Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart c 1781

From portrait by Johann Nepomuk della Croce

Source: Band of Artists

Born on 27 January 1756 in Salzburg, Austria, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart had some kind of antennae to some kind of extraintelligence that brought him to the personification of the classical period as the indisputable crown of European music over the centuries up to his time. Mozart had composed more 626 works, not a few seminal and most easy to wish to hear countless times. One manner in which Mozart influenced posterity was his big impression on Beethoven fifteen years his younger. Mozart focused on concertos and symphonies for piano and violin among other works like serenades, divertimenti, marches and dances like the allemande, contredanse and minuet. A good number of masses and sonatas showed up in the sacred music he composed. Along with 23 operas he wrote a prolific body of works for voice.

Mozart wrote his first compositions at age five. His first surviving piece was once believed to have been 'Minuet in G' for keyboard K 1 also listed as K 1e ("KV" for the 'Köchel Verzeichnis' is sometimes used rather than K). That was part of a set of three other minuets and an allegro written in Salzburg in 1761-62 at age five to perhaps six. Other pieces were discovered in 1954 which scholars now place as his first at age five, specifically 'Andante in C' K 1a in a folio called 'Stucke aud dem Nannerl-Notenbuch'. Titles found in the Notenbuch were written for harpsichord by both Leopold Mozart and his young son, Amadeus. Descriptions for all samples of Mozart in this presentation may be found under References further below at Compositions: Individual. Such as lyrics and scores are also referenced below.

'Andante in C'    K 1a   Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

1761 in Salzburg   First-known composition at age 5

Harpsichord: Ton Koopman

'Minuet in G'    K 1/1e   Dance by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

1761-62 in Salzburg  Age 5-6

Piano: Paul Barton

There have been eight K catalogues published, the first in 1862 by Ludwig von Köchel [directory]. A second edition (K2) addressed errors in the first until Albert Einstein (physicist) wrote his directory, K3, in 1937. K4 and K5 were unchanged reprints of that. The commonly used K6 was published in 1964 by Franz Giegling, Alexander Weinmann and Gerd Siever. K7 and K8 are unchanged reprints of that. Multiple catalogues have resulted in incongruities now and again such as identical works being numbered differently. Mozart catalogued his own works as well, beginning on 9 February 1784 with 'Piano Concerto in E-flat No. 14'. See the ‘Verzeichnüss aller meiner Werke' [about]. Samples herein are labeled K1/K6 with a slash as in K 1/1e above with 1 as the K1 number and 1e as the K6 number. As for opus numbers, not much of Mozart's oeuvre made its way to print, so Op numbers aren't commonly used.

Mozart's father, Leopold Mozart, was a violinist who had published a violin textbook. Wolfgang received instruction from his father along with his sister, Nannerl, four years older than he and also a skilled harpsichordist. In 1762 Mozart's father began taking his children on tour for the next three years, visiting Munich, Vienna, Prague, Paris, Zurich and London. Mozart wrote his first symphony at age eight during that tour in 1764: 'Symphony No.1' in E flat major.

'Symphony No.1'    E-flat   K 16/16   Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Composed Aug-Sep 1764 at age 8 in Westminster while on tour to England

Premiere 21 Feb 1765   Scored for 2 oboes / 2 horns / strings  

Folkwang Kammerorchester Essen / Johannes Klumpp   15 March 2014

Mozart's first dramatic work was a singspiel, K 35/35: Part 1 of 'Die Schuldigkeit des ersten Gebots' ('The Obligation of the First Commandment') with Part 2 composed by Johann Michael Haydn and Part 3 by Anton Adlgasser. With libretto by Ignaz von Weiser, that premiered on 12 March 1767 at the palace for archbishops, Salzburg Residenz.

In 1769 Leopold (Mozart's father) began touring Italy with Mozart alone, Rome and Milan in particular, leaving Nannerl and his wife at home in Salzburg. They were on such less-than-convenient journeys by carriage that Mozart at least sketched many of his compositions. He is thought to have composed in association with Freemasonry as early as 1772 per 'Lobegesang auf die feierliche Johannisloge' ('Hymn of the Solemn St. John’s Lodge').

