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Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Portrait, c. 1781
27 January 1756
Born
Getreidegasse 9, Salzburg
5 December 1791 (aged 35)
Died
Vienna
Works List of compositions
Spouse Constanze Mozart
Leopold Mozart
Parent(s)
Anna Maria Mozart
Relatives Mozart family
Signature

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart[a][b] (27 January 1756 – 5 December 1791) was a

prolific and influential composer of the Classical period. Despite his short life, his
rapid pace of composition resulted in more than 800 works of 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 among the greatest composers in the history of Western
music,[1] with his music admired for its "melodic beauty, its formal elegance and its
richness of harmony and texture".[2]

Born in Salzburg, then in the Holy Roman Empire and currently in Austria, Mozart
showed prodigious ability from his earliest childhood. Already competent on
keyboard and violin, he composed from the age of five 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.

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 his final
years there, he composed many of his best-known symphonies, concertos, and operas.
His Requiem was largely unfinished by the time of his death at the age of 35, the
circumstances of which are uncertain and much mythologised.

Life and career

Mozart's birthplace at Getreidegasse 9, Salzburg

Early life

Family and childhood

See also: Mozart's name, Mozart family, and Mozart's nationality

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was born on 27 January 1756 to Leopold Mozart (1719–
1787) and Anna Maria, née Pertl (1720–1778), at Getreidegasse 9 in Salzburg.[3]
Salzburg was the capital of the Archbishopric of Salzburg, an ecclesiastic principality
in the Holy Roman Empire (today in Austria).[c] He was the youngest of seven
children, five of whom died in infancy. His elder sister was Maria Anna Mozart
(1751–1829), nicknamed "Nannerl". Mozart was baptised the day after his birth, at St.
Rupert's Cathedral in Salzburg. The baptismal record gives his name in Latinized
form, as Joannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart. He generally called
himself "Wolfgang Amadè Mozart"[4] as an adult, but his name had many variants.

Leopold Mozart, a native of Augsburg,[5] then an Imperial Free City in the Holy
Roman Empire, was a minor composer and an experienced teacher. In 1743, he was
appointed as the fourth violinist in the musical establishment of Count Leopold Anton
von Firmian, the ruling Prince-Archbishop of Salzburg.[2] Four years later, he married
Anna Maria in Salzburg. Leopold became the orchestra's deputy Kapellmeister in
1763. During the year of his son's birth, Leopold published a violin textbook, Versuch
einer gründlichen Violinschule, which achieved success.[6]

When Nannerl was seven, she began keyboard lessons with her father, while her
three-year-old brother looked on. Years later, after her brother's death, she
reminisced:

He often spent much time at the clavier, picking out thirds, which he was ever
striking, and his pleasure showed that it sounded good. ... In the fourth year of
his age his father, for a game as it were, began to teach him a few minuets and
pieces at the clavier. ... He could play it faultlessly and with the greatest
delicacy, and keeping exactly in time. ... At the age of five, he was already
composing little pieces, which he played to his father who wrote them down.[7]

Mozart family on tour: Leopold, Wolfgang, Nannerl; watercolour by Carmontelle,

c. 1763[8]

These early pieces, K. 1–5, were recorded in the Nannerl Notenbuch. There is some
scholarly debate about whether Mozart was four or five years old when he created his
first musical compositions, though there is little doubt that Mozart composed his first
three pieces of music within a few weeks of each other: K. 1a, 1b, and 1c.[9]

In his early years, Wolfgang's father was his only teacher. Along with music, he
taught his children languages and academic subjects.[10] Biographer Solomon notes
that, while Leopold was a devoted teacher to his children, there is evidence that
Mozart was keen to progress beyond what he was taught.[10] His first ink-spattered
composition and his precocious efforts with the violin were of his initiative and came
as a surprise to Leopold,[11] who eventually gave up composing when his son's
musical talents became evident.[12]

1762–73: Travel

Main articles: Mozart family grand tour and Mozart in Italy

While Wolfgang was young, his family made several European journeys in which he
and Nannerl performed as child prodigies. These began with an exhibition in 1762 at
the court of Prince-elector Maximilian III of Bavaria in Munich, and at the Imperial
Courts in Vienna and Prague. A long concert tour followed, spanning three and a half
years, taking the family to the courts of Munich, Mannheim, Paris, London,[13] Dover,
The Hague, Amsterdam, Utrecht, Mechelen and again to Paris, and back home via
Zürich, Donaueschingen, and Munich.[14] During this trip, Wolfgang met many
musicians and acquainted himself with the works of other composers. A particularly
significant influence was Johann Christian Bach, whom he visited in London in 1764
and 1765. When he was eight years old, Mozart wrote his first symphony, most of
which was probably transcribed by his father.[15]
 Mozart aged 14 in January 1770 (School of
Verona, attributed to Giambettino Cignaroli)
Antiphon "Quaerite primum regnum Dei", K. 86/73v
Duration: 1 minute and 2 seconds.1:02
Composed 9 October 1770 for admission to the Accademia Filarmonica di Bologna;
Performed by Phillip W. Serna, treble, tenor & bass viols

The family trips were often challenging, and travel conditions were primitive.[16] They
had to wait for invitations and reimbursement from the nobility, and they endured
long, near-fatal illnesses far from home: first Leopold (London, summer 1764),[17]
then both children (The Hague, autumn 1765).[18] The family again went to Vienna in
late 1767 and remained there until December 1768.

After one year in Salzburg, Leopold and Wolfgang set off for Italy, leaving Anna
Maria and Nannerl at home. This tour lasted from December 1769 to March 1771. As
with earlier journeys, Leopold wanted to display his son's abilities as a performer and
a rapidly maturing composer. Wolfgang met Josef Mysliveček and Giovanni Battista
Martini in Bologna and was accepted as a member of the famous Accademia
Filarmonica. There exists a myth, according to which, while in Rome, he heard
Gregorio Allegri's Miserere twice in performance in the Sistine Chapel. Allegedly, he
subsequently wrote it out from memory, thus producing the "first unauthorized copy
of this closely guarded property of the Vatican". However, both origin and plausibility
of this account are disputed.[19][20][d][21]

In Milan, Mozart wrote the opera Mitridate, re di Ponto (1770), which was performed
with success. This led to further opera commissions. He returned with his father twice
to Milan (August–December 1771; October 1772 – March 1773) for the composition
and premieres of Ascanio in Alba (1771) and Lucio Silla (1772). Leopold hoped these
visits would result in a professional appointment for his son, and indeed ruling
Archduke Ferdinand contemplated hiring Mozart, but owing to his mother Empress
Maria Theresa's reluctance to employ "useless people", the matter was dropped[e] and
Leopold's hopes were never realized.[22] Toward the end of the journey, Mozart wrote
the solo motet Exsultate, jubilate, K.165.

