Online Encyclopedia
Search over 40,000 articles from the original, classic Encyclopedia Britannica, 11th Edition.
WOLFGANG AMADEUS1 MOZART (1756–1791)
Online EncyclopediaEncyclopedia Home :: MOS-NAN
del.icio.us it!
|
WOLFGANG AMADEUS1 See also:MOZART (1756–1791)
, See also:German composer, was See also:born at See also:Salzburg on the 27th of See also:January 1756
.
He was educated by his See also:father, See also:Leopold See also:Mozart, a violinist of high repute in the service of the See also:archbishop of Salzburg
.
When only three years old he shared the See also:harpsichord lessons of his See also:sister Maria, five years his See also:senior
.
A See also:year later he played minuets, and composed little pieces, some of which are still preserved in Maria's See also:music-See also:book
.
When five years old he performed in public for the first See also:time, in the See also:
At every court he visited he was loaded with caresses and presents; but the journeys were expensive, and the family terribly poor
.
In See also:Paris they lodged at the Bavarian See also:embassy, giving performances on a See also:grand See also:scale both there and at See also:Versailles, where Wolferl's organ-playing was even more admired than his performance on the harpsichord
.
Here, also, he published his first compositions—two sets of sonatas for the harpsichord and violin
.
On the loth of See also:April 1764 Leopold Mozart brought his family to See also:England, engaging a lodging in See also:Cecil Court, St See also:
In See also:July he paid a second visit to See also:Bologna, when the Accademia Filarmonica, after subjecting him to a severe examination, admitted him to the See also:rank of " compositore," notwithstanding a See also:statute restricting this preferment to candidates of at least twenty years old
.
The exercise which gained him this distinction is a four-See also:part composition (Kochel's See also:Catalogue, No
.
86) in strict See also:counterpoint on the See also:antiphon Quaerite primunt, written in the severe ecclesiastical See also:style of the 16th See also:century and abounding in points of ingenious See also:imitation and See also:device
.
3 The See also:original autograph is numbered " Select See also:Case C, 21, d."
4 Auratae militiae eques
.
In See also:October 1770 Wolfgang and his father returned to Milan for the completion and See also:production of the new opera
.
The libretto, entitled Mitridate, Re di Ponta, was furnished by an obscure poet from See also:Turin, to the great disappointment of the young maestro, who had hoped to set a See also:drama by See also:Metastasio
.
The progress of the work was interrupted from time to time by the miserable intrigues which seem inseparable from the lyric See also:stage, exacerbated in this particular case by the See also:jealousy of the See also:resident professors, who refused to believe either that an See also:Italian opera could be written by a native of Germany, or that a boy of fourteen could See also:manage the See also:orchestra of La Scala, at that time the largest in See also:Europe
.
Fortunately the detractors were effectively silenced at the first full See also:rehearsal; and on the 26th of December Wolfgang took his seat at the harpsichord and directed his work amidst a See also:storm of genuine See also:applause
.
The success of the piece was unprecedented
.
It had a continuous run of twenty nights, and delighted even the most captious critics
.
Wolfgang's See also:triumph was now complete
.