'Lobegesang auf die feierliche Johannisloge'   K 148/125h   Freemason song by Mozart

'Hymn for the Solemn St. John’s Lodge'

Composed in 1772 at age 16 in Salzburg

Text by Ludwig Friedrich Lenz

Piano: Ulrich Eisenlohr   Tenor: Lothar Odinius

In 1773 Mozart was hired as court musician to Count Hieronymus von Colloredo in Salzburg. Unfortunately he was paid only 150 florins a year, a very good wage for someone 17 years old but far short of the average of about 300 florins for the standard composer. Thus Leopold and Wolfgang began traveling again, searching for a benefactor in Vienna, Munich, Augsburg, Mannheim, Paris, and Strasbourg, meanwhile resigning from the court of the Count in 1777, only to return in 1779, though to the comfortable salary of 450 florins now, with the Count an Archbishop by then. It was 1779 when Mozart composed his Mass Ordinarium, 'Coronation Mass' No. 15 in C major, K 317. That is also seen as No. 16. Though probably performed on Easter Sunday of 1779 its first documented performance was for the coronation of the last Holy Roman Emperor, Franz II, in 1792 (after Mozart's death).

'Violin Concerto No.2'   D major   K 211/211   Mozart

Completed on 14 June 1775 at age 19 in Salzburg

Scored for 2 oboes / 2 horns / strings

London Philharmonic Orchestra   Violin: Julia Fischer

'Piano Sonata No.7'   C major   K 309/284b   Mozart

Completed Oct 1777 at age 21 in Mannheim

Piano: Elisey Mysin   Zhuhai, China   Sep 2022

'Divertimento'   D major   K 334/320b   Mozart

Completed summer 1780 at age 24 in Salzburg

Scored in 6 movements for 2 horns / 2 violins / viola /  double bass

Camerata Academica des Mozarteums / Sandor Vegh   Salzburg 1988

In early 1781 Mozart was summoned to Vienna by the Archbishop Colloredo, but there was the schism of social class between them, and Mozart's was an independent attitude wont to doing things like approaching a Russian ambassador, without permission, to start a conversation. As musicians were to be heard, not seen, Mozart's final request to resign from the Court was answered with a literal boot to the glutei maximi in May of 1781 [Wikipedia]. Worse, Mozart's father had wished conciliation. Howsoever, the occasion marks the times: once opera had come on the scene (Jacopo Peri in 1597) musicians had begun to less depend on nobility and more on tickets sold. Nobility in Europe had been gradually descending in financial capacity for more than a century as free enterprise began to develop another class system. There'd been a War of Revolution from monarchy in the United States and another one was in the air in France. Commercial enterprise was giving European nobility a run for the money, but the class system remained: Not that he ever did, but for Mozart to be just the improper sort to address Holy Roman Emperor Joseph II as "Hey, Joe!" probably didn't work to his favor. Mozart nevertheless prospered in Vienna with his new wife as of 1782, first presenting concertos, then operas. He did so well that he rented an extremely expensive apartment costing more than 38 florins per month (nigh $8000 today). He spent 900 florins on a piano, another 300 on a billiard table, and kept servants as well.

In the midst of the rest, Mozart composed the lyrics and music to several of what are referred to as scatological canons, bringing the cosmos to both the pinnacle and posterior of the classical period on Earth, leaving some to speculate whether such may or may not be a class act. In the case of 'Leck mich im Arsch' ('Lick My Ass'), a canon for six in B-flat thought to have been written in 1782, one recalls Colloredo who had Mozart literally booted from service to his Court the year before. Wikipedia comments that 'Leck mich im Arsch' may have been a party song. Another such piece obscene is 'Difficile lectu mihi Mars' composed in 1786-87. The humor of this song is in its obscenity written pompous by Mozart with a fancy Latin twist translatable to 'It's difficult to lick my arse and balls'. In the meantime, it was 1784 when Mozart met his greatest influence and perhaps best friend, Joseph Haydn.