1773–77: Employment at the Salzburg court

 Tanzmeisterhaus [de], Salzburg, Mozart family residence
from 1773; reconstructed 1996

After finally returning with his father from Italy on 13 March 1773, Mozart was
employed as a court musician by the ruler of Salzburg, Prince-Archbishop
Hieronymus Colloredo. The composer had many friends and admirers in Salzburg[23]
and had the opportunity to work in many genres, including symphonies, sonatas,
string quartets, masses, serenades, and a few minor operas. Between April and
December 1775, Mozart developed an enthusiasm for violin concertos, producing a
series of five (the only ones he ever wrote), which steadily increased in their musical
sophistication. The last three—K. 216, K. 218, K. 219—are now staples of the
repertoire. In 1776, he turned his efforts to piano concertos, culminating in the E♭
concerto K. 271 of early 1777, considered by critics to be a breakthrough work.[24]

Despite these artistic successes, Mozart grew increasingly discontented with Salzburg
and redoubled his efforts to find a position elsewhere. One reason was his low salary,
150 florins a year;[25] Mozart longed to compose operas, and Salzburg provided only
rare occasions for these. The situation worsened in 1775 when the court theatre was
closed, especially since the other theatre in Salzburg was primarily reserved for
visiting troupes.[26]

Two long expeditions in search of work interrupted this long Salzburg stay. Mozart
and his father visited Vienna from 14 July to 26 September 1773, and Munich from
6 December 1774 to March 1775. Neither visit was successful, though the Munich
journey resulted in a popular success with the premiere of Mozart's opera La finta
giardiniera.[27]

1777–78: Journey to Paris

 Mozart wearing the badge of the Order of the Golden
Spur which he received in 1770 from Pope Clement XIV in Rome. The painting is a
1777 copy of a work now lost.[28]

In August 1777, Mozart resigned his position at Salzburg[29][f] and on 23 September

ventured out once more in search of employment, with visits to Augsburg, Mannheim,
Paris, and Munich.[30]

Mozart became acquainted with members of the famous orchestra in Mannheim, the
best in Europe at the time. He also fell in love with Aloysia Weber, one of four
daughters of a musical family. There were prospects of employment in Mannheim,
but they came to nothing,[31] and Mozart left for Paris on 14 March 1778[32] to
continue his search. One of his letters from Paris hints at a possible post as an organist
at Versailles, but Mozart was not interested in such an appointment.[33] He fell into
debt and took to pawning valuables.[34] The nadir of the visit occurred when Mozart's
mother was taken ill and died on 3 July 1778.[35] There had been delays in calling a
doctor—probably, according to Halliwell, because of a lack of funds.[36] Mozart
stayed with Melchior Grimm at Marquise d'Épinay's residence, 5 rue de la Chaussée-
d'Antin.[37]

While Mozart was in Paris, his father was pursuing opportunities of employment for
him in Salzburg.[38] With the support of the local nobility, Mozart was offered a post
as court organist and concertmaster. The annual salary was 450 florins,[39] but he was
reluctant to accept.[40] By that time, relations between Grimm and Mozart had cooled,
and Mozart moved out. After leaving Paris in September 1778 for Strasbourg, he
lingered in Mannheim and Munich, still hoping to obtain an appointment outside
Salzburg. In Munich, he again encountered Aloysia, now a very successful singer, but
she was no longer interested in him.[41] Mozart finally returned to Salzburg on 15
January 1779 and took up his new appointment, but his discontent with Salzburg
remained undiminished.[42]

Among the better-known works which Mozart wrote on the Paris journey are the A
minor piano sonata, K. 310/300d, the "Paris" Symphony (No. 31), which were
performed in Paris on 12 and 18 June 1778;[43] and the Concerto for Flute and Harp in
C major, K. 299/297c.[44]

Vienna

1781: Departure
 Mozart family, c. 1780 (della Croce); the portrait
on the wall is of Mozart's mother.

In January 1781, Mozart's opera Idomeneo premiered with "considerable success" in

Munich.[45] The following March, Mozart was summoned to Vienna, where his
employer, Archbishop Colloredo, was attending the celebrations for the accession of
Joseph II to the Austrian throne. For Colloredo, this was simply a matter of wanting
his musical servant to be at hand (Mozart indeed was required to dine in Colloredo's
establishment with the valets and cooks).[g] He planned a bigger career as he
continued in the archbishop's service;[47] for example, he wrote to his father:

My main goal right now is to meet the emperor in some agreeable fashion, I
am absolutely determined he should get to know me. I would be so happy if I
could whip through my opera for him and then play a fugue or two, for that's
what he likes.[48]

Mozart did indeed soon meet the Emperor, who eventually was to support his career
substantially with commissions and a part-time position.

In the same letter to his father just quoted, Mozart outlined his plans to participate as a
soloist in the concerts of the Tonkünstler-Societät, a prominent benefit concert
series;[48] this plan as well came to pass after the local nobility prevailed on Colloredo
to drop his opposition.[49]

Colloredo's wish to prevent Mozart from performing outside his establishment was in
other cases carried through, raising the composer's anger; one example was a chance
to perform before the Emperor at Countess Thun's for a fee equal to half of his yearly
Salzburg salary.

The quarrel with the archbishop came to a head in May: Mozart attempted to resign
and was refused. The following month, permission was granted, but in a grossly
insulting way: the composer was dismissed literally "with a kick in the arse",
administered by the archbishop's steward, Count Arco. Mozart decided to settle in
Vienna as a freelance performer and composer.[50]

The quarrel with Colloredo was more difficult for Mozart because his father sided
against him. Hoping fervently that he would obediently follow Colloredo back to
Salzburg, Mozart's father exchanged intense letters with his son, urging him to be
reconciled with their employer. Mozart passionately defended his intention to pursue
an independent career in Vienna. The debate ended when Mozart was dismissed by
the archbishop, freeing himself both of his employer and of his father's demands to
return. Solomon characterizes Mozart's resignation as a "revolutionary step" that
significantly altered the course of his life.[51]

Early years

See also: Haydn and Mozart and Mozart and Freemasonry

Mozart's new career in Vienna began well. He often performed as a pianist, notably in
a competition before the Emperor with Muzio Clementi on 24 December 1781,[50] and
he soon "had established himself as the finest keyboard player in Vienna".[50] He also
prospered as a composer, and in 1782 completed the opera Die Entführung aus dem
Serail ("The Abduction from the Seraglio"), which premiered on 16 July 1782 and
achieved considerable success. The work was soon being performed "throughout
German-speaking Europe",[50] and thoroughly established Mozart's reputation as a
composer.

