Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Mozart, born in 1756 on January 27, was the last of seven, and only one of two
surviving children born to Anna Maria, whose maiden name was Pertl, and Leopold
Mozart. His father was a well-known composer himself, being the assistant to
Salzburg Court’s concertmaster, as well as an instructor and author of a famous
how-to textbook on violin playing. Both elder Mozarts stressed the importance of
learning music to both their children and offered their support and direction to
Wolfgang, and his sister, Maria Anna, who was nicknamed ‘’Nannerl’’.

Born on January 27, 1756, in Salzburg, Austria, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was a musician
capable of playing multiple instruments who started playing in public at the age of 6. Over the
years, Mozart aligned himself with a variety of European venues and patrons, composing
hundreds of works that included sonatas, symphonies, masses, chamber music, concertos and
operas, marked by vivid emotion and sophisticated textures. In December, 1769, Wolfgang,
then age 13, and his father departed from Salzburg for Italy, leaving his mother and sister at
home. It seems that by this time Nannerl’s professional music career was over. She was
nearing marriageable age and according to the custom of the time, she was no longer permitted
to show her artistic talent in public. The Italian outing was longer than the others (1769-1771) as
Leopold wanted to display his son’s abilities as a performer and composer to as many new
audiences as possible. While in Rome, Wolfgang heard Gregorio Allegri’s Miserere performed
once in the Sistine Chapel. He wrote out the entire score from memory, returning only to correct
a few minor errors. During this time Wolfgang also wrote a new opera, Mitridate, re di Ponto for
the court of Milan. Other commissions followed and in subsequent trips to Italy, Wolfgang wrote
two other operas, Ascanio in Alba (1771) and Lucio Silla (1772). Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
died on December 5, 1791 at age 35. The cause of death is uncertain, due to the limits of
postmortem diagnosis. Officially, the record lists the cause as severe miliary fever, referring to a
skin rash that looks like millet seeds. Since then, many hypotheses have circulated regarding
Mozart's death. Some have attributed it to rheumatic fever, a disease he suffered from
repeatedly throughout his life. It was reported that his funeral drew few mourners and he was
buried in a common grave. Both actions were the Viennese custom at the time, for only
aristocrats and nobility enjoyed public mourning and were allowed to be buried in marked
graves. However, his memorial services and concerts in Vienna and Prague were well attended.
After his death, Constanze sold many of his unpublished manuscripts to undoubtedly pay off the
family’s large debts. She was able to obtain a pension from the emperor and organized several
profitable memorial concerts in Mozart’s honor. From these efforts, Constanze was able to gain
some financial security for herself and allowing her to send her children to private schools.

Ludwig van Beethoven

Ludwig van Beethoven was a German pianist and composer widely considered to be one of the
greatest musical geniuses of all time. His innovative compositions combined vocals and
instruments, widening the scope of sonata, symphony, concerto and quartet. He is the crucial
transitional figure connecting the Classical and Romantic ages of Western music.

Beethoven’s personal life was marked by a struggle against deafness, and some of his most
important works were composed during the last 10 years of his life, when he was quite unable to
hear. He died at the age of 56.

Beethoven had two younger brothers who survived into adulthood: Caspar, born in 1774, and
Johann, born in 1776. Beethoven's mother, Maria Magdalena van Beethoven, was a slender,
genteel, and deeply moralistic woman.
His father, Johann van Beethoven, was a mediocre court singer better known for his alcoholism
than any musical ability. However, Beethoven's grandfather, godfather and namesake,
Kapellmeister Ludwig van Beethoven, was Bonn's most prosperous and eminent musician, a
source of endless pride for young Beethoven.

Hoping that his young son would be recognized as a musical prodigy à la Wolfgang Mozart,
Beethoven's father arranged his first public recital for March 26, 1778. Billed as a "little son of 6
years," (Mozart's age when he debuted for Empress Maria Theresia) although he was in fact 7,
Beethoven played impressively, but his recital received no press whatsoever.

Meanwhile, the musical prodigy attended a Latin grade school named Tirocinium, where a
classmate said, "Not a sign was to be discovered of that spark of genius which glowed so
brilliantly in him afterwards."