'Leck mich im Arsch'   K 231/382c   Canon for 6 in 3 rounds in B-flat by Mozart

'Lick My Arse'

Completed 1782 at age 26 in Vienna   Text by Mozart

Chorus Viennensis / Uwe Christian Harrer

'Leck mir den Arsch fein recht schön sauber'   K 233/382d

'Lick My Arse Right Well and Clean'

Canon for 3 in 3 rounds in B-flat by Mozart

Completed 1782 at age 26 in Vienna   Text by Mozart from a canon by Wenzel Trnka

Alexander Cappellazzo

'Piano Concerto No.11'   F major   K 413/387a   Mozart

Completed autumn 1782 at age 26 in Vienna

Israel Chamber Orchestra / Yoav Talmi   Piano: Yael Koldobsky

Tel Aviv Museum of Art  23 or 24 Dec 2013

'Piano Concerto No.13'   C major   K 415/387b   Mozart

Completed 1782-83 at age 26-27 in Vienna

Vienna Philharmonic   Piano: Daniel Barenboim

'Piano Sonata No. 11' aka 'Alla Turca'   A major   K 331/300i   Rondo by Mozart

Completed 1783 at age 27 in Vienna or Salzburg

Piano: Lars Roos

'String Quartet No.16'   E-flat major   K 428/421b   Mozart

Completed June-July 1783 at age 27 in Vienna

No.4 of Op 10 dedicated to Joseph Haydn

Emerson String Quartet

'Serenade No.10' aka 'Gran Partita'   B-flat major   K 361/370a   Mozart

Premiere of 4 of 7 movements on 23 March 1784 at age 27 in Vienna

Movements 4-6 possibly added later in 1784

Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France in Paris   7 March 2016

'String Quartet No.17' aka 'The Hunt'   B-flat major   K 458/458   Mozart

Entered into Mozart's personal catalog on 9 Nov 1784 at age 28 in Vienna

The Kuss Quartet

Mozart became a Freemason in December 1784, his father the next year. He wrote numerously for the Freemasons up to the year of his death [Wikipedia]. Mozart's counterpart in supraclassical composition, Beethoven, lived in Vienna concurrently with Mozart since early 1787. Though hoping to study with him, there is no record of their having ever met [Wikipedia]. Mozart's father, however, died on 28 May of 1787. It was 29 October 1787 when Mozart premiered his opera, 'Don Giovanni' ('Don Juan'), at the Estates Theatre in Prague.

'Don Giovanni'   K 527/527   Opera by Mozart

Premiere 28 Oct 1787 at age 31 at the Estates Theatre in Prague

Libretto by Lorenzo Da Ponte

Direction: Michael Hampe   Wiener Philharmoniker / Herbert von Karajan

In December of 1787 Mozart accepted a position with Holy Roman Emperor Joseph II. At only 800 florins a year it was part-time. Unable to either afford or give up his velvet lifestyle, Mozart began taking out loans about the time he wrote his last couple symphonies in 1788. His 'Symphony No.40' is also known as 'Great G minor symphony' to distinguish it from his 'Little G minor symphony' that is 'Symphony No.25'. Mozart's final symphony is 'Symphony No.41' aka  'Jupiter' in C major K 551.

'Symphony No.40' aka 'Great G minor symphony'   G minor   K 550/550   Mozart

Entered into Mozart's personal catalog on 25 July 1788 at age 32 in Vienna

Das hr-Sinfonieorchester Frankfurt / Andrés Orozco-Estrada

'Symphony No.41' aka 'Jupiter'   C major   K 551/551   Mozart's final symphony

Entered into Mozart's personal catalog on 10 Aug 1788 at age 32 in Vienna

Orchestra of the 18th Century / Frans Brüggen

'Difficile lectu mihi Mars'   K 559/559   Canon in F for 3 by Mozart

'It's difficult to lick my arse and balls'

Entered into Mozart's personal catalog on 2 Sep 1788 at age 32 in Vienna

Jeff Lee

It was 1788 when the Austro-Turkish War began in alliance with Russia. Mozart's last piano concerto appeared in January 1791, the year that war ceased, 'Piano Concerto No. 27' in B-flat major.

