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Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

2007 Schools Wikipedia Selection. Related subjects: Performers and composers;
Poetry & Opera

       Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
   Painting by Barbara Krafft 1819
   Born January 27, 1756
        Salzburg, Austria
   Died December 5, 1791
        Vienna, Austria (aged 35)

   Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart ( baptized as Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus
   Theophilus Mozart; January 27, 1756 – December 5, 1791) was a prolific
   and highly influential composer of Classical music. His enormous output
   of more than six hundred compositions includes works that are widely
   acknowledged as pinnacles of symphonic, concertante, chamber, piano,
   operatic, and choral music. Mozart is among the most enduringly popular
   of European composers, and many of his works are part of the standard
   concert repertoire.

Life

Family and early years

   Mozart's birthplace at Getreidegasse 9, Salzburg, Austria
   Enlarge
   Mozart's birthplace at Getreidegasse 9, Salzburg, Austria
   Plaque on wall outside Mozart's birthplace at Getreidegasse 9,
   Salzburg, Austria
   Enlarge
   Plaque on wall outside Mozart's birthplace at Getreidegasse 9,
   Salzburg, Austria

   Mozart was born to Leopold and Anna Maria Pertl Mozart, in the front
   room of nine Getreidegasse in Salzburg, the capital of the sovereign
   Archbishopric of Salzburg, in what is now Austria, then part of the
   Holy Roman Empire. His only sibling who survived beyond infancy was an
   older sister: Maria Anna, nicknamed Nannerl. Mozart was baptized the
   day after his birth at St. Rupert's Cathedral. The baptismal record
   gives his name in Latinized form as Joannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus
   Theophilus Mozart. Of these names, the first two refer to John
   Chrysostom, one of the Church Fathers, and they were names not employed
   in everyday life, while the fourth, meaning "beloved of God", was
   variously translated in Mozart's lifetime as Amadeus (Latin), Gottlieb
   (German), and Amadé (French). Mozart's father Leopold announced the
   birth of his son in a letter to the publisher Johann Jakob Lotter with
   the words "...the boy is called Joannes Chrysostomus, Wolfgang,
   Gottlieb". Mozart himself preferred the third name, and he also took a
   fancy to "Amadeus" over the years. (see Mozart's name).

   Mozart's father Leopold Mozart (1719–1787) was one of Europe's leading
   musical teachers. His influential textbook Versuch einer gründlichen
   Violinschule, was published in 1756, the year of Mozart's birth
   (English, as "A Treatise on the Fundamental Principles of Violin
   Playing", transl. E.Knocker; Oxford-New York, 1948). He was deputy
   Kapellmeister to the court orchestra of the Archbishop of Salzburg, and
   a prolific and successful composer of instrumental music. Leopold gave
   up composing when his son's outstanding musical talents became evident.
   They first came to light when Wolfgang was about three years old, and
   Leopold, proud of Wolfgang's achievements, gave him intensive musical
   training, including instruction in clavier, violin, and organ. Leopold
   was Wolfgang's only teacher in his earliest years. A note by Leopold in
   Nannerl's music book – the Nannerl Notenbuch – records that little
   Wolfgang had learned several of the pieces at the age of four. Mozart's
   first compositions, a small Andante (K. 1a) and Allegro (K. 1b), were
   written in 1761, when he was five years old.

The years of travel

   "Bologna Mozart" - Mozart age 21 in 1777, see also: face only
   Enlarge
   "Bologna Mozart" - Mozart age 21 in 1777, see also: face only

   During his formative years, Mozart made several European journeys,
   beginning with an exhibition in 1762 at the Court of the Elector of
   Bavaria in Munich, then in the same year at the Imperial Court in
   Vienna and Prague. A long concert tour spanning three and a half years
   followed, taking him and his father to the courts of Munich, Mannheim,
   Paris, London (where Wolfgang Amadeus played with the famous Italian
   cellist Giovanni Battista Cirri), The Hague, again to Paris, and back
   home via Zürich, Donaueschingen, and Munich. During this trip Mozart
   met a great number of musicians and acquainted himself with the works
   of other great composers. A particularly important influence was Johann
   Christian Bach, who befriended Mozart in London in 1764–65. Bach's work
   is often taken to be an inspiration for Mozart's music. They again went
   to Vienna in late 1767 and remained there until December 1768. On this
   trip Mozart contracted smallpox, and his healing was considered by
   Leopold as a proof of God's intentions concerning the child.