1782 portrait of Constanze Mozart by her brother-in-law

Joseph Lange

Near the height of his quarrels with Colloredo, Mozart moved in with the Weber
family, who had moved to Vienna from Mannheim. The family's father, Fridolin, had
died, and the Webers were now taking in lodgers to make ends meet.[52]

Marriage and children

After failing to win the hand of Aloysia Weber, who was now married to the actor and
artist Joseph Lange, Mozart's interest shifted to the third daughter of the family,
Constanze.

The courtship did not go entirely smoothly; surviving correspondence indicates that
Mozart and Constanze briefly separated in April 1782.[53] The correspondence
indicates that Mozart and Constanze briefly broke up in April 1782, over an episode
involving jealousy (Constanze had permitted another young man to measure her
calves in a parlor game).[53] Mozart also faced a very difficult task getting permission
for the marriage from his father, Leopold.[54]

The marriage finally took place in an atmosphere of crisis. Daniel Heartz suggests that
eventually Constanze moved in with Mozart, which would have placed her in disgrace
by the mores of the time.[55] Mozart wrote to Leopold on 31 July 1782, "All the good
and well-intentioned advice you have sent fails to address the case of a man who has
already gone so far with a maiden. Further postponement is out of the question."[55]
Heartz relates, "Constanze's sister Sophie had tearfully declared that her mother
would send the police after Constanze if she did not return home [presumably from
Mozart's apartment]."[55] On 4 August, Mozart wrote to Baroness von Waldstätten,
asking: "Can the police here enter anyone's house in this way? Perhaps it is only a
ruse of Madame Weber to get her daughter back. If not, I know no better remedy than
to marry Constanze tomorrow morning or if possible today."[55]

The couple were finally married on 4 August 1782 in St. Stephen's Cathedral, the day
before his father's consenting letter arrived in the mail. In the marriage contract,
Constanze "assigns to her bridegroom five hundred gulden which ... the latter has
promised to augment with one thousand gulden", with the total "to pass to the
survivor". Further, all joint acquisitions during the marriage were to remain the
common property of both.[56]

The couple had six children, of whom only two survived infancy:[57]

 Raimund Leopold (17 June – 19 August 1783)

 Karl Thomas Mozart (21 September 1784 – 31 October 1858)
 Johann Thomas Leopold (18 October – 15 November 1786)
 Theresia Constanzia Adelheid Friedericke Maria Anna (27 December 1787 –
29 June 1788)
 Anna Maria (died soon after birth, 16 November 1789)
 Franz Xaver Wolfgang Mozart (26 July 1791 – 29 July 1844)

1782–87

In 1782 and 1783, Mozart became intimately acquainted with the work of Johann
Sebastian Bach and George Frideric Handel as a result of the influence of Gottfried
van Swieten, who owned many manuscripts of the Baroque masters. Mozart's study of
these scores inspired compositions in Baroque style and later influenced his musical
language, for example in fugal passages in Die Zauberflöte ("The Magic Flute") and
the finale of Symphony No. 41.[2]

In 1783, Mozart and his wife visited his family in Salzburg. His father and sister were
cordially polite to Constanze, but the visit prompted the composition of one of
Mozart's great liturgical pieces, the Mass in C minor. Though not completed, it was
premiered in Salzburg, with Constanze singing a solo part.[58]

Mozart met Joseph Haydn in Vienna around 1784, and the two composers became
friends. When Haydn visited Vienna, they sometimes played together in an
impromptu string quartet. Mozart's six quartets dedicated to Haydn (K. 387, K. 421,
K. 428, K. 458, K. 464, and K. 465) date from the period 1782 to 1785, and are
judged to be a response to Haydn's Opus 33 set from 1781.[59] Haydn wrote, "posterity
will not see such a talent again in 100 years"[60] and in 1785 told Mozart's father: "I
tell you before God, and as an honest man, your son is the greatest composer known
to me by person and repute, he has taste and what is more the greatest skill in
composition."[61]
From 1782 to 1785 Mozart mounted concerts with himself as a soloist, presenting
three or four new piano concertos in each season. Since space in the theatres was
scarce, he booked unconventional venues: a large room in the Trattnerhof apartment
building, and the ballroom of the Mehlgrube restaurant.[62] The concerts were very
popular, and his concertos premiered there are still firm fixtures in his repertoire.
Solomon writes that during this period, Mozart created "a harmonious connection
between an eager composer-performer and a delighted audience, which was given the
opportunity of witnessing the transformation and perfection of a major musical
genre".[62]

With substantial returns from his concerts and elsewhere, Mozart and his wife
adopted a more luxurious lifestyle. They moved to an expensive apartment, with a
yearly rent of 460 florins.[63] Mozart bought a fine fortepiano from Anton Walter for
about 900 florins, and a billiard table for about 300.[63] The Mozarts sent their son
Karl Thomas to an expensive boarding school[64][65] and kept servants. During this
period Mozart saved little of his income.[66][67]

On 14 December 1784, Mozart became a Freemason, admitted to the lodge Zur

Wohltätigkeit ("Beneficence").[68] Freemasonry played an essential role in the
remainder of Mozart's life: he attended meetings, a number of his friends were
Masons, and on various occasions, he composed Masonic music, e.g. the Maurerische
Trauermusik.[69]

1786–87: Return to opera

Fortepiano played by Mozart in 1787, Czech Museum of

[70]
Music, Prague

Despite the great success of Die Entführung aus dem Serail, Mozart did little operatic
writing for the next four years, producing only two unfinished works and the one-act
Der Schauspieldirektor. He focused instead on his career as a piano soloist and writer
of concertos. Around the end of 1785, Mozart moved away from keyboard
writing[71][page needed] and began his famous operatic collaboration with the librettist
Lorenzo Da Ponte. The year 1786 saw the successful premiere of The Marriage of
Figaro in Vienna. Its reception in Prague later in the year was even warmer, and this
led to a second collaboration with Da Ponte: the opera Don Giovanni, which
premiered in October 1787 to acclaim in Prague, but less success in Vienna during
1788.[72] The two are among Mozart's most famous works and are mainstays of
operatic repertoire today, though at their premieres their musical complexity caused
difficulty both for listeners and for performers. These developments were not
witnessed by Mozart's father, who had died on 28 May 1787.[73]

