Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Born in Salzburg, 27 January 1756
Died in Vienna, 5 December 1791

Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart was bornon January 27,1756 in Salzburg, at that time an autonomous city-state with a Prince-Archbishop who provided both temporal and spiritual leadership. Mozart’s father, Leopold, was a musician and composer in the Prin ceArchbi-shop’s court. Leopold provide Mozart’s only formal teaching in music, and quickly recognized his son’s prodigious gifts for learning and for music when the boy taught himself how to play the violin before turning seven years old.

Leopold seized upon the remarkable musical abilities of the boy and his elder sister, Maria Anna, and supplemented his meager courtly income by touring with his children and displaying their talents before the nobility of Europe, In all, Mozart, spent about a quarter of all his days on the road, traveling throughout Europe, from London to Paris to Germany, Austria, and Italy.
His ability to play complex compositions from memory, to play blindfolded, and ultimately to compose made him the stuff of legend, the archetypal child prodigy. In his travels, Mozart also encountered a wide variety of composers and compositional styles. The compositional output of his youth and adolescence reflects this dizzying array of influences, with locally popularly compositional styles mimicked, then incorporated into his own evolving style.

Leopold insisted that his son make a living in a cable, corporate-like position in a nobleman’s court; the unstable life of the freelance musician was much less solidly established at this time. However, no noblemen were willing to engage a teenage boy as a court musician, prodigy or no prodigy. As a result, Mozart spent his late adolescence and early twenties in the employ of the Prince-Archbishop of Salzburg. Throughout this period he sought posts elsewhere, and the world traveler chafed the musical limitations of provincial Salzburg. He also resented his father’s attempts to thwart any romantic relationships and keep him earning money to support the entire family.