   After one year in Salzburg, three trips to Italy followed: from
   December 1769 to March 1771, from August to December 1771, and from
   October 1772 to March 1773. Mozart was commissioned to compose three
   operas: " Mitridate Rè di Ponto" (1770), " Ascanio in Alba" (1771), and
   "Lucio Silla" (1772), all three of which were performed in Milan.
   During the first of these trips, Mozart met Andrea Luchesi in Venice
   and G.B. Martini in Bologna, and was accepted as a member of the famous
   Accademia Filarmonica. A highlight of the Italian journey, now an
   almost legendary tale, occurred when he heard Gregorio Allegri's
   Miserere once in performance in the Sistine Chapel then wrote it out in
   its entirety from memory, only returning to correct minor errors; thus
   producing the first illegal copy of this closely-guarded property of
   the Vatican.

   On September 23, 1777, accompanied by his mother, Mozart began a tour
   of Europe that included Munich, Mannheim, and Paris. In Mannheim he
   became acquainted with members of the Mannheim orchestra, the best in
   Europe at the time. He fell in love with Aloysia Weber, who later broke
   up the relationship with him. He was to marry her sister Constanze some
   four years later in Vienna. During his unsuccessful visit to Paris, his
   mother died 1778.
   Memorial plaque dedicated to Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart in Václavské
   náměstí square in Olomouc (Czech Republic). Mozart in 1767 as an
   11-year-old boy was fleeing from Vienna due to a smallpox epidemic and
   wrote his Sixth Symphony in F Major in Olomouc
   Enlarge
   Memorial plaque dedicated to Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart in Václavské
   náměstí square in Olomouc (Czech Republic). Mozart in 1767 as an
   11-year-old boy was fleeing from Vienna due to a smallpox epidemic and
   wrote his Sixth Symphony in F Major in Olomouc

Mozart in Vienna

   In 1780, Idomeneo, regarded as Mozart's first great opera, premiered in
   Munich. The following year, he visited Vienna in the company of his
   employer, the harsh Prince-Archbishop Colloredo. When they returned to
   Salzburg, Mozart, who was then Konzertmeister, became increasingly
   rebellious, not wanting to follow the whims of the archbishop relating
   to musical affairs; and expressing these views, he soon fell out of the
   archbishop's favour. According to Mozart's own testimony, he was
   dismissed – literally – "with a kick in the arse". Mozart chose to
   settle and develop his own freelance career in Vienna after its
   aristocracy began to take an interest in him.

   On August 4, 1782, against his father's wishes, he married Constanze
   Weber (1763–1842; her name is also spelled "Costanze"); her father
   Fridolin was a half-brother of Carl Maria von Weber's father Franz
   Anton Weber. Although they had six children, only two survived infancy:
   Carl Thomas (1784–1858) and Franz Xaver Wolfgang (1791–1844; later a
   minor composer himself). Neither of these sons married or had children
   who reached adulthood. Carl did father a daughter, Constanza, who died
   in 1833.

   The year 1782 was an auspicious one for Mozart's career: his opera Die
   Entführung aus dem Serail ("The Abduction from the Seraglio") was a
   great success, and he began a series of concerts at which he premiered
   his own piano concertos as director of the ensemble and soloist.

   During 1782–83, Mozart became closely acquainted with the work of J.S.
   Bach and G.F. Handel as a result of the influence of Baron Gottfried
   van Swieten, who owned many manuscripts of works by the Baroque
   masters. Mozart's study of these works led first to a number of works
   imitating Baroque style and later had a powerful influence on his own
   personal musical language, for example the fugal passages in Die
   Zauberflöte ("The Magic Flute"), and in the finale of Symphony No. 41.

   In 1783, Wolfgang and Constanze visited Leopold in Salzburg, but the
   visit was not a success, as his father did not open his heart to
   Constanze. However, the visit sparked the composition of one of
   Mozart's great liturgical pieces, the Mass in C Minor, which, though
   not completed, was premiered in Salzburg, and is now one of his
   best-known works. Wolfgang featured Constanze as the lead female solo
   voice at the premiere of the work, hoping to endear her to his father's
   affection.