In December 1787, Mozart finally obtained a steady post under aristocratic patronage.
Emperor Joseph II appointed him as his "chamber composer", a post that had fallen
vacant the previous month on the death of Gluck. It was a part-time appointment,
paying just 800 florins per year, and required Mozart only to compose dances for the
annual balls in the Redoutensaal (see Mozart and dance). This modest income became
important to Mozart when hard times arrived. Court records show that Joseph aimed
to keep the esteemed composer from leaving Vienna in pursuit of better
prospects.[74][1]

In 1787, the young Ludwig van Beethoven spent several weeks in Vienna, hoping to
study with Mozart.[75] No reliable records survive to indicate whether the two
composers ever met.

Later years

1788–90

See also: Mozart's Berlin journey

Drawing of Mozart in silverpoint, made by Dora Stock

during Mozart's visit to Dresden, April 1789

Toward the end of the decade, Mozart's circumstances worsened. Around 1786 he had
ceased to appear frequently in public concerts, and his income shrank.[76] This was a
difficult time for musicians in Vienna because of the Austro-Turkish War: both the
general level of prosperity and the ability of the aristocracy to support music had
declined. In 1788, Mozart saw a 66% decline in his income compared to his best years
in 1781.[77]

By mid-1788, Mozart and his family had moved from central Vienna to the suburb of
Alsergrund.[76] Although it has been suggested that Mozart aimed to reduce his rental
expenses by moving to a suburb, as he wrote in his letter to Michael von Puchberg,
Mozart had not reduced his expenses but merely increased the housing space at his
disposal.[78] Mozart began to borrow money, most often from his friend and fellow
mason Puchberg; "a pitiful sequence of letters pleading for loans" survives.[79]
Maynard Solomon and others have suggested that Mozart was suffering from
depression, and it seems his musical output slowed.[80] Major works of the period
include the last three symphonies (Nos. 39, 40, and 41, all from 1788), and the last of
the three Da Ponte operas, Così fan tutte, premiered in 1790.

Around this time, Mozart made some long journeys hoping to improve his fortunes,
visiting Leipzig, Dresden, and Berlin in the spring of 1789, and Frankfurt, Mannheim,
and other German cities in 1790.

1791

Mozart's last year was, until his final illness struck, a time of high productivity—and
by some accounts, one of personal recovery.[81][h] He composed a great deal, including
some of his most admired works: the opera The Magic Flute; the final piano concerto
(K. 595 in B♭); the Clarinet Concerto K. 622; the last in his series of string quintets
(K. 614 in E♭); the motet Ave verum corpus K. 618; and the unfinished Requiem
K. 626.

Mozart's financial situation, a source of anxiety in 1790, finally began to improve.

Although the evidence is inconclusive,[82] it appears that wealthy patrons in Hungary
and Amsterdam pledged annuities to Mozart in return for the occasional composition.
He is thought to have benefited from the sale of dance music written in his role as
Imperial chamber composer.[82] Mozart no longer borrowed large sums from
Puchberg and began to pay off his debts.[82]

He experienced great satisfaction in the public success of some of his works, notably
The Magic Flute (which was performed several times in the short period between its
premiere and Mozart's death)[83] and the Little Masonic Cantata K. 623, premiered on
17 November 1791.[84]

Final illness and death

Main article: Death of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Posthumous painting by Barbara Krafft in 1819

Mozart fell ill while in Prague for the premiere, on 6 September 1791, of his opera La
clemenza di Tito, which was written in that same year on commission for Emperor
Leopold II's coronation festivities.[85] He continued his professional functions for
some time and conducted the premiere of The Magic Flute on 30 September. His
health deteriorated on 20 November, at which point he became bedridden, suffering
from swelling, pain, and vomiting.[86]

Mozart was nursed in his final days by his wife and her youngest sister, and was
attended by the family doctor, Thomas Franz Closset. He was mentally occupied with
the task of finishing his Requiem, but the evidence that he dictated passages to his
student Franz Xaver Süssmayr is minimal.[87]

Mozart died in his home on 5 December 1791 (aged 35) at 12:55 am.[88] The New
Grove describes his funeral:

Mozart was interred in a common grave, in accordance with contemporary

Viennese custom, at the St. Marx Cemetery outside the city on 7 December. If,
as later reports say, no mourners attended, that too is consistent with Viennese
burial customs at the time; later Otto Jahn (1856) wrote that Salieri, Süssmayr,
van Swieten and two other musicians were present. The tale of a storm and
snow is false; the day was calm and mild.[89]

The expression "common grave" refers to neither a communal grave nor a pauper's
grave, but an individual grave for a member of the common people (i.e., not the
aristocracy). Common graves were subject to excavation after ten years; the graves of
aristocrats were not.[90]

The cause of Mozart's death is not known with certainty. The official record of
hitziges Frieselfieber ("severe miliary fever", referring to a rash that looks like millet
seeds) is more a symptomatic description than a diagnosis. Researchers have
suggested more than a hundred causes of death, including acute rheumatic fever,[91][92]
streptococcal infection,[93][94] trichinosis,[95][96] influenza, mercury poisoning, and a
rare kidney ailment.[91]

Mozart's modest funeral did not reflect his standing with the public as a composer;
memorial services and concerts in Vienna and Prague were well attended. Indeed, in
the period immediately after his death, his reputation rose substantially. Solomon
describes an "unprecedented wave of enthusiasm"[97] for his work; biographies were
written first by Schlichtegroll, Niemetschek, and Nissen, and publishers vied to
produce complete editions of his works.[97]

Appearance and character

 Detail of portrait of Mozart by his brother-in-law
Joseph Lange

Mozart's physical appearance was described by tenor Michael Kelly in his

Reminiscences: "a remarkably small man, very thin and pale, with a profusion of fine,
fair hair of which he was rather vain". His early biographer Niemetschek wrote, "there
was nothing special about [his] physique. ... He was small and his countenance,
except for his large intense eyes, gave no signs of his genius." His facial complexion
was pitted, a reminder of his childhood case of smallpox.[98] Of his voice, his wife
later wrote that it "was a tenor, rather soft in speaking and delicate in singing, but
when anything excited him, or it became necessary to exert it, it was both powerful
and energetic."[99]

