Wolfgang Mozart - The Early Years

The young man we all know as Mozart - the son, not Leopold the father - was born on January 27, 1756 in Salzburg.  He was the youngest of seven children, five of whom died in infancy.  He had one sister, nicknamed Nannerl, who was five years his senior.

Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart.

Say what???  Johannes who?  And where's the Amadeus part?  Who is this guy?

Well, Mozart was a man fond of word play, especially so with his own name.  "Johannes Chrysostomus" is the name of the saint associated with the date of his birth, January 27.  Mozart never used this name in his lifetime.  "Wolfgangus" is his name all right, but it's the Latin version.  In Austria, he went by "Wolfgang", but in Italy, it was "Wolfgango".

And Theophilus?  That's a Greek name.  "Theo", meaning "God", and "philus", meaning "love of".  In German, "Theophilus" becomes "Gottlieb", which Mozart sometimes used; Latinized, "Theophilus" becomes "Amadeus".  And yet, "Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart" was a name Mozart himself rarely used in his lifetime.  In place of Amadeus, he preferred Amadé or Amadè.  He would even play with his last name: he could be Mozart, die Mozartini, or even Trazom (Mozart spelled backwards).  About the only time he actually used his full middle name was to refer to himself in jest:

Wolfgangus.  Amadeus.  Mozartus.

At any rate - back to the child prodigy.

Much of what we know about Mozart's early life, we know from interviews taken with his older sister, Nannerl, late in her life.  In the third person, she relates how it came about that Leopold Mozart discovered that his son Wolfgang was a prodigy:

The son [Wolfgang] was at the time three years old when the father began instructing the seven-year-old daughter [Nannerl] on the clavier.  The boy immediately showed his extraordinary, God-given taken.  He often spent long periods at the clavier, picking out thirds, and his pleasure showed that they sounded good to him.

When he was four years old, his father, as if for a game, taught him some minuets and other pieces at the clavier.  It went so well and was so effortless that he had easily learnt a piece in one hour and a minuet in half an hour so that he could play them without mistakes and with the utmost delicacy.  He made such progress that when he was five years old he was composing little pieces, which he would play to his father who would write them down.

[….] As soon as he occupied himself with music he had no interest in other occupations, they were dead to him, and even childish nonsense and games with toys had to have a musical accompaniment if they were to hold his attention; when we, he, and I, were carrying his playthings and toys from one room to another, the one of us who was empty-handed had to sing a march, or play on the fiddle, as we did so.

In 1762, when Mozart was six, Leopold Mozart took the family to Vienna on what would be their first musical tour.  The purpose of the tour was, of course, to present his children in public, to gain the favor of the imperial family at the Viennese court, make a little money, and hopefully win enough favor with the court to earn his children future patronage.  And if, of course, opportunities should open up for Leopold Mozart himself - well, so much the better.  The Mozarts gave several performances in Vienna, including a private audience with Archduke Joseph (soon to be Emperor Joseph II) and the Empress Maria Theresa.

But much bigger things would be in store.  The Mozarts had received such a favorable reception in Vienna that Leopold decided it was time for the Mozart children to receive a much wider audience.  And so, in 1763, the Mozart family began the Grand Tour - a three year tour that would take them to Munich, Mannheim, Frankfurt, Cologne, Brussels, Amsterdam, London, and Paris… among other places.

Symphony #1 in E-flat, K 16 (Movement I: Molto allegro)

Mozart wrote his first symphony in London in 1764, at the age of eight, during the Mozart family's grand tour of Europe.  At the time, the family was staying at a house in Chelsea, just outside of London, and Leopold Mozart was very ill with a throat infection.  Forbidden to play the harpsichord, for fear of disturbing his father, Wolfgang relieved his boredom by writing his first symphony.

For those of you who are already familiar with Mozart's works, the theme from the first movement of his first symphony may sound very familiar.  It's almost the same theme as his Piano Concerto #22 in E-flat, K 482, a piece that he would write 21 years later.

What's remarkable about this early piece is that it already bears all the hallmarks of a more mature Mozart: knowledge of form, cleanness of execution, and expressive restraint.  But what's even more remarkable: the kid was only EIGHT YEARS OLD when he did this.

What were *you* busy doing when *you* were eight?