   In his early Vienna years, Mozart met Joseph Haydn 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 1782–85, and are often judged to be his response to Haydn's
   Opus 33 set from 1781. In a letter to Haydn, Mozart wrote:

     A father who had decided to send his sons out into the great world
     thought it his duty to entrust them to the protection and guidance
     of a man who was very celebrated at the time, and who happened
     moreover to be his best friend. In the same way I send my six sons
     to you... Please then, receive them kindly and be to them a father,
     guide, and friend!... I entreat you, however, to be indulgent to
     those faults which may have escaped a father's partial eye, and in
     spite of them, to continue your generous friendship towards one who
     so highly appreciates it." (Bernard Jacobson (1995) in CD no. 13 of
     the Best of the Complete Mozart Edition [Germany: Philips])

   Haydn was soon in awe of Mozart, and when he first heard the last three
   of Mozart's series he told Leopold, "Before God and as an honest man I
   tell you that your son is the greatest composer known to me either in
   person or by name: He has taste, and, furthermore, the most profound
   knowledge of composition."
   Unfinished portrait of Mozart, 1782
   Enlarge
   Unfinished portrait of Mozart, 1782

   During the years 1782–1785, Mozart put on a series of concerts in which
   he appeared as soloist in his piano concertos, widely considered among
   his greatest works. These concerts were financially successful. After
   1785 Mozart performed far less and wrote only a few concertos. Maynard
   Solomon conjectures that he may have suffered from hand injuries ;
   another possibility is that the fickle public ceased to attend the
   concerts in the same numbers.

   Mozart was influenced by the ideas of the eighteenth-century European
   Enlightenment as an adult, and became a Freemason in 1784. His lodge
   was specifically Catholic, rather than deistic, and he worked fervently
   and successfully to convert his father before the latter's death in
   1787. Die Zauberflöte, his second last opera, includes Masonic themes
   and allegory. He was in the same Masonic Lodge as Haydn.

   Mozart's life was occasionally fraught with financial difficulty.
   Though the extent of this difficulty has often been romanticized and
   exaggerated, he nonetheless did resort to borrowing money from close
   friends, some debts remaining unpaid even to his death. During the
   years 1784-1787 he lived in a lavish, seven-room apartment, which may
   be visited today at Domgasse 5, behind St Stephen's Cathedral in
   Vienna; it was here, in 1786, that Mozart composed the opera Le nozze
   di Figaro.

Mozart and Prague

   Mozart had a special relationship with the city of Prague and its
   people. The audience there celebrated the Figaro with the much-deserved
   reverence he was missing in his hometown Vienna. His quotation "Meine
   Prager verstehen mich" (My Praguers understand me) became very famous
   in the Bohemian lands. Many tourists follow his tracks in Prague and
   visit the Mozart Museum of the Villa Bertramka where they can enjoy a
   chamber concert. In the later years of his life, Prague provided Mozart
   with many financial resources from commissions . In Prague, Don
   Giovanni premiered on October 29, 1787 at the Theatre of the Estates.
   Mozart wrote La clemenza di Tito for the festivities accompanying
   Leopold II's coronation in November 1790; Mozart obtained this
   commission after Antonio Salieri had allegedly rejected it.

Final illness and death

   Mozart's final illness and death are difficult topics for scholars,
   obscured by romantic legends and replete with conflicting theories.
   Scholars disagree about the course of decline in Mozart's health –
   particularly at what point (or if at all) Mozart became aware of his
   impending death and whether this awareness influenced his final works.
   The romantic view holds that Mozart declined gradually and that his
   outlook and compositions paralleled this decline. In opposition to
   this, some present-day scholars point out correspondence from Mozart's
   final year indicating that he was in good cheer, as well as evidence
   that Mozart's death was sudden and a shock to his family and friends.
   Mozart's attributed last words: "The taste of death is upon my lips...I
   feel something, that is not of this earth." The actual cause of
   Mozart's death is also a matter of conjecture. His death record listed
   "hitziges Frieselfieber" ("severe miliary fever," referring to a rash
   that looks like millet-seeds), a description that does not suffice to
   identify the cause as it would be diagnosed in modern medicine. Dozens
   of theories have been proposed, including trichinosis, mercury
   poisoning, and rheumatic fever. The practice of bleeding medical
   patients, common at that time, is also cited as a contributing cause.

   Mozart died at approximately 1 a.m. on December 5, 1791 in Vienna. With
   the onset of his illness, he had largely ceased work on his final
   composition, the Requiem some days earlier. Popular legend has it that
   Mozart was thinking of his own impending death while writing this
   piece, and even that a messenger from the afterworld commissioned it.
   Documentary evidence has established that the anonymous commission came
   from one Count Franz Walsegg of Schloss Stuppach, and that most if not
   all of the music had been written while Mozart was still in good
   health. A younger composer, and Mozart's pupil at the time, Franz Xaver
   Süssmayr, was engaged by Constanze to complete the Requiem. He was not
   the first composer asked to finish the Requiem, as the widow had first
   approached another Mozart student, Joseph Eybler, who began work
   directly on the empty staves of Mozart's manuscript but then abandoned
   it.

