Composers › Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
The most famous child prodigy in history: in only 35 years he wrote more than 600 works, from symphonies to operas.
Life
He was born in Salzburg, Austria. His father Leopold, a violinist, soon saw his talent: at five he composed his first pieces and at six he set off touring the courts of Europe with his sister Nannerl.
As an adult he left his secure job at the Salzburg court and in 1781 settled in Vienna as a freelance musician: he taught, played his own piano concertos and wrote operas such as The Marriage of Figaro, Don Giovanni and The Magic Flute.
He died in Vienna in 1791, aged 35, while working on his Requiem, which remained unfinished.
Portrait: Johann Nepomuk della Croce (c. 1780), public domain, from Wikimedia Commons.
Curiosities
- In 1770, aged fourteen, he heard Allegri's Miserere in Rome, which nobody was allowed to copy, and wrote it down from memory.
- His works are numbered in the Köchel catalogue: that is why titles carry the letters “K” or “KV”, as in K 331 and K 545.
- In his own list of works he noted that the Sonata K 545 was “for beginners”: that is why it is called the “Sonata facile”.
At the piano
- A light, clear touch: every note of the scales must be heard, without pedal to cover it.
- The Alberti bass (broken chords in the left hand) stays soft, underneath the melody.
- Keep a steady tempo: elegance comes from precision.
Pieces to learn 2 pieces
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