Mozart Biography: Life, Masterpieces and Where to Start

Few names in music are as widely known as Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. In just 35 years he wrote symphonies, operas, concertos, chamber music and church music that are still played every day, from concert halls in Vienna to music institutes in Erbil and Sulaymaniyah. This Mozart biography follows his life from child prodigy to freelance composer in Vienna, picks out the works worth knowing first, and looks honestly at where his music meets the Kurdish musical world.

Quick facts

• Full name: Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart, known as Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
• Born: 27 January 1756, Salzburg (today in Austria)
• Died: 5 December 1791, Vienna, aged 35
• Family: father Leopold Mozart, composer and violin teacher; sister Maria Anna, "Nannerl"; wife Constanze Weber
• Genre: Western classical music (the Classical period)
• Instruments: keyboard (harpsichord and fortepiano), violin, viola
• Known for: more than 800 works, including The Marriage of Figaro, Don Giovanni, The Magic Flute, Symphony No. 40, Eine kleine Nachtmusik and the Requiem

Early life: a prodigy on the road

Mozart grew up in a musical household. His father, Leopold, was a court musician to the Prince-Archbishop of Salzburg and the author of a well-known violin method published in the year of Wolfgang's birth. Leopold taught both of his surviving children, and both were remarkable. By the age of five Wolfgang was already competent on the keyboard and violin and had started to compose.

Leopold saw the chance to show his children to Europe. From 1762 the family set off on long tours that took them to Munich, Vienna, Paris and London, and later through Italy. The children played for royalty and the nobility. In London the young Mozart met Johann Christian Bach, the youngest son of J. S. Bach, and wrote his first symphonies there. In Italy he studied, performed and had his early operas staged while still a teenager.

These tours shaped him in two ways. He absorbed every style he heard, Italian opera, French keyboard music and German counterpoint, and he learned that a musician's life depended on patrons, commissions and luck.

Career: from Salzburg to Vienna

The Salzburg years

Between 1773 and 1777 Mozart worked as a court musician in Salzburg. He wrote a great deal there, including violin concertos, serenades and church music, but he felt constrained by the post and by his employer, Archbishop Colloredo. In 1777 he set out with his mother to find a better position in Munich, Mannheim and Paris. The journey failed, and it ended in grief: his mother died in Paris in 1778. He returned to Salzburg in 1779.

Freelance in Vienna

In 1781 Mozart was dismissed from Salzburg service and settled in Vienna. It was a bold move. Instead of relying on one employer, he lived from teaching, publishing, commissions and concerts that he organised himself. In 1782 his German opera Die Entführung aus dem Serail (The Abduction from the Seraglio) was a success, and in August of the same year he married Constanze Weber. They had six children, but only two, Karl Thomas and Franz Xaver Wolfgang, survived infancy.

The mid-1780s were his most productive years. He wrote a long series of piano concertos to play at his own concerts, and he formed a friendship with Joseph Haydn, to whom he dedicated six string quartets. His partnership with the librettist Lorenzo Da Ponte produced Le nozze di Figaro (The Marriage of Figaro, 1786) and Don Giovanni (1787, premiered in Prague). In 1787 he was appointed chamber composer to the imperial court.

The last years

Money was a constant worry in his final years, yet the music did not stop. In the summer of 1788 he wrote his last three symphonies, Nos. 39, 40 and 41. Così fan tutte followed in 1790. In 1791 he composed The Magic Flute, which he conducted at its premiere at the Theater auf der Wieden in Vienna on 30 September, as well as the Clarinet Concerto.

That same year he received a commission for a Requiem Mass. He fell ill in November and was working on it while bedridden. He died on 5 December 1791. The Requiem was completed after his death, most famously by his pupil Franz Xaver Süssmayr. The cause of his death is still debated; the popular story that his rival Antonio Salieri poisoned him has no historical basis.

Signature works

Mozart's works are numbered in the Köchel catalogue, so every piece has a "K" number. A few that define him:

• Operas: The Marriage of Figaro, Don Giovanni, Così fan tutte and The Magic Flute. These are still at the centre of the opera repertoire.
• Symphonies: Symphony No. 40 in G minor, K. 550, and Symphony No. 41 "Jupiter," K. 551, both from 1788.
• Piano concertos: above all No. 20 in D minor, K. 466, and No. 21 in C major, K. 467, whose slow movement became world-famous.
• Piano sonatas: the Sonata No. 11 in A major, K. 331, with its Rondo alla Turca, and the "easy" Sonata No. 16 in C major, K. 545, which almost every piano student meets.
• Sacred music: the Requiem in D minor, K. 626, and the short motet Ave verum corpus.