Beethoven, who struggled with sums and spelling his entire life, was at best an average student,
and some biographers have hypothesized that he may have had mild dyslexia. As he put it
himself, "Music comes to me more readily than words."

In 1781, at the age of 10, Beethoven withdrew from school to study music full time with Christian
Gottlob Neefe, the newly appointed Court Organist. Neefe introduced Beethoven to Johann
Sebastian Bach, and at the age of 12 Beethoven published his first composition, a set of piano
variations on a theme by an obscure classical composer named Dressler.

By 1784, his alcoholism worsening and his voice decaying, Beethoven's father was no longer
able to support his family, and Beethoven formally requested an official appointment as
Assistant Court Organist. Despite his youth, his request was accepted, and Beethoven was put
on the court payroll with a modest annual salary of 150 florins. Beethoven won many patrons
among the leading citizens of the Viennese aristocracy, who provided him with lodging and
funds, allowing Beethoven, in 1794, to sever ties with the Electorate of Cologne. Beethoven
made his long-awaited public debut in Vienna on March 29, 1795.

Although there is considerable debate over which of his early piano concerti he performed that
night, most scholars believe he played what is known as his "first" piano concerto in C Major.
Shortly thereafter, Beethoven decided to publish a series of three piano trios as his Opus 1,
which were an enormous critical and financial success.
In the first spring of the new century, on April 2, 1800, Beethoven debuted his Symphony No. 1
in C major at the Royal Imperial Theater in Vienna. Although Beethoven would grow to detest
the piece — "In those days I did not know how to compose," he later remarked — the graceful
and melodious symphony nevertheless established him as one of Europe's most celebrated
composers.

As the new century progressed, Beethoven composed piece after piece that marked him as a
masterful composer reaching his musical maturity. His Six String Quartets, published in 1801,
demonstrate complete mastery of that most difficult and cherished of Viennese forms developed
by Mozart and Haydn.

Franz Joseph Haydn

Franz Joseph Haydn was among the creators of the fundamental genres of classical music, and
his influence upon later composers is immense. Haydn’s most celebrated pupil was Ludwig van
Beethoven, and his musical form casts a huge shadow over the music of subsequent
composers such as Schubert, Mendelssohn and Brahms.

While Haydn rose in the Esterházy family's esteem, his popularity outside the palace walls also
increased, and he eventually wrote as much music for publication as for the family. Several important
works of this period were commissions from abroad, such as the Paris symphonies (1785-1786) and the
original orchestral version of "The Seven Last Words of Christ" (1786). Haydn came to feel sequestered
and lonely, however, missing friends back in Vienna, such as Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, so in 1791,
when a new Esterházy prince let Haydn go, he quickly accepted an invitation to go to England to conduct
new symphonies with German violinist and impresario Johan Peter Salomon. He would return to London
again in 1794 for another successful and lucrative season.

Already well known and appreciated in England, Haydn's concerts drew huge crowds, and during his
time in England the composer created some of his most popular works, including the "Rider" quartet
and the Surprise, Military, Drumroll and London symphonies. Haydn returned to Vienna in 1795 and
took up his former position with the Esterházys, although only part-time. At this point, he was a
public figure in Vienna, and when he wasn't at home composing, he was making frequent public
appearances. With his health failing, his creative spirit outlasted his ability to harness it, and he
died at age 77.

