Wolfgang Amadeus

1. Wolfgang Amadeus

2. Wolfgang Amadeus Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was born in Salzburg, Austria in 1756

3. Mozart's House, Salzburg This is the birthplace of Mozart in Getreide-gasse Strasse, in the Austrian city of Salzburg. It’s one of the most visited sites in all of Salzburg.

4. Mozart is considered one of history’s greatest geniuses. He got an early start, and, from then on, was unstoppable.

5. At the age of three, Wolfgang sat in front of the harpsichord attempting to find harmonic successions of thirds and before the age of four, he had exhibited such extraordinary musical powers that his father decided to give young Wolfgang harpsichord lessons.

6. Listen to this piece, which was composed by the young Mozart. It’s a set of Variations on a tune which you’ll know. As it goes on, you will hear that it becomes more and more challenging (not bad for 5 years old!)

7. A Child Prodigy Wolfgang’s sister, Maria Anna, who was nicknamed “Nannerl,” was also a gifted musician, so at 6 years old