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!!Biography of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart\\ \\

__1718__ Grandfather Johann Georg Mozart, bookbinder in Augsburg, marries Anna Maria Sulzer.

__1719__ Mozart’s father Leopold is born as the son of this couple in Augsburg.

__1720__ Mozart’s mother Anna Maria Pertl is born at St.Gilgen, a village near Lake Wolfgang , not far from Salzburg.

__1737__ Leopold Mozart settles in Salzburg.

__1747__ Leopold Mozart marries Anna Maria Pertl in the Cathedral of Salzburg.

__1751__ On July 30th Maria Anna Walpurga Ignatia is born as the fourth child of the couple. She is nicknamed "Nannerl".

__1756__ On January 27th, the seventh child of the couple is born in Getreidegasse. His complete name is: Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgang Gottlieb Mozart. Gottlieb was later changed - according to ist meaning - into Amadeus.

__1760__ Mozart’s father mentions Wolfgang’s earliest compositions. Wolfgang grows up in a harmonious family atmosphere.

__1762__ Konstanze Weber born, Mozart’s wife of 20 years later. First artistic tour with father and sister to Munich (January). Second tour (September), this time to Vienna.

__1763__ June 9th :journey of the whole family (father, mother, Nannerl, Wolfgang) to Germany and France.

__1764__ From France the journey is continued to England, with numerous concerts. Compositions (started in 1762) are carried on. Mozart writes his earliest symphony. First meeting with Johann Christian Bach, the youngest son of Thomas-Kantor J.S.Bach (died 14 years before), who reaches the climax of his career in London and deeply impresses and influences young Mozart. Mozart gets acquainted with the Italian symphony and opera.

__1765__ From England to France and the Netherlands.

__1766__ From the Netherlands via France to Switzerland, to Germany and back to Salzburg (November 30th), three and a half years after their departure.

__1767__ The family travels to Vienna (September) where the boy is infected by smallpox. In Vienna Mozart composes the music for the musical comedy "Bastien and Bastienne".\\
First performance: Vienna, 1767.

__1769__ Return to Salzburg. Appointment as unpaid concert master of the Archiepiscopal Court Music. Departure for Italy (with his father) on the first of three extensive Italian journeys that took them as far as Naples. On their journey the boy could increase his knowledge of Italian music. His first public appearance in Innsbruck, Verona, Mantua, Milano, Bologna, Florence and Rome was a triumphal success.

__1770__ In Bologna Mozart got instruction from the famous music theoretician Padre Martini. On the return journey he was received into the "Philharmonic Academy". In Rome the Pope awarded him the "Order of the Golden Spur" which was linked with the title of Cavaliere.

__1771__ Second journey to Italy.

__1772__ For the inauguration of the new Archbishop Hieronymus Count Colloredo Mozart composes the cantata "Il sogno di Scipione". He becomes concert master of the Court Chapel and starts his last Italian journey.

__1773__ Negotiations about an employment in Florence and Vienna break down.

__1776__ Increasing tensions in the Archbishop’s service.

__1777__ Departure with his mother to Mozart’s cousin Maria Anna („Bäsle“), then to Mannheim where Mozart has a first serious love entanglement. It is Aloysia Weber, the sister of his later wife. His father protests vehemently against any eventual plans of marriage. In Mannheim Mozart is received kindly by Johann Christian Cannabich, the director of the famous Mannheim Orchestra and the Mannheim attempts at creating a German opera were very influential for Mozart.

__1778__ The Mozarts leave Mannheim and travel to Paris. Mozart’s mother dies there on July 3rd.

__1779__ Return to Salzburg where Mozart is appointed Court and Cathedral organist.

__1781__ Mozart is ordered to go to Vienna where the Grandes of the Habsburg Empire have assembled on the occasion of Joseph II’s enthronement and Salzburg’s Archbishop wants to present his orchestra. But as Mozart wants to play a concert on his own, this leads to a clash and Mozart is dismissed from the Archiepiscopal service. A final meeting with Count Arco, Lord Chamberlain, ends with a kick-out for the unruly musician. In this way Mozart ended his position of being "in service" - which was the usual one for most contemporary musicians - and had to depend on earning his living as a free-lance artist. He settles in Vienna and is given a royal commission for an opera. He gets into closer contact with Konstanze Weber, Aloysia’s sister.

__1782__ First performance of Mozart’s Singspiel "Die Entführung aus dem Serail" ( = The Seraglio) on July 16th. On August 4th he marries Konstanze. His wife was somewhat superficial and pleasure-loving. Although she was not without interest in music, she was not aware of Mozart’s genius, right until his death.

__1783__ Mozart’s activities as a free-lance artist seem to be promising. The first Vienna years were very fertile. He gave piano lessons, played in concerts and organised his own "academies".

__1784__ Mozart becomes a member of the Freemasons’ Lodge "Zur Wohlfahrt" ("Welfare") for which he wrote several compositions. He frequently gives concerts in public halls and in palaces of the nobility.

__1785__ Father Leopold visits his son in Vienna. Mozart makes friends with Haydn to whom he dedicates six string quartets.

__1786__ First performance of the opera "Le nozze di Figaro" ("The marriage of Figaro") on May 1st in Vienna.

__1787__ Mozart travels to Prague where his "Figaro" finds great recognition. He conducts it there himself for once, gets a commission for an opera and returns to Vienna. His father dies in Salzburg. He is appointed "Imperial Chamber Musician" in the place of the late Christoph Willibald Gluck. On August 29th "Kleine Nachtmusik" is finished. On October 29th Don Giovanni is first produced in Prague.


__1788__ The Viennese first performance of Don Giovanni does not get the same triumphal reception as at Prague. In summer Mozart composes his last three symphonies in just 3 weeks, i.e.: E-flat major, K 543, G minor, K 550 and C major, K 551 (Jupiter Symphony). Mozart’s financial situation deteriorates constantly although his income would be sufficient.

__1789__ The financial problems of Mozart increase, he writes begging letters to a Lodge brother.

__1790__ He composes Cosi fan tutte, an opera commissioned by the Emperor. The performances are not very successful and soon disappear from the repertory; this may be partly due to the Emperor’s death. Mozart journeys to the new Emperor’s Coronation at Frankfurt, at his own expense. He gets into closer contact with Emanuel Schikaneder, an actor, singer and theatre manager whom he had known for years.

__1791__ Schikaneder gives Mozart a commission for a "magic opera" (i.e. "The Magic Flute"). In July he is commissioned to write a Requiem Mass. The patron is Count Franz Walsegg of Stuppach. This is Mozart’s last (unfinished) composition. On September 30th the Magic Flute is produced with great success at Schikaneder’s Theater an der Wien (or Freihaustheater). The success increases from from performance to performance. In the end it is this opera which contributed most of all to Mozart’s world-wide fame. After a few days of severe illness Mozart dies on December 5th. Konstanze was at Baden, taking a cure at the spa. The funeral service at St.Stephen’s on the following day was attended by a few friends only, but nobody accompanied the hearse taking the body to the cemetery of St.Marx. He was interred in a pauper’s grave with a few others and without a tombstone, according to the customs of the time, so that his final resting place can only be guessed. In memory of Mozart’s tomb a statue has been placed at St.Marx cemetery.

__1842__ Setting up of a Mozart memorial in Salzburg. 



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