He loved elegant clothing. Kelly remembered him at a rehearsal: "[He] was on the
stage with his crimson pelisse and gold-laced cocked hat, giving the time of the music
to the orchestra." Based on pictures that researchers were able to find of Mozart, he
seemed to wear a white wig for most of his formal occasions—researchers of the
Salzburg Mozarteum declared that only one of his fourteen portraits they had found
showed him without his wig.[98]

Mozart usually worked long and hard, finishing compositions at a tremendous pace as
deadlines approached. He often made sketches and drafts; unlike Beethoven's, these
are mostly not preserved, as his wife sought to destroy them after his death.[100]

Mozart lived at the center of the Viennese musical world, and knew a significant
number and variety of people: fellow musicians, theatrical performers, fellow
Salzburgers, and aristocrats, including some acquaintance with Emperor Joseph II.
Solomon considers his three closest friends to have been Gottfried von Jacquin, Count
August Hatzfeld, and Sigmund Barisani; others included his elder colleague Joseph
Haydn, singers Franz Xaver Gerl and Benedikt Schack, and the horn player Joseph
Leutgeb. Leutgeb and Mozart carried on a kind of friendly mockery, often with
Leutgeb as the butt of Mozart's practical jokes.[101]

He enjoyed billiards, dancing, and kept pets, including a canary, a starling, a dog, and
a horse for recreational riding.[102] He had a startling fondness for scatological
humour, which is preserved in his surviving letters, notably those written to his cousin
Maria Anna Thekla Mozart around 1777–1778, and in his correspondence with his
sister and parents.[103] Mozart also wrote scatological music, a series of canons that he
sang with his friends.[104] He had an ear for languages, and having traveled all over
Europe as a boy, was fluent in Latin, Italian, and French in addition to his native
Salzburg dialect of German; he possibly understood and spoke some English, having
jokingly written "You are an ass" after his 19-year-old student Thomas Attwood made
a thoughtless mistake on his exercise papers.[105][106]

Mozart was raised a Catholic and remained a devout member of the Church
throughout his life.[107][108] He embraced the teachings of Freemasonry in 1784.[109]

Works, musical style, and innovations

See also: List of compositions by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, List of operas by
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, and Mozart's compositional method

Style

Symphonie Nr. 40 G minor, K. 550. Movement: 1. Molto allegro

Duration: 8 minutes and 14 seconds.8:14

Overture to Don Giovanni

Duration: 6 minutes and 49 seconds.6:49
Both performed by the Fulda Symphonic Orchestra, conductor: Simon Schindler

Mozart's music, like Haydn's, stands as an archetype of the Classical style. At the time
he began composing, European music was dominated by the style galant, a reaction
against the highly evolved intricacy of the Baroque. Progressively, and in large part at
the hands of Mozart himself, the contrapuntal complexities of the late Baroque
emerged once more, moderated and disciplined by new forms, and adapted to a new
aesthetic and social milieu. Mozart was a versatile composer, and wrote in every
major genre, including symphony, opera, the solo concerto, chamber music including
string quartet and string quintet, and the piano sonata. These forms were not new, but
Mozart advanced their technical sophistication and emotional reach. He almost single-
handedly developed and popularized the Classical piano concerto. He wrote a great
deal of religious music, including large-scale masses, as well as dances, divertimenti,
serenades, and other forms of light entertainment.[110]

The central traits of the Classical style are all present in Mozart's music. Clarity,
balance, and transparency are the hallmarks of his work, but simplistic notions of its
delicacy mask the exceptional power of his finest masterpieces, such as the Piano
Concerto No. 24 in C minor, K. 491; the Symphony No. 40 in G minor, K. 550; and
the opera Don Giovanni. Charles Rosen makes the point forcefully:

It is only through recognizing the violence and sensuality at the center of

Mozart's work that we can make a start towards a comprehension of his
structures and an insight into his magnificence. In a paradoxical way,
Schumann's superficial characterization of the G minor Symphony can help us
 to see Mozart's daemon more steadily. In all of Mozart's supreme expressions
of suffering and terror, there is something shockingly voluptuous.[111]

During his last decade, Mozart frequently exploited chromatic harmony. A notable
instance is his String Quartet in C major, K. 465 (1785), whose introduction abounds
in chromatic suspensions, giving rise to the work's nickname, the "Dissonance"
quartet.

Mozart had a gift for absorbing and adapting the valuable features of others' music.
His travels helped in the forging of a unique compositional language.[112] In London
as a child, he met J. C. Bach and heard his music. In Paris, Mannheim, and Vienna he
met with other compositional influences, as well as the avant-garde capabilities of the
Mannheim orchestra. In Italy, he encountered the Italian overture and opera buffa,
both of which deeply affected the evolution of his practice. In London and Italy, the
galant style was in the ascendent: simple, light music with a mania for cadencing; an
emphasis on tonic, dominant, and subdominant to the exclusion of other harmonies;
symmetrical phrases; and clearly articulated partitions in the overall form of
movements.[113] Some of Mozart's early symphonies are Italian overtures, with three
movements running into each other; many are homotonal (all three movements having
the same key signature, with the slow middle movement being in the relative minor).
Others mimic the works of J. C. Bach, and others show the simple rounded binary
forms turned out by Viennese composers.

Facsimile sheet of music from the Dies Irae

movement of the Requiem Mass in D minor (K. 626) in Mozart's handwriting
(Mozarthaus, Vienna)

As Mozart matured, he progressively incorporated more features adapted from the

Baroque. For example, the Symphony No. 29 in A major K. 201 has a contrapuntal
main theme in its first movement, and experimentation with irregular phrase lengths.
Some of his quartets from 1773 have fugal finales, probably influenced by Haydn,
who had included three such finales in his recently published Opus 20 set. The
influence of the Sturm und Drang ("Storm and Stress") period in music, with its brief
foreshadowing of the Romantic era, is evident in the music of both composers at that
time. Mozart's Symphony No. 25 in G minor K. 183 is another excellent example.