'Piano Concerto No.27'   B-flat major   K 595/595   Mozart's final piano concerto

Entered into manuscript on 5 Jan 1791 at age 34 in Vienna

Wiener Philharmoniker   Piano: Daniel Barenboim

Mozart's last opera, 'Die Zauberflöte' ('The Magic Flute') K 620, premiered in Vienna on 30 September that year, a singspiel with libretto by Emanuel Schikaneder. Swedish director, Ingmar Bergman, released a film interpretation in 1975 which Mozart may well have embraced; one wonders what sort of modern film scores Mozart might have composed.

'Die Zauberflöte' ('The Magic Flute')   K 620/620   Mozart's final opera

Premiere on 30 Sep 1791 at age 35 in Vienna

Orchestre Royal de Chambre de Wallonie / Gabriel Hollander

Mozart's final complete composition of certain authorship was his Freemason cantata, 'Kleine Freimaurer-Kantate' ('Little Freemason Cantata') K 623 finished off in November of 1791. The text is by an unknown although Johann Georg Karl Ludwig Giesecke is favored.

'Kleine Freimaurer-Kantate'   K 623/623   Freemason song by Mozart

'Little Freemason Cantata'

Completed 15 Nov 1791 at age 35 in Vienna   Last finished work

Text possibly by Johann Georg Karl Ludwig Giesecke

Chorus Viennensis / Wiener Akademie / Martin Haselböck

Tenor: Christoph Prégardien   Bass: Helmut Wildhaber

'Requiem'   D minor   K 626/626   Mass by Mozart

Incomplete on date of death at age 35 in Vienna

Text possibly by Johann Georg Karl Ludwig Giesecke

Chorus Viennensis / Wiener Akademie / Martin Haselböck

Tenor: Christoph Prégardien   Bass: Helmut Wildhaber

Just as Mozart was able to begin paying his debts he fell ill and died on 5 December of 1791. That left his 'Requiem in D minor' K 626 unfinished which he was writing for the twenty year-old deceased wife of Count Franz von Walsegg. The work was finished and delivered by Franz Xaver Süssmayr. As Mozart was in debt when he died he was buried in a common grave. As one of the more gaping mysteries in classical music, it isn't known of what Mozart so suddenly expired. "Poison!" was a rumor that developed over the years, to the slandering of Antonio Salieri as his murderer. Bad enough to live while falsely accused of murdering a fellow composer, but the rumor that Salieri had poisoned Mozart has persisted long after his death to this very day. First it was Alexander Pushkin who reawakened the rumor five years after Salieri's demise in his 1830 play, 'Mozart and Salieri', set to music in 1897 by Rimsky-Korsakov. Enmity between Mozart and Salieri has been more recently reimagined to provide a plot for Peter Shaffer's 1979 play, 'Amadeus', which was made into a silly film in 1984. Salieri, who was among the five musicians who attended Mozart's funeral, had indeed been a difficult rival to Mozart in Vienna. Their relationship was, indeed, competitive, but there is little by which to claim that it was actually inimical, much less cause to so malicious an act by Salieri. Mozart's death at the age of only thirty-five was more likely due to some illness or disease like edema or strep, though just what remains speculative.

Digital Mozart Edition (search)

Klassika

Concertos: Fortepiano   Horn   Various   Violin   Woodwind

Concerts for Fortepiano:

Wikipedia Czech   Wikipedia Deutsch   Wikipedia Dutch

The Köchel Catalogue of 1862 (K1):

Google Books   IMSLP (digital copy)

The Köchel Catalogue of 1964 (K6):

Mozart Forum

Musik Archive-Online

Wikipedia Czech

The Köchel Catalogue: K1/K6 cross reference:

Classical Net

Classic Cat

IMSLP

Musicolog

Wikipedia English (chronological) (alt)

Wikipedia English (thematic)

Wikipedia Italiano

Masonic: Freemasonry   Wikipedia   Wikipedia

Operas: Wikipedia Dutch   Wikipedia English

Piano: Wikipedia Czech   Wikipedia Deutsch   Wikipedia English

Rate Your Music

Sacred:

Wikipedia Czech   Wikipedia Deutsch

Wikipedia Dutch   Wikipedia English

Songs:

REC Music Foundation (texts)   Wikipedia Czech

Wikipedia Dutch   Wikipedia English

Symphonies: Wikipedia Deutsch   Wikipedia Dutch   Wikipedia English

Templates: IMSLP   Wikipedia

^Compositions: Individual Herein Noted: Chronological:

Andante in C for keyboard / K 1a / 1761 / first composition at age 5:

IMSLP   Wikipedia

Minuet in G for keyboard / K 1/1e / 1761-62:

E-Music Maestro   IMSLP   Kyle Macdonald   Wikipedia

Symphony No.1 in E-flat / K 16/16 / 1764 / first symphony:

Alan Beggerow (Musical Musings)

Classic Cat

IMSLP

Ian Page (Hyperion)

Michael Rodman (All Music)

Wikipedia

Die Schuldigkeit des ersten Gebots / K 35/35 / 1767 / first operatic work:

IMSLP   Ian Page (Hyperion)   Wikipedia

fugueforthought   Hollywood Bowl   IMSLP   Wikipedia

Piano Sonata No.7 / K 309/284b / 1777:

fugueforthought   IMSLP   John Palmer   Wikipedia

Coronation Mass No. 15 or 16 in C / K 317/317 / 1779:

Roger Dettmer (All Music)   IMSLP   Wikipedia

Divertimento in D major / K 334/320b / 1780:

IMSLP   Michael Morrison (All Music)   Talk Classical   Wikipedia

Leck mich im Arsch / K 231/382c / 1782 / canon in B-flat:

Terynn Boulton   IMSLP   Open Culture   Reddit   Wikipedia

Leck mir den Arsch fein recht schön sauber / K 233/382d / 1782 / canon in B-flat:

IMSLP   Wikipedia

Piano Concerto No.11 in F / K 413/387a / 1782-83:

fugueforthought   IMSLP   Wikipedia

Piano Concerto No.13 in C / K 415/387b / 1782-83:

Willard J. Hertz   IMSLP   Wikipedia

Piano Sonata No. 11 aka Alla Turca / K 331/300i / 1783:

IMSLP   Penelope's Loom   Wikipedia

String Quartet No.16 / K 428/421b / 1783: IMSLP   Wikipedia

Serenade No.10 aka Gran Partita / K 361/370a / 1783-84:

IMSLP

Brian Robins (All Music)

University of Maryland Wind Orchestra

Wikipedia

Wind Repertory Project

Difficile Lectu (Hard to Read) / K 559/559 / 1786 / canon in F:

Mozart Magnus   Sotheby’s (autograph)   Wikipedia

Scores / Sheet Music: Editions:

Alte Mozart-Ausgabe (Breitkopf & Härtel / 1877-83)

Neue Mozart-Ausgabe (Bärenreiter / 1955-2007)

Freemasonry:

Britannica

CBS News

CBS News

The Guardian

Martin Stezano

The Magic Flute (film by Ingmar Bergman / 1975):

BFI

Peter Bradshaw (The Guardian)

Corbin Dewitt

Ingmar Bergman

Wikipedia

Mozart and Obscenity / Scatology:

Ian Harvey   The Piano   Lucas Reilly   Wikipedia

Bibliography:

Abe Books (vendor)

Hermann Abert (W.A. Mozart / Yale U Press / 2007)

Robert Dearling (The Music of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, the Symphonies / Fairleigh Dickinson U Press / 1982)

Otto Erich Deutsch (Mozart: A Documentary Biography / Stanford U Press / 2007)

Simon P. Keefe (An Entirely Special Manner: Mozart's Piano Concerto in E Flat, K. 449 / Music and Letters / Vol 82 No 4 / 2001)

Piero Melograni (Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: A Biography / U of Chicago Press / 2007)

Musik Biblographie

Frederick Neumann (Ornamentation and Improvisation in Mozart / Princeton U Press / 2019)

Online Books

Pedia Press

Charles Rosen (The Classical Style: Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven / 1997))

Elaine Rochelle Sisman (Mozart, the "Jupiter" symphony, no. 41 in C major, K. 551 / Cambridge U 1993)

Zegers / Weigl / Steptoe (The Death of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart / Annals of Internal Medicine Vol 151 No 4)

Wikipedia Deutsch (biographies)

Wikipedia Italiano (biographies)

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