Haydn is remembered as the first great symphonist and the composer who essentially invented
the string quartet. The principal engineer of the classical style, Haydn exerted influence on the
likes of Mozart, his student Ludwig van Beethoven and scores of others. During the 1760s
Haydn’s fame began to spread throughout Europe. The Austrian and Czech monasteries did
much to disseminate his church music as well as his symphonies, divertimenti, sonatas, and
concertos. Aristocratic patrons in south Germany, Italy, and the Austrian empire assiduously
collected his music, and their libraries would eventually become important sources for copies of
his work.
The period from 1768 to about 1774 marks Haydn’s maturity as a composer. The music written
then, from the Stabat Mater (1767) to the large-scale Missa Sancti Nicolai (1772), would be
sufficient to place him among the chief composers of the era. The many operas he wrote during
these years did much to enhance his own reputation and that of the Esterházy court. Among his
other important works from this period are the string quartets of Opus 20, the Piano Sonata in C
Minor, and the symphonies in minor keys, especially the so-called Trauersymphonie in E Minor,
No. 44 (“Mourning Symphony,” so named because its slow movement, which was a particular
favourite of the composer, was performed at a memorial service for Haydn) and the “Farewell”
Symphony, No. 45. For reasons that have no historical grounding, this has come to be known
as Haydn’s Sturm-und-Drang (“storm and stress”) period, after a literary movement that came
somewhat later; however inapt historically, the term does describe the character of many of
these works and in fact has come to stand for the turgid style they so often exhibit. The
following decade and a half did even more to enhance Haydn’s fame. His operatic output
continued strong until 1785, notwithstanding the destruction of the Esterházy opera house by
fire in 1779. Increasingly, however, his audience lay outside his employer’s court. In 1775 he
composed his first large-scale oratorio, Il ritorno di Tobia, for the Musicians’ Society in Vienna;
for unknown reasons, relations between Haydn and the Viennese musicians cooled
considerably a few years later. By the early 1780s, though, things seemed much improved, and
the Viennese firm Artaria published his six Opus 33 quartets. These important works quickly set
a new standard for the genre, putting many of his competitors in this increasingly lucrative
market out of business. (Mozart was a notable exception, but even he took several years to
complete his own set of six quartets.) In 1784 Haydn revised Tobia for another Viennese
performance, adding choral numbers and cutting back on some of the extended da capo
structures, a clear sign that he was well aware of changing sensibilities. In mid-decade as well
came a commission from Paris to compose a set of symphonies, and Haydn’s resulting “Paris”
symphonies are a landmark of the genre. It was also about this time that he received the
commission to compose the Seven Last Words of Our Saviour on the Cross; for the incorrigibly
cheerful Haydn, writing seven successive dour movements was a particularly difficult
undertaking, but the effort resulted in one of his most-admired works.
Haydn’s professional success was not matched in his personal life. His marriage to Maria Anna
Keller in 1760 produced neither a pleasant, peaceful home nor any children. Haydn’s wife did
not understand music and showed no interest in her husband’s work. Her disdain went to the
extremes of using his manuscripts for pastry pan linings or curl papers. Haydn was not
insensitive to the attractions of other women, and for years he carried on a love affair with Luigia
Polzelli, a young Italian mezzo-soprano in the prince’s service.

Haydn was an extremely prolific composer. His total output includes 108 symphonies, one of
which (number 106) is lost and one of which (number 105) is actually a symphonie concertante;
68 string quartets; 32 divertimenti for small orchestra; 126 trios for baryton, viola, and cello; 29
trios for piano, violin, and cello; 21 trios for two violins and cello; 47 piano sonatas; about
20 operas; 14 masses; 6 oratorios; and 2 cello concerti. Haydn’s achievement was long
confused by the fact that an enormous number of works were wrongly attributed to him, and it
was not until the 1950s that musicological research was able to pare this staggering amount of
spurious attributions from Haydn’s recognized output. Work on a definitive catalog of
his compositions continued into the late 20th century. In his youth and early career, Haydn
experimented with the prevailing stylistic trends. He was familiar with the pompous and
complex idiom of the preceding Baroque period; he then adopted the light, gay, and elegant
musical style that was popular at the time in Austria; and he was subsequently influenced by the
strongly emotional and expressive style preferred by Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach and other north
German composers. He eventually achieved his own distinctive musical identity by using some
elements from all three of these styles simultaneously. During the 1760s Haydn began to
solidify and deepen his style. His new technique of working with small motifs to tighten the fabric
of the sonata form turned the first movement of the sonata, quartet, and symphony into a little
musical drama. In the period from 1768 to 1774, his music took on a deeper hue; the
intellectualization that had steadily increased throughout the 1760s at last found its natural
outlet in the mid-1780s, when he seems to have regained the emotional strength that so much
of his work had lost after the outburst of the early 1770s. His Paris symphonies (Nos. 82, 83, 84,
85, 86, and 87; 1785–86) are miracles of beauty and formal perfection combined with great
profundity, noticeable especially in the slow movement of No. 86 in D.