After playing with his usual success in Turin, See also:Verona, See also:Venice, See also:Padua and other Italian cities, he returned with his father to Salzburg in March 1771, commissioned to compose a grand dramatic serenata for the approaching See also:marriage of the See also:archduke See also: Hasse generously uttered the often-quoted prophecy, "This boy will cause us all to be forgotten." l During the See also:absence of Wolfgang and his father the See also:good archbishop of Salzburg died; and in the See also:spring of the year 1772 Hieronymus, See also:count of Colioredo, was elected in his See also:stead, to the horror of all who were acquainted with his real See also:character . The Mozart family did their best to propitiate their new See also:lord, for whose See also:installation Wolfgang, after his return from Milan, composed an opera, Il Sogno di Scipione; but the newly-elected See also:prelate had no See also:taste for See also:art, and was utterly incapable of appreciating the See also:charm of any intellectual pursuit whatever . For a time, however, things went on smoothly . In October the father and son once more visited Milan for the preparation and production of the new opera, Lucie Silla, which was produced at Christmas with a success quite equal to that of Mitridate, and ran between twenty and See also:thirty nights . In the meantime Wolfgang continued to produce new See also:works with incredible rapidity . In 1775 he composed an opera for See also:Munich, La Finta giardiniera, produced on the 13th of January . In the following March he set to music Metastasio's dramatic See also:cantata, Il Re Pastore . Concertos, masses, symphonies, sonatas and other important works, both vocal and instrumental, followed each other without a pause . And this fertility of invention, instead of exhausting his See also:genius, seemed only to stimulate it to still more indefatigable exertions . But the pecuniary return was so inconsiderable that in 1777 Leopold Mozart asked the archbishop for leave of absence for the purpose of making a professional tour . This was refused on the ground of the prelate's dislike to " that See also:system of begging." Wolfgang then requested permission to resign his See also:appointment, which was only an honorary one, for the purpose of making the tour with his See also:mother . The archbishop was furious; but the See also:plan was carried out at last, and on the 23rd of September the mother and son started for Munich . The results were not encouraging . Leopold hoped that his son, now twenty-one years old, might obtain some profitable court appointment; but in this he was disappointed . And, worse still, poor Wolfgang See also:fell in love at See also:Mannheim with Aloysia See also:Weber, a promising young vocalist, whose father, the prompter of the See also:theatre (See also:uncle of the great composer Weber), was very nearly penniless . On hearing of this Leopold ordered his wife and son to start instantly for Paris, where they arrived on the 23rd of March 1778 . Wolfgang's usual success, however, seemed on this occasion to have deserted him . His reception was a See also:cold one; and, to add to his misery, his mother fell seriously See also:ill and died on the 3rd of July . Reduced 1 " Questo ragazzo ci fara dimenticar tutti."almost to despair by this new trouble, he left Paris in September, rested for a while on his way See also:home in Mannheim and Munich, was received by Aloysia Weber with coldness almost amounting to contempt, and in June 1779 returned to Salzburg, hoping against See also:hope that he might make some better terms with the archbishop, who relented so far as to attach a See also:salary of goo florins (about 5o) to his " concertmeister's " appointment, with leave of absence in case he should be engaged to write an opera elsewhere . Two years later the desired opportunity presented itself . He was engaged to compose an opera for Munich for the See also:carnival of 1781 . The libretto was furnished by the abbate Varesco, court See also:chaplain at Salzburg . On the 29th of January 1781 the work was produced under the See also:title of Idomeneo, re di Greta, with triumphant success, and thenceforth Mozart's position as an artist was assured; for this was not only the finest work he had ever written but incontestably the finest opera that had ever yet been placed upon the stage in any See also:age or country . And now the archbishop's character exhibited itself in its true See also:colours . Art for its own See also:sake he utterly disdained; but it flattered his vanity to retain a famous artist in his service with the See also:power of insulting him at will . On hearing of the success of Idomeneo he instantly summoned