Mozart would sometimes switch his focus between operas and instrumental music. He
produced operas in each of the prevailing styles: opera buffa, such as The Marriage of
Figaro, Don Giovanni, and Così fan tutte; opera seria, such as Idomeneo; and
Singspiel, of which Die Zauberflöte is the most famous example by any composer. In
his later operas, he employed subtle changes in instrumentation, orchestral texture,
and tone colour, for emotional depth and to mark dramatic shifts. Here his advances in
opera and instrumental composing interacted: his increasingly sophisticated use of the
orchestra in the symphonies and concertos influenced his operatic orchestration, and
his developing subtlety in using the orchestra to psychological effect in his operas was
in turn reflected in his later non-operatic compositions.[114]

Köchel catalogue

Main article: Köchel catalogue

For unambiguous identification of works by Mozart, a Köchel catalogue number is

used. This is a unique number assigned, in regular chronological order, to every one
of his known works. A work is referenced by the abbreviation "K." or "KV" followed
by this number. The first edition of the catalogue was completed in 1862 by Ludwig
von Köchel. It has since been repeatedly updated, as scholarly research improves
knowledge of the dates and authenticity of individual works.[115]

Instruments

Although some of Mozart's early pieces were written for harpsichord, he also became
acquainted in his early years with fortepianos made by Regensburg builder Franz
Jakob Späth. Later when Mozart was visiting Augsburg, he was impressed by Stein
fortepianos and shared this in a letter to his father.[116] On 22 October 1777, Mozart
had premiered his triple-piano concerto, K. 242, on instruments provided by Stein.
The Augsburg Cathedral organist Demmler was playing the first, Mozart the second
and Stein the third part.[117] In 1783 when living in Vienna he purchased an instrument
by Walter.[118] Leopold Mozart confirmed the attachment which Mozart had with his
Walter fortepiano: "It is impossible to describe the hustle and bustle. Your brother's
pianoforte has been moved at least twelve times from his house to the theatre or to
someone else's house."[119]

Influence
See also: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart in popular culture

Mozart Monument [de], Mozartplatz, Frankfurt

His most famous pupil was Johann Nepomuk Hummel,[120] a transitional figure
between the Classical and Romantic eras whom the Mozarts took into their Vienna
home for two years as a child.[121] More important is the influence Mozart had on
composers of later generations. Ever since the surge in his reputation after his death,
studying his scores has been a standard part of classical musicians' training.[122]

Ludwig van Beethoven, Mozart's junior by fifteen years, was deeply influenced by his
work, with which he was acquainted as a teenager.[123] He is thought to have
performed Mozart's operas while playing in the court orchestra at Bonn[124] and
travelled to Vienna in 1787 hoping to study with the older composer. Some of
Beethoven's works have direct models in comparable works by Mozart, and he wrote
cadenzas (WoO 58) to Mozart's D minor piano concerto K. 466.[125][i]

Composers have paid homage to Mozart by writing sets of variations on his themes.
Beethoven wrote four such sets (Op. 66, WoO 28, WoO 40, WoO 46).[126] Others
include Fernando Sor's Introduction and Variations on a Theme by Mozart (1821),
Mikhail Glinka's Variations on a Theme from Mozart's Opera The Magic Flute
(1822), Frédéric Chopin's Variations on "Là ci darem la mano" from Don Giovanni
(1827), and Max Reger's Variations and Fugue on a Theme by Mozart (1914), based
on the variation theme in the piano sonata K. 331.[127] Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, who
revered Mozart, wrote his Orchestral Suite No. 4 in G, Mozartiana (1887), as a tribute
to him.[128]

References
Notes

1.

 Sources vary in how Mozart's name should be pronounced in English. Fradkin

1996, a guide for radio announcers, strongly recommends [ts] for letter z (thus
/ˈwʊlfɡæŋ ˌæməˈdeɪəs ˈmoʊtsɑːrt/ WUULF-gang AM-ə-DAY-əs MOHT-sart), but
otherwise considers English-like pronunciation fully acceptable. The German one is
[ˈvɔlfɡaŋ ʔamaˈdeːʊs ˈmoːtsaʁt] ⓘ.
  Baptised as Joannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart. Mozart's
exact name involved many complications; for details, see Mozart's name.
  Source: Wilson 1999, p. 2. The many changes of European political borders since
Mozart's time make it difficult to assign him an unambiguous nationality; for
discussion, see Mozart's nationality.
  For further details of the story, see Miserere (Allegri) § History.
  Eisen & Keefe 2006, p. 268: "You ask me to take the young Salzburger into your
service. I do not know why not believing that you have need for a composer or of
useless people. ... What I say is intended only to prevent you from burdening yourself
with useless people and giving titles to people of that sort. In addition, if they are at
your service, it degrades that service when these people go about the world like
beggars."
  Archbishop Colloredo responded to the request by dismissing both Mozart and
his father, though the dismissal of the latter was not actually carried out.
  Mozart complains of this in a letter to his father, dated 24 March 1781.[46]
  More recently, Wolff 2012 has forcefully advocated a view of Mozart's career at
the end of his life as being on the rise, interrupted by his sudden death.

9.  For further details, see Beethoven and Mozart.

Citations

1.

 Buch 2017, "Introduction".

