Curtis Zhang
6/17/20
Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was a famous composer born in 1756. His dad was a relatively successful musician, but Mozart was going to be way more famous than his dad. Mozart was a child prodigy and showed off his musical abilities when he taught himself the violin and composed little pieces when he was still a child. His father decided to send him on a tour to show off his abilities(which I think is stupid) and they had lots of troubles along the way.
Mozart got his first job when he was 17 as a court musician for the “Prince Archbishop of Salzburg”, and at first he composed lots of concertos and symphonies, but later, he got bored of his life as court musician, so he left as court musician to go to Paris, but paris had no jobs for musicians, so he went back and this time his dad got him a position as “court organist.” This time his employer treated him as a servant, and after a long time of trying to quit and not being allowed to, he was relieved of duty but humiliated.
After he was relieved of duty, he decided to be a freelance musician and started publishing his music alone and also got married. He made a wide variety of music and even a few operas. At this point, Mozart’s financial situation was at his best, and he started living in an luxurious apartment. At one point, he was even called “the greatest composer known to me in person and in name” by a famous composer during the time.
In 1786 musicians were finding a hard time to stay alive during this time because they were losing their main source of money which were the rich people of their country. Mozart started to lose his fame, so he made tours all over europe to try to restart his fame. In 1790, things started to look better, as his financial situation was starting to get better. He made tons of new pieces during this time, but in 1791, he got sick and he frantically wrote his latest piece which he thought was going to be his “funeral piece.” Ultimately, he failed to complete it on time, and he died on December 5, 1791 at age 35 with his funeral piece still unfinished.
Though Mozart died without being able to live his life through, his short life produced many of the best concertos of all time. He may have had a short life, but he will always be considered by some as the greatest composer of all time.