the composer to Vienna, where he was spending the season . Mozart lost not a moment in presenting himself, but he soon found his position intolerable . That he should be condemned to dine with his See also:patron's servants was the See also:fault of the age, but the open disrespect with which the lowest menials treated him was due to the archbishop's example . His salary was reduced from 500 to 400 florins, he was left to pay his own travelling expenses, and he was not permitted to add to his means by giving a See also:concert on his own See also:account or to See also:play anywhere but at the archiepiscopal palace . Archbishop Hieronymus was hated at court, and most of all by the emperor Joseph, who, on retiring to Laxenburg for the summer, did not place his name on the See also:list of invited guests . This offended him so deeply that he left Vienna in disgust . The See also:household were sent on to Salzburg, but Mozart was left to find lodgings at his own expense . Thereupon he sent in his resignation; and for this See also:act of See also:contumacy was insulted by the archbishop in terms too vulgar for See also:translation . He persevered, however, in his See also:resolution, taking lodgings in a See also:house rented by his old See also:friends the Webers, and vainly hoping for pupils, since Vienna at this season was perfectly empty . Happily he had a sincere though not a generous well-wisher in the emperor, and a See also:firm friend in the archduke See also:Maximilian . By the emperor's command he wrote a German opera, See also:Die Entfuhrung aus dem Serail, which on the 16th of July 1782 was received with See also:acclamation, and not See also:long afterwards was performed with equal success at See also:Prague . This great work raised the See also:national " Singspiel " to a level commensurate with that which Idomeneo had already attained for the Italian " opera seria." The next great event in Mozart's See also:life was not what one would have wished for him . Though Aloysia Weber had long since rejected him, his renewed intimacy with the family led to an imprudent marriage with her younger sister, See also:Constance, a woman neither his equal in See also:intellect nor his See also:superior in prudence . The wedding took place at St See also:Stephen's on the 16th of See also:August 1782 . By the end of the year the thriftless pair were deeply in See also:debt . Mozart composed incessantly, played at numberless concerts, and was in greater favour than ever at court and with the See also:nobility; but to the last day of his life his See also:purse was empty . He had, however, many kind friends, not the least affectionate of whom was the See also:veteran See also:Haydn, who was sincerely attached to him . With Gluck he was on terms of courteous intercourse only . See also:Salieri detested him, and made no See also:secret of his dislike . Mozart's next dramatic venture was a German singspiel in one act, Der Schauspieldirektor, produced at Schonbrunn, on the 7th of See also:February 1786 . Not quite three months later, on the 1st of May, he produced his marvellous Le Nozze di See also:Figaro, the libretto for which was adapted from See also:Beaumarchais by the See also:abbe da See also:Ponte . The reception of this magnificent work was enthusiastic . But Vienna was a hotbed of intrigue .
Everything that could
be done by jealous plotters to See also:mar the composer's success was done, and that so effectively that Mozart declared he would never bring out another opera in the See also:city which treated him so meanly
.
Fortunately, Figaro, like Die Entfuhrung, was repeated with brilliant success at Prague
.
Mozart went there to hear it, and received a commission to write an opera for the next season, with a See also:fee of too ducats
.
Da Ponte furnished a libretto, founded on Tirso de See also:Molina's See also:tale, El Convidado de piedra, and entitled II See also:Don Giovanni
.
By the 28th of October 1787 the whole was ready with the exception of the See also:overture, not a note of which was written
.
This circumstance has led to the See also:idea that it was composed in haste, but it is certain that Mozart knew it all by See also:heart and transcribed it during the See also:night from memory, while his wife told See also:fairy tales to keep him awake
.
The opera was produced on the 29th of October with extra-See also:ordinary effect, and the overture, though played without rehearsal, was as successful as the See also:rest of the music.' Yet, when reproduced in Vienna, Don Giovanni pleased less than Salieri's comparatively worthless See also:Tarare
.
On returning to Vienna Mozart was appointed kammercompositor to the emperor, with a salary of Boo gulden (£8o)
.