  Eisen & Sadie 2001.
  Arnold, Rosemarie; Taylor, Robert; Eisenschmid, Rainer (2009). Austria.
Baedeker. ISBN 978-3-8297-6613-5. OCLC 416424772.
  Deutsch 1965, p. 9.
  Solomon 1995, p. 21.
  Solomon 1995, p. 32.
  Deutsch 1965, p. 455.
  Solomon 1995, p. 44.
  Andante in C major, K. 1a, Allegro in C major, K. 1b, Allegro in F major, K.1c:
Scores at the International Music Score Library Project
  Solomon 1995, pp. 39–40
  Deutsch 1965, p. 453.
  Solomon 1995, p. 33.
  "Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart | Composer | Blue Plaques". English Heritage.
Archived from the original on 12 April 2021. Retrieved 25 September 2020.
  Grove 1954, p. 926.
  Meerdter, Joe (2009). "Mozart Biography". midiworld.com. Archived from the
original on 1 July 2017. Retrieved 20 December 2014.
  Halliwell 1998, pp. 51, 53.
  Halliwell 1998, pp. 82–83.
  Halliwell 1998, pp. 99–102.
  "Allegri's Miserere: Conclusions". www.ancientgroove.co.uk. Archived from the
original on 9 November 2022. Retrieved 11 November 2022.
  Gutman 2000, p. 271.
  Chrissochoidis, Ilias (Summer 2010). "London Mozartiana: Wolfgang's disputed
age & early performances of Allegri's Miserere". The Musical Times. Vol. 151,
no. 1911. pp. 83–89. Provides new information on this episode.
  Halliwell 1998, pp. 172, 183–185.
  Solomon 1995, p. 106.
  Solomon 1995, p. 103.
  Solomon 1995, p. 98.
  Solomon 1995, p. 107.
  Solomon 1995, p. 109.
  Vatican 1770.
  Halliwell 1998, p. 225.
  Sadie 1998.
  Drebes, Gerald (1992). "Die 'Mannheimer Schule'—ein Zentrum der
vorklassischen Musik und Mozart". gerald-drebes.ch (in German). Archived from the
original on 7 February 2015.
  Deutsch 1965, p. 174.
  Solomon 1995, p. 149.
  Halliwell 1998, pp. 304–305.
  Abert 2007, p. 509.
  Halliwell 1998, p. 305.
  "Letter by W. A. Mozart to his father" Archived 22 January 2023 at the Wayback
Machine, Paris, 9 July 1778 (in German); in English Archived 22 January 2023 at the
Wayback Machine; Mozarteum
  Halliwell 1998, chs. 18–19.
  Solomon 1995, p. 157.
  Halliwell 1998, p. 322.
  Sadie 1998, §3.
  Jean Massin; Brigitte Massin, eds. (1983). Histoire de la musique occidentale.
Paris: Fayard. p. 613. He wrote during that period that, whenever he or someone else
played one of his compositions, it was as if the table and chairs were the only
listeners.
  Deutsch 1965, p. 176.
  Einstein 1965, pp. 276–277.
  Sadie 1980, vol. 12, p. 700.
  Spaethling 2000, p. 235.
  Spaethling 2000, p. 238.
  Spaethling 2000, p. 237; the letter dates from 24 March 1781.
  Spaethling 2000, pp. 238–239.
  Sadie 1998, §4
  Solomon 1995, p. 247.
  Solomon 1995, p. 253.
  Solomon 1995, p. 259.
  Solomon 1995, p. 258.
  Heartz 2009, p. 47.
  Deutsch 1965, p. 204.
  Solomon 1995, pp. 265–266.
  Solomon 1995, p. 270.
  See Barry 2000 for detailed discussion of the influence of Opus 33 on the
"Haydn" quartets.
  Landon 1990, p. 171.
  Mozart & Mozart 1966, p. 1331. Leopold's letter to his daughter Nannerl, 14–16
May 1785.
  Solomon 1995, p. 293
  Solomon 1995, p. 298
  Solomon 1995, p. 430.
  Solomon 1995, p. 578.
  Solomon 1995, §27.
  Solomon 1995, p. 431.
  Solomon 1995, p. 321.
  Rushton, Julian (2005). Mozart: An Extraordinary Life. Associated Board of the
Royal School of Music. p. 67.
  "Czech Museum of Music to display "Mozart" piano". Radio Praha. 31 January
2007. Archived from the original on 2 December 2019. Retrieved 14 December 2018.
  Solomon 1995
  Freeman 2021, pp. 131–168.
  Palmer, Willard (2006). W. A. Mozart: An Introduction to His Keyboard Works.
Alfred Music Publishing. p. 4. ISBN 978-0-7390-3875-8.
  Solomon 1995, pp. 423–424
  Haberl 2006, pp. 215–255.
  Sadie 1998, §6
  Solomon 1995, pp. 427, 432.
  Lorenz 2010.
  Sadie 1980, vol. 12, p. 710.
  Steptoe 1990, p. 208.
  Solomon 1995, §30.
  Solomon 1995, p. 477
  Solomon 1995, p. 487.
  And not as previously stated on 15 November; see Abert 2007, p. 1307, fn 9
  Freeman 2021, pp. 193–230.
  Solomon 1995, p. 491.
  Solomon 1995, pp. 493, 588.
  "Mozart's final year and death—1791". Classic FM (UK). Archived from the
original on 19 December 2017. Retrieved 17 December 2017.
  Sadie 1980, vol. 12, p. 716.
  Walther Brauneis [in German]. Dies irae, dies illa—Day of wrath, day of
wailing: Notes on the commissioning, origin and completion of Mozart's Requiem (KV
626) (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 7 April 2014.
  Wakin 2010
  Crawford, Franklin (14 February 2000). "Foul play ruled out in death of
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart". EurekAlert!. American Association for the Advancement
of Science. Archived from the original on 26 April 2014. Retrieved 26 April 2014.
  Becker, Sander (20 August 2009). "Voorlopig is Mozart bezweken aan
streptokok" [For the time being Mozart succumbed to streptococcus]. Trouw.
Archived from the original on 24 April 2014. Retrieved 25 April 2014..
  Bakalar, Nicholas (17 August 2009). "What Really Killed Mozart? Maybe Strep".
The New York Times. Archived from the original on 30 June 2014. Retrieved 24 April
2014.
  Hirschmann, Jan V. (11 June 2001). "Special Article: What Really Killed
Mozart?". JAMA Internal Medicine. 161 (11): 1381–1389.
doi:10.1001/archinte.161.11.1381. PMID 11386887. Archived from the original on 2
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  Dupouy-Camet, Jean (22 April 2002). "Editor's Correspondence: Trichinellosis
Is Unlikely to Be Responsible for Mozart's Death". JAMA Internal Medicine (Critical
comment and reply). 162 (8): 946, author reply 946–947.
doi:10.1001/archinte.162.8.946. PMID 11966352. Archived from the original on 2
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  Solomon 1995, p. 499
  "Discovered, new Mozart portrait that shows musician without his wig". The
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  Solomon 1995, p. 308.
  Solomon 1995, p. 310.
  Solomon 1995, §20.
  Solomon 1995, p. 319.
  Solomon 1995, p. 169.
  A list of the canons may be found at Mozart and scatology#In music.
  "The hidden talents of Wolfgang Mozart" by Peter Trudgill, 10 February 2020,
The New European
 
https://bll01.primo.exlibrisgroup.com/discovery/fulldisplay?docid=alma99002702766
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  Abert 2007, p. 743.
  https://www.britannica.com/biography/Wolfgang-Amadeus-Mozart/The-central-
Viennese-period
  Grove 1954, pp. 958–982.
  Rosen 1998, p. 324.
  Solomon 1995, ch. 8. Discussion of the sources of style as well as his early
imitative ability.
  Heartz 2003.
  Einstein 1965, p. [page needed].
  Zaslaw & Cowdery 1990, pp. 331–332.
  "The Letters of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. (1769–1791), by Wolfgang Amadeus
Mozart". www.gutenberg.org. Archived from the original on 26 December 2021.
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  Layer, Adolf; Ullrich, Hermann (2001). Demmler [Demler, Dümmler], Johann
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  Latcham, Michael (1997). "Mozart and the pianos of Gabriel Anton Walter".
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  Churgin 1987, pp. 457–458.
  Churgin 1987, p. 458.
  March, Greenfield & Layton 2005.

