Herbie Mann
American jazz flutist (1930-2003)
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical period. Despite his short life, he composed over 800 works that are considered pinnacles of Western classical music, known for their melodic beauty, formal elegance, and richness of harmony and texture. He was a child prodigy who performed for European royalty and went on to achieve fame in Vienna, where he composed many of his best-known works.
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Maria Anna Mozart
Constanze Mozart
Karl Mozart
Franz Xaver Wolfgang Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozartwas a prolific and influential composer of the Classical period. Despite his short life, his rapid pace of composition resulted in more than 800 works representing virtually every Western classical genre of his time. Many of these compositions are acknowledged as pinnacles of the symphonic, concertante, chamber, operatic, and choral repertoire. Mozart is widely regarded as one of the greatest composers in the history of Western music, with his music admired for its “melodic beauty, its formal elegance and its richness of harmony and texture”.
Born in Salzburg, Mozart showed prodigious ability from his earliest childhood. At age five, he was already competent on keyboard and violin, had begun to compose, and performed before European royalty. His father took him on a grand tour of Europe and then three trips to Italy. At 17, he was a musician at the Salzburg court but grew restless and travelled in search of a better position. Mozart’s search for employment led to positions in Paris, Mannheim, Munich, and again in Salzburg, during which he wrote his five violin concertos, Sinfonia Concertante, and Concerto for Flute and Harp, as well as sacred pieces and masses, the motet Exsultate Jubilate, and the opera Idomeneo, among other works.
While visiting Vienna in 1781, Mozart was dismissed from his Salzburg position. He stayed in Vienna, where he achieved fame but little financial security. During Mozart’s early years in Vienna, he produced several notable works, such as the opera Die Entfuhrung aus dem Serail, the Great Mass in C Minor, the “Haydn” Quartets and a number of symphonies. Throughout his Vienna years, Mozart composed over a dozen piano concertos, many considered some of his greatest achievements. In the final years of his life, Mozart wrote many of his best-known works, including his last three symphonies, culminating in the Jupiter Symphony, the serenade Eine kleine Nachtmusik, his Clarinet Concerto, the four operas Le nozze di Figaro, Don Giovanni, Cosi fan tutte and The Magic Flute and his Requiem. The Requiem was largely unfinished at the time of his death at age 35, the circumstances of which are uncertain and much mythologised.
Mozart’s most famous work is considered to be his Requiem, which he was largely working on at the time of his death at the age of 35. Though unfinished, the Requiem is one of his most renowned and influential compositions.
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart composed over 800 works during his short lifetime, representing virtually every Western classical genre of his time, including symphonies, concertos, chamber music, operas, and choral pieces.
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was born in Salzburg, Austria, and showed prodigious musical ability from a very young age, performing for European royalty as a child.
In the final years of his life, Mozart wrote many of his best-known works, including his last three symphonies, the serenade Eine kleine Nachtmusik, his Clarinet Concerto, and the four operas Le nozze di Figaro, Don Giovanni, Così fan tutte, and The Magic Flute.
The circumstances surrounding Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s death at the age of 35 are uncertain and have been much mythologized. He was working on his Requiem at the time of his passing, but the exact cause of his death remains a mystery.
When I am traveling in a carriage, or walking after a good meal, or during the night when I cannot sleep; it is on such occasions that ideas flow best and most abundantly.
Austrian composer of the Classical period (1756-1791)
It is a great consolation for me to remember that the Lord, to whom I had drawn near in humble and child-like faith, has suffered and died for me, and that He will look on me in love and compassion.
Austrian composer of the Classical period (1756-1791)
One must not make oneself cheap here – that is a cardinal point – or else one is done. Whoever is most impertinent has the best chance.
Austrian composer of the Classical period (1756-1791)
Neither a lofty degree of intelligence nor imagination nor both together go to the making of genius. Love, love, love, that is the soul of genius.
Austrian composer of the Classical period (1756-1791)
I thank my God for graciously granting me the opportunity of learning that death is the key which unlocks the door to our true happiness.
Austrian composer of the Classical period (1756-1791)
Nevertheless the passions, whether violent or not, should never be so expressed as to reach the point of causing disgust; and music, even in situations of the greatest horror, should never be painful to the ear but should flatter and charm it, and thereby always remain music.
Austrian composer of the Classical period (1756-1791)
I pay no attention whatever to anybody’s praise or blame. I simply follow my own feelings.
Austrian composer of the Classical period (1756-1791)