orchestral transcription.