The Mozart family returned to Salzburg in November 1766.  From a financial standpoint, the tour was less than successful.  Although the value of even just the gifts and trinkets the Mozarts had received from noble patrons was considerable, considerable too was the cost of putting on the tour.  Leopold wrote that the savings from the tour were negligible: "There was nothing to be saved, because we have to travel in noble or courtly style for the preservation of our health and the reputation of my court."  However, the impact of the tour on Wolfgang Mozart's musical development was considerable.  Their stay in London was of particular importance, as it was there that he met Carl Friedrich Abel and Johann Christian Bach (the son of Johann Sebastian Bach), from whom he learned form and technique for writing symphonies.  Although the symphonies Mozart wrote at this early stage in his career were not as sophisticated as his later symphonies, they were easily the equal of any of the major composers of symphonies in Europe at the time.

After returning to Salzburg in 1766, the Mozarts spent a year and a half in Vienna, and then, in December 1769, Leopold and Wolfgang left for Italy.  Nannerl and Mozart's mother remained behind in Salzburg for this trip.  Nannerl had just turned 18, and was therefore too old to be showing off in public as a child prodigy.  Wolfgang, on the other hand, was 13.  The reason for continuing Wolfgang's education in Italy was obvious - Italy was the center of the Catholic Church, a source of major innovations in music over the prior two centuries, home to numerous duchies, papal states, and republics, but above all, *the* place one wanted to be if one was in the opera writing business.  Leopold's goal in taking Wolfgang to Italy was to learn to write church music, gain influential friends and acquaintances that could hook him up with a high-ranking patron, and to expose Mozart to the culture of opera.

Overture from Mitridate, rè di Ponto (K. 87)

Mitridate was the first of three operas the young Mozart would write in Milan.  Mitridate was written during his first tour through the city in the fall of 1770, when Mozart was just 14 years old.  The overture to the opera is in three parts.  The first section, written in an abbreviated kind of sonata form, is lively and upbeat.  Two themes are introduced, the first in D major, the contrasting theme in A major.  As is typical in sonata form, the second of the two themes is restated in the key of the first before the section draws to a close.  The second section is a slow, quiet dance that provides a rest from the rigors of the first section.  Finally in the third section, we have a quick, agile little romp in triple meter that leads us to the close of the overture, re-energized and ready to hear what the opera has in store for us.

Mozart wrote Mitridate in just a few months, no small feat for anyone, let alone a boy of 14 years writing his first full opera.  And the idea of an Austrian coming down to write an opera - in Italian - did not sit well with many in Milan.  However, the opera was an unexpectedly great success.  In a letter to his sister Nannerl back in Salzburg, Mozart wrote:

Dearest sister!

I haven't written anything in a long time because I was busy with my opera.  As I have more time now I want to be more attentive to my duties.  The opera, thank the Lord, is a success as the theater is full every nigh, which astounds everyone and many are saying that as long as they have lived in Milano they have never seen a first opera so full."

Finally, a little ear candy.  Something you may have heard before...

Alleluja, from Exultate juibilate (1773), KV 165

(Diana Damrau)

The Exultate was written specifically for the castrato Venanzio Rauzzini, who had played the part of Cecilio in Mozart's opera Lucia Silla earlier that year.  This is Mozart at his most exuberant - we can hear the success of his three Italian operas in this piece, and the hope of even better things to come.  Even though this is a sacred work, the operatic influence is clear: listen to the wordplay around the emphasis in the word "Alleluja" (Alleluja, Alleluja…), the ornamentation in the soprano line, and, of course, the most unhumble and diva-esque high C at the very end!

In one sense, the three trips to Italy had been a great success.  Mozart had written three well-received operas, a number of string quartets and shorter pieces, and had established a name for himself in Italy.  His reputation, however, did not convert itself into a promise of patronage from a wealthy benefactor for young Wolfgang, nor did it result in a more lucrative permanent appointment for Leopold, our deputy capellmeister from Salzburg.  And so, in 1773, the Mozarts returned to Salzburg.  Wolfgang found employment with the Prince-Archbishop Hieronymus Colorado as a court musician - a position that neither Mozart nor the Archbishop would end up being particularly happy with.  Mozart would have to make several other journeys before finding a permanent home and fame in Vienna.