   Because he was buried in an unmarked grave, it has been popularly
   assumed that Mozart was penniless and forgotten when he died. In fact,
   though he was no longer as fashionable in Vienna as before, he
   continued to have a well paid job at court and receive substantial
   commissions from more distant parts of Europe, Prague in particular .
   He earned about 10,000 florins per year, equivalent to at least 42,000
   US dollars in 2006, which places him within the top 5% of late 18th
   century wage earners, but he could not manage his wealth. His mother
   wrote, "When Wolfgang makes new acquaintances, he immediately wants to
   give his life and property to them." His impulsive largesse and
   spending often had him asking for loans. Many of his begging letters
   survive, but they are evidence not so much of poverty as of his habit
   of spending more than he earned. He was not buried in a "mass grave"
   but in a regular communal grave according to the 1784 laws in Austria.

   Though the original grave in the St. Marx cemetery was lost, memorial
   gravestones (or cenotaphs) have been placed there and in the
   Zentralfriedhof. In 2005 new DNA testing was performed by Austria's
   University of Innsbruck and the US Armed Forces DNA Identification
   Laboratory in Rockville, Maryland, to determine if a skull in an
   Austrian Museum was actually his, using DNA samples from the marked
   graves of his grandmother and Mozart's niece. Test results were
   inconclusive, suggesting that none of the DNA samples were related to
   each other.

   In 1809 Constanze married Danish diplomat Georg Nikolaus von Nissen
   (1761–1826). Being a fanatical admirer of Mozart, he (and Constanze?)
   edited vulgar passages out of many of the composer's letters and wrote
   a Mozart biography. Nissen did not live to see his biography printed,
   and Constanze finished it.

Works, musical style, and innovations

Style

   Mozart's music, like Haydn's, stands as an archetypal example of the
   Classical style. His works spanned the period during which that style
   transformed from one exemplified by the style galant to one that began
   to incorporate some of the contrapuntal complexities of the late
   Baroque, complexities against which the galant style had been a
   reaction. Mozart's own stylistic development closely paralleled the
   development of the classical style as a whole. In addition, he was a
   versatile composer and wrote in almost every major genre, including
   symphony, opera, the solo concerto, chamber music including string
   quartet and string quintet, and the piano sonata. While none of these
   genres were new, the piano concerto was almost single-handedly
   developed and popularized by Mozart. He also wrote a great deal of
   religious music, including masses; and he composed many dances,
   divertimenti, serenades, and other forms of light entertainment.

   The central traits of the classical style can all be identified in
   Mozart's music. Clarity, balance, and transparency are hallmarks,
   though a simplistic notion of the delicacy of his music obscures for us
   the exceptional and even demonic power of some of his finest
   masterpieces, such as the Piano Concerto No. 24 (Mozart) in C minor, K.
   491, the Symphony No. 40 in G minor, K. 550, and the opera Don
   Giovanni. The famed writer on music Charles Rosen has written (in The
   Classical Style): "It is only through recognizing the violence and
   sensuality at the centre 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."
   Especially during his last decade, Mozart explored chromatic harmony to
   a degree rare at the time. The slow introduction to the "Dissonant"
   Quartet, K. 465, a work that Haydn greatly admired, rapidly explodes a
   shallow understanding of Mozart's style as light and pleasant.

   From his earliest years Mozart had a gift for imitating the music he
   heard; since he travelled widely, he acquired a rare collection of
   experiences from which to create his unique compositional language.
   When he went to London as a child, he met J.C. Bach and heard his
   music; when he went to Paris, Mannheim, and Vienna, he heard the work
   of composers active there, as well as the spectacular Mannheim
   orchestra; when he went to Italy, he encountered the Italian overture
   and the opera buffa, both of which were to be hugely influential on his
   development. Both in London and Italy, the galant style was all the
   rage: simple, light music, with a mania for cadencing, an emphasis on
   tonic, dominant, and subdominant to the exclusion of other chords,
   symmetrical phrases, and clearly articulated structures. This style,
   out of which the classical style evolved, was a reaction against the
   complexity of late Baroque music. Some of Mozart's early symphonies are
   Italian overtures, with three movements running into each other; many
   are "homotonal" (each movement in the same key, with the slow movement
   in the tonic minor). Others mimic the works of J.C. Bach, and others
   show the simple rounded binary forms commonly being written by
   composers in Vienna. One of the most recognizable features of Mozart's
   works is a sequence of harmonies or modes that usually leads to a
   cadence in the dominant or tonic key. This sequence is essentially
   borrowed from baroque music, especially Bach. But Mozart shifted the
   sequence so that the cadence ended on the stronger half, i.e., the
   first beat of the bar. Mozart's understanding of modes such as Phrygian
   is evident in such passages.

