Happy Birthday to Mozart!
Here is a brief excerpt from Wikipedia:
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (
German: [ˈvɔlfɡaŋ amaˈdeus ˈmoːtsaʁt],
English see fn.;
[1] 27 January 1756 – 5 December 1791), baptised as
Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart,
[2] was a prolific and influential composer of the
Classical era.
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. At 17, he was engaged as a court musician in
Salzburg, but grew restless and travelled in search of a better position, always composing abundantly. While visiting
Vienna
in 1781, he was dismissed from his Salzburg position. He chose to stay
in the capital, where he achieved fame but little financial security.
During his final years in Vienna, he composed many of his best-known
symphonies, concertos, and operas, and portions of the
Requiem,
which was largely unfinished at the time of his death. The
circumstances of his early death have been much mythologized. He was
survived by his wife
Constanze and two sons.
He composed over 600
works, many acknowledged as pinnacles of
symphonic,
concertante,
chamber,
operatic, and
choral music. He is among the most enduringly popular of
classical composers, and his influence on subsequent Western
art music is profound;
Beethoven composed his own early works in the shadow of Mozart, and
Joseph Haydn wrote that "posterity will not see such a talent again in 100 years."
[3]