128.  Wiley, Roland John (2001). "Tchaikovsky, Pyotr Il′yich". Grove

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Musical Background to Le nozze di Figaro, Don Giovanni, and Così fan tutte.
Oxford: Clarendon Press. ISBN 978-0-19-816221-6. OCLC 22895166.
 "Award of the Papal Equestrian Order of the "Golden Spur" to Wolfgang
Amadeus Mozart". Vatican Secret Archives. 4 July 1770. Archived from the
original on 18 September 2010. Retrieved 27 September 2010.
 Wakin, Daniel J. (24 August 2010). "After Mozart's Death, an Endless Coda".
The New York Times.
 Wilson, Peter Hamish (1999). The Holy Roman Empire, 1495–1806. London:
MacMillan.
 Wolff, Christoph (2012). Mozart at the Gateway to His Fortune: Serving the
Emperor, 1788–1791. New York: Norton. ISBN 978-0-393-05070-7.
 Zaslaw, Neal; Cowdery, William, eds. (1990). The Compleat Mozart: A Guide
to the Musical Works of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. New York and London:
W. W. Norton & Company. ISBN 978-0-393-02886-7.

Further reading
See Buch 2017 for an extensive bibliography
  Badura-Skoda, Eva; Badura-Skoda, Paul (2018). Interpreting Mozart: The
Performance of His Piano Pieces and Other Compositions (2nd ed.).
Routledge. ISBN 9781135868505.
 Baumol, William J., and Hilda Baumol. "On the economics of musical
composition in Mozart's Vienna." Journal of Cultural Economics 18.3 (1994):
171–198. online
 Braunbehrens, Volkmar (1990). Mozart: Lebensbilder. G. Lubbe. ISBN 978-3-
7857-0580-3.
 Cairns, David (2006). Mozart and His Operas. Berkeley, California:
University of California Press. ISBN 978-0-520-22898-6. OCLC 62290645.
 Holmes, Edward (2005). The Life of Mozart. New York: Cosimo Classics.
ISBN 978-1-59605-147-8. OCLC 62790104. (first published by Chapman and
Hall in 1845).
 Kallen, Stuart A. (2000). Great Composers. San Diego: Lucent. ISBN 978-1-
56006-669-9.
 Keefe, Simon P. Mozart (Routledge, 2018).
 Keefe, Simon P., ed. Mozart in Context (Cambridge University Press, 2018).
 Marshall, Robert Lewis. Bach and Mozart: Essays on the Enigma of Genius
(University of Rochester Press, 2019).
 Mozart, Wolfgang (1972). Mersmann, Hans (ed.). Letters of Wolfgang
Amadeus Mozart. New York: Dover Publications. ISBN 978-0-486-22859-4.
OCLC 753483.
 Reisinger, Elisabeth. "The Prince and the Prodigies: On the Relations of
Archduke and Elector Maximilian Franz with Mozart, Beethoven, and
Haydn." Acta Musicologica 91.1 (2019): 48–70 excerpt.
 Schroeder, David. Experiencing Mozart: A Listener's Companion (Scarecrow,
2013). excerpt
 Swafford, Jan (2020). Mozart – The Reign of Love. New York: Harper.
ISBN 978-0-06-243357-2. OCLC 1242102319.
 Till, Nicholas (1995). Mozart and the Enlightenment: Truth, Virtue and
Beauty in Mozart's Operas. New York City: W. W. Norton & Company.
ISBN 978-0-393-31395-6. OCLC 469628809.
 Woodfield, Ian. "The Early Reception of Mozart's Operas in London: Burney's
Missed Opportunity." Eighteenth-Century Music 17.2 (2020): 201–214.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.

Wikiquote has quotations related to Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.

Wikisource has original works by or about:

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

 Homepage for the Salzburg Mozarteum Foundation

  "Discovering Mozart". BBC Radio 3.
 Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart at IMDb

Digitized documents

 Works by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart at Project Gutenberg

 Works by or about Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart at Internet Archive
 Works by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart at LibriVox (public domain
audiobooks)
 "Mozart" Titles; Mozart as author at Google Books
 Digital Mozart Edition Archived 18 February 2017 at the Wayback Machine
(Internationale Stiftung Mozarteum)
 "Mozart" titles from Gallica (in French)
 From the British Library
o Mozart's Thematic Catalogue
o Mozart's Musical Diary
o Background information on Mozart and the Thematic Catalogue
 Letters of Leopold Mozart und Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (in German)
(Baden State Library)

Sheet music

 Complete sheet music (scores) from the Neue Mozart-Ausgabe (Internationale

Stiftung Mozarteum)
 Mozart scores from the Munich Digitization Center (MDZ)
 Mozart titles from the University of Rochester
 Free scores by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart at the International Music Score
Library Project (IMSLP)
 Free scores by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart in the Choral Public Domain
Library (ChoralWiki)
 Free typeset sheet music of Mozart's works from Cantorion.org
 The Mutopia Project has compositions by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
 Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart at the Musopen project

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Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

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  Prague
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 Leopold Mozart (father)

 Anna Maria Mozart (mother)
 Maria Anna Mozart (Nannerl) (sister)
 Constanze Mozart (wife)
 Maria Anna Thekla Mozart (Bäsle) (first cousin)
 Franz Xaver Wolfgang Mozart (son)
 Karl Thomas Mozart (son)
Family  Johann Georg Mozart (paternal grandfather)
 Franz Mozart (paternal great-grandfather)
 Joseph Lange (brother-in-law)
 Cäcilia Weber (mother-in-law)
 Josepha Weber (sister-in-law)
 Aloysia Weber (sister-in-law)
 Sophie Weber (sister-in-law)

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Influences
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Related
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