   As Mozart matured, he began to incorporate some more features of
   Baroque styles into his music. For example, the Symphony No. 29 in A
   Major K. 201 uses 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
   just published his opus 20 set. The influence of the Sturm und Drang
   ("Storm and Stress") period in German literature, with its brief
   foreshadowing of the Romantic era to come, is evident in some of the
   music of both composers at that time.

   Over the course of his working life Mozart switched his focus from
   instrumental music to operas, and back again. He wrote operas in each
   of the styles current in Europe: opera buffa, such as The Marriage of
   Figaro, Don Giovanni, or Così fan tutte; opera seria, such as Idomeneo;
   and Singspiel, of which Die Zauberflöte is probably the most famous
   example by any composer. In his later operas, he developed the use of
   subtle changes in instrumentation, orchestration, and tone colour to
   express or highlight psychological or emotional states and dramatic
   shifts. Here his advances in opera and instrumental composing
   interacted. His increasingly sophisticated use of the orchestra in the
   symphonies and concerti served as a resource in his operatic
   orchestration, and his developing subtlety in using the orchestra to
   psychological effect in his operas was reflected in his later
   non-operatic compositions.

Influence

   Mozart merchandise on sale at an outside market stall in Residenz
   Square in Salzburg
   Enlarge
   Mozart merchandise on sale at an outside market stall in Residenz
   Square in Salzburg

   Mozart's legacy to subsequent generations of composers (in all genres)
   is immense.

   Many important composers since Mozart's time have expressed profound
   appreciation of Mozart. Rossini averred, "He is the only musician who
   had as much knowledge as genius, and as much genius as knowledge."
   Ludwig van Beethoven's admiration for Mozart is also quite clear.
   Beethoven used Mozart as a model a number of times: for example,
   Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 4 in G major demonstrates a debt to
   Mozart's Piano Concerto in C major, K. 503. A plausible story – not
   corroborated – regards one of Beethoven's students who looked through a
   pile of music in Beethoven's apartment. When the student pulled out
   Mozart's A major Quartet, K. 464, Beethoven exclaimed "Ah, that piece.
   That's Mozart saying 'here's what I could do, if only you had ears to
   hear!' "; Beethoven's own Piano Concerto No. 3 in C minor is an obvious
   tribute to Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 24 in C minor, and yet another
   plausible – if unconfirmed – story concerns Beethoven at a concert with
   his sometime-student Ferdinand Ries. As they listened to Mozart's Piano
   Concerto No. 24, the orchestra reached the quite unusual coda of the
   last movement, and Beethoven whispered to Ries: "We'll never think of
   anything like that!" Beethoven's Quintet for Piano and Winds is another
   obvious tribute to Mozart, similar to Mozart's own quintet for the same
   ensemble. Beethoven also paid homage to Mozart by writing sets of
   variations on several of his themes: for example, the two sets of
   variations for cello and piano on themes from Mozart's Magic Flute, and
   cadenzas to several of Mozart's piano concertos, most notably the Piano
   Concerto No. 20 K. 466. A famous legend asserts that, after the only
   meeting between the two composers, Mozart noted that Beethoven would
   "give the world something to talk about." However, it is not certain
   that the two ever met. Tchaikovsky wrote his Mozartiana in praise of
   Mozart; and Mahler's final word was alleged to have been simply
   "Mozart". The theme of the opening movement of the Piano Sonata in A
   major K. 331 (itself a set of variations on that theme) was used by Max
   Reger for his Variations and Fugue on a Theme of Mozart, written in
   1914 and among Reger's best-known works.

   In addition, Mozart received outstanding praise from several fellow
   composers including Frédéric Chopin, Franz Schubert, Peter Ilich
   Tchaikovsky, Robert Schumann, and many more.

   Mozart has remained an influence in popular contemporary music in
   varying genres ranging from Jazz to modern Rock and Heavy metal. An
   example of this influence is the jazz pianist Chick Corea, who has
   performed piano concertos of Mozart and was inspired by them to write a
   concerto of his own.

The Köchel catalogue

   In the decades after Mozart's death there were several attempts to
   catalogue his compositions, but it was not until 1862 that Ludwig von
   Köchel succeeded in this enterprise. Many of his famous works are
   referred to by their Köchel catalogue number; for example, the Piano
   Concerto in A major ( Piano Concerto No. 23) is often referred to
   simply as "K. 488" or "KV. 488". The catalogue has undergone six
   revisions, labeling the works from K. 1 to K. 626.

Myths and controversies

   Mozart is unusual among composers for being the subject of an abundance
   of legend, partly because none of his early biographers knew him
   personally. They often resorted to fiction in order to produce a work.
   Many myths began soon after Mozart died, but few have any basis in
   fact. An example is the story that Mozart composed his Requiem with the
   belief it was for himself. Sorting out fabrications from real events is
   a vexing and continuous task for Mozart scholars mainly because of the
   prevalence of legend in scholarship. Dramatists and screenwriters, free
   from responsibilities of scholarship, have found excellent material
   among these legends.

   An especially popular case is the supposed rivalry between Mozart and
   Antonio Salieri, and, in some versions, the tale that it was poison
   received from the latter that caused Mozart's death; this is the
   subject of Aleksandr Pushkin's play Mozart and Salieri, Nicolai
   Rimsky-Korsakov's opera Mozart and Salieri, and Peter Shaffer's play
   Amadeus. The last of these has been made into a feature-length film of
   the same name. Shaffer's play attracted criticism for portraying Mozart
   as vulgar and loutish, a characterization felt by many to be unfairly
   exaggerated, but in fact frequently confirmed by the composer's letters
   and other memorabilia. For example, Mozart wrote canons on the words
   "Leck mich im Arsch" ("Lick my arse") and "Leck mich im Arsch recht
   fein schön sauber" ("Lick my arse nice and clean") as party pieces for
   his friends. The Köchel numbers of these canons are 231 and 233.

   Another debate involves Mozart's alleged status as a kind of superhuman
   prodigy, from childhood right up until his death. While some have
   criticised his earlier works as simplistic or forgettable, others
   revere even Mozart's juvenilia. In any case, several of his early
   compositions remain very popular. The motet Exultate, jubilate (K.
   165), for example, composed when Mozart was seventeen years old, is
   among the most frequently recorded of his vocal compositions. It is
   also mentioned that around the time when he was five or six years old,
   he could play the piano blindfolded and with his hands crossed over one
   another.

   Benjamin Simkin, a medical doctor, argues in his book Medical and
   Musical Byways of Mozartiana that Mozart had Tourette syndrome.
   However, no Tourette syndrome expert, organization, psychiatrist or
   neurologist has stated that there is credible evidence that Mozart had
   this syndrome, and several have stated that they do not believe there
   is enough evidence to substantiate the claim.

Amadeus (1984)

   Milos Forman’s 1984 motion picture Amadeus, based on the play by Peter
   Shaffer, won eight Academy Awards and was one of the year’s most
   popular films. While the film did a great deal to popularize Mozart’s
   work with the general public, it has been criticized for its historical
   inaccuracies, and in particular for its portrayal of Antonio Salieri’s
   intrigues against Mozart, for which little historical evidence can be
   found. On the contrary, it is likely that Mozart and Salieri regarded
   each other as friends and colleagues: it is well documented, for
   instance, that Salieri frequently lent Mozart musical scores from the
   court library, that he often chose compositions by Mozart for
   performance at state occasions, and Salieri taught Mozart's son, Franz
   Xaver.

   The idea that he never revised his compositions, dramatized in the
   film, is easily exploded by even a cursory examination of the autograph
   manuscripts, which contain many revisions. Mozart was a studiously hard
   worker, and by his own admission his extensive knowledge and abilities
   developed out of many years' close study of the European musical
   tradition. In fairness, Schaffer and Forman never claimed that Amadeus
   was intended to be an accurate biographical portrait of Mozart. Rather,
   as Shaffer reveals on the DVD release of the film, the dramatic
   narrative was inspired by the biblical story of Cain and Abel – one
   brother loved by God, and the other scorned.
   Retrieved from " http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wolfgang_Amadeus_Mozart"
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   with only minor checks and changes (see www.wikipedia.org for details
   of authors and sources) and is available under the GNU Free
   Documentation License. See also our Disclaimer.