In April 1789 he accompanied See also:Prince Lichnowski to See also:Berlin, where King See also:Frederick See also: 
Though the libretto by Da Ponte was too stupid for See also:criticism, the music was delicious, and the opera would probably have had a long run but for the emperor's See also:death on the loth of February . In March 1791 Mozart consented to write a German opera upon an entirely new plan for Schikaneder, the manager of the little theatre in the Wieden suburb . The piece was to be addressed especially to the Freemasons, and to contain ceaseless allusions both in the words and music to the secrets of the brotherhood . Deeply interested in the affairs of a See also:body of which he was himself a member, Mozart excelled himself in this new work, which took shape as Die Zauberflote . He was rewarded for his labours by a brilliant See also:artistic success, but Schikaneder alone reaped the See also:financial benefit of the See also:speculation . Before the completion of Die Zauberflate a stranger called on Mozart, requesting him to compose a See also:Requiem and offering to pay for it in advance . He began the work under the See also:influence of superstitious fear, believing that the messenger had been sent from the other world to forewarn him of his own approaching death . Meanwhile he received a commission to compose an opera, La Clemenza di Tito, for the See also:coronation of the emperor Leopold II. at Prague . He worked incessantly and far beyond his strength . The coronation took place on the 6th of September; and its splendours threw the opera very much into the shade . Die Zauberflote was produced on the 3oth of September and had a splendid run . But the Requiem still remained unfinished; the stranger therefore made another appointment, paying a further sum in advance . Mozart worked at it unremittingly, hoping to make it his greatest work . In the Requiem he surpassed himself, but he was not permitted to finish it . When the stranger called the third time the composer was no more . The See also:score of the Requiem was reverently completed by Sussmayer, whose task may have been simplified by instructions received from Mozart on his deathbed . It is now known that the work was commissioned by Count Walsegg, who wished to perform it as his own . Mozart died on the 5th of December 1791, apparently from typhus See also:fever, though he believed himself poisoned . His funeral was a disgrace to the court, the emperor, the public, society itself . On the afternoon of the 6th his body was hurried to a ' See also:Michael See also:Kelly, in his Reminiscences, has left a delightful account of the circumstances.pauper's See also:grave; and because it rained, See also:Van Swieten, Sussmayer, and three other " friends " turned back and left him to be carried to his last long home alone . (W . S . R.) Mozart's work falls conveniently into three periods, though O . See also:Jahn makes out, more accurately, five .
Our first See also:period may be said, in sober seriousness, to begin at the age of five and to See also:merge into the second somewhere about the age of sixteen or seventeen
.
It was fortunate that the See also:infancy of the See also:sonata-forms (q.v.) coincided with the infancy of Mozart; for while this coincidence gave his earliest attempts a marvellous resemblance to the work of the fully-grown masters of the time, it secured for his See also:mental activity a healthy and normal relation to the musical world which See also:infant prodigies can never attain in a See also:modern artistic .environment
.
The little pieces composed by Mozart in his fifth and See also:sixth years are a fascinating study in the unswerving progress made by a See also:child who masters every step, not by some miraculous See also:intuition that enables him to dispense with learning, but by a hardly less miraculous directness of thought that prevents him from either making the same See also:mistake twice or exactly repeating a See also:form once mastered
.
The violin sonatas written in London and Paris at the age of seven in no way fall below the accepted See also:standards of the period, while they already show that variety of invention and experiment which, by the time he was twelve, caused some sober-minded critics to regard him as a dangerous See also:person
.
His studies in the severer contrapuntal forms speedily gave him the greatest technical mastery of choral music attained since See also:Bach; and more than one stray piece of See also: Most of the See also:pianoforte sonatas and many of the best-known violin sonatas belong to his See also:early manhood . To the same period also belong those unfortunate masses which, together with several See also:spurious works, were at one time so popular, and have since been accepted as See also:evidence that he had not the See also:depth of feeling and earnestness necessary for church music . Idomeneo and Die Entfuhrung are currently regarded as quite early works, but they are later than any of the masses except the great unfinished work in C See also:minor, and there is some really great church music of his later period in the shape of stray pieces, litanies and See also:vespers (i.e. collections of See also:psalms sung at evening service) which is almost totally neglected, and which shows a consistent solemnity and richness of style no less in keeping with Mozart's new artistic developments than worthy of the glories of See also:Handel and Bach . Idomeneo is the only opera of Mozart which unmistakably shows the influence of Gluck; because, with the exception of La Clemenza di Tito, it is the only opera seria by which Mozart is known; and only a serious opera on a classical subject could furnish occasion for Gluck's phraseology and range of feeling to appear at all . How profoundly and independently Mozart seizes Gluck's method and style may best be seen by comparing the See also:oracle scenes in Idomeneo and Alceste . In the management of the See also:chorus, however, Mozart has, as was to be expected, incomparably the See also:advantage . He has all, or rather more than all, . Gluck's power for portraying panic and managing, by the See also:motion of his music, the See also:flight of a See also:crowd; but he also has an inexhaustible See also:harmonic and contrapuntal invention which See also:lay beyond Gluck's scope . The problems of comic opera presented a far more fruitful See also: |