Best Mozart pieces to know

Classical composers don't have "songs" in the pop sense, but these are the titles people search for most, and they are the ones you'll recognise:

1. Eine kleine Nachtmusik, K. 525 (1787). A serenade for strings. The opening bars are among the most recognised melodies in the world.
2. Rondo alla Turca, the finale of Piano Sonata No. 11, K. 331 (1783). Often called the "Turkish March."
3. Symphony No. 40 in G minor, K. 550 (1788). Restless and dramatic from the first bar.
4. Requiem in D minor, K. 626 (1791). Especially the Lacrimosa and Dies irae.
5. Piano Concerto No. 21, K. 467 (1785). The slow movement is often heard on its own.
6. The Queen of the Night aria from The Magic Flute (1791). A famous test of the soprano's high register.
7. Clarinet Concerto in A major, K. 622 (1791). One of his last completed works.
8. Twelve Variations on "Ah vous dirai-je, maman," K. 265. Variations on the tune known in English as "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star."
9. Piano Sonata No. 16 in C major, K. 545. Simple on the page and a classic teaching piece.
10. Overture to The Marriage of Figaro (1786). Four minutes of pure energy.

Legacy

Mozart's influence is hard to overstate. Beethoven grew up in his shadow, and Haydn regarded him as the greatest composer he knew. His operas proved that comedy could carry deep human feeling, and his piano concertos set the model for the form. His life has been retold endlessly, most famously in Peter Shaffer's play and Miloš Forman's film Amadeus (1984). Remember, though, that the film is drama, not history.

For students, Mozart's greatest gift may be clarity. His melodies are balanced, his forms are easy to follow, and his piano writing lies naturally under the hands. That is why teachers everywhere, including in Kurdistan, use him to build technique and musical taste.

The Kurdish connection

We want to be careful here. Mozart never visited Kurdistan and never wrote Kurdish music. But there are real, verifiable points where his world touches ours.

Alla turca and the Ottoman sound. In the 18th century Vienna was fascinated by the Ottoman Empire, which had besieged the city as recently as 1683. Composers imitated the sound of the Ottoman janissary military bands, with their bass drums, cymbals and triangles. The style was called alla turca. Mozart used it in the Rondo alla Turca, in the finale of his Violin Concerto No. 5 and in The Abduction from the Seraglio, an opera set in the Ottoman world. Scholars point out that this was a European caricature rather than real Ottoman music: no maqam, no quarter tones, just a "Turkish" colour painted with Western harmony. That contrast is useful. If you compare the Rondo alla Turca with a piece in maqam Hijaz, you hear the difference between an imitation of the East and the modal music that Kurds, Turks, Arabs and Persians actually share. Our post on Kurdish vs Persian, Arabic and Turkish music explores that shared ground.

Kurdish musicians play Mozart. The Kurdistan String Orchestra (Orchestrai Shedari Kurdistan), founded in 2006, draws its players mainly from graduates of the Institutes of Fine Arts in Sulaymaniyah, Erbil and Duhok. Its repertoire mixes Mozart, Haydn, Tchaikovsky and Shostakovich with Kurdish composers; its 2007 competition programme opened with Mozart's Divertimento K. 138 and closed with Eine kleine Nachtmusik. Mozart is part of the everyday training of Kurdish string and piano students.

The same notation. Mozart wrote on the five-line staff with Western clefs, key signatures and time signatures. That is exactly the system KurdNote uses to write down Kurdish folk songs, with a few extra signs for quarter tones. If you can read a Mozart minuet, you can read a Kurdish song like Arami Giyanim. Our guide on how to read Kurdish music notation shows how.

Mozart in Sorani. Kurdish readers can learn about Mozart in their own language. KurdNote's library includes Shimshali Efsunawi, a Sorani book about Mozart (the title means "the magic flute"), as well as the composer biographies in Zhiyannamey Gewre Muzikzanan and Nawdarani Muziki Jihan (Famous Figures of World Music).

Where to start listening

If Mozart is new to you, try this order:

1. Eine kleine Nachtmusik, first movement. Short, bright and instantly familiar.
2. Rondo alla Turca. Listen to it after a Kurdish Hijaz piece and notice what Vienna imagined "Eastern" music to be.
3. Piano Concerto No. 21, second movement. Mozart's lyrical side.
4. Symphony No. 40, first movement. The drama behind the elegance.
5. The Requiem, Lacrimosa. His last, unfinished music.
6. The Magic Flute, the Queen of the Night aria and then Papageno's songs. Opera at its most playful.

If you play piano, the Sonata in C major, K. 545, is a good first Mozart piece. Our beginner guide to Kurdish songs on piano is a good companion, and when you're ready for the next composer, read about Chopin and Beethoven.

Sources

• Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Wikipedia
• Wolfgang Mozart, Biography.com
• Piano Sonata No. 11 (Mozart), Wikipedia)
• Orchestrai Shedari Kurdistan, SCL Festival

Want to go further? Open the Sorani Mozart book in our library, then put Mozart's notation skills to work on our free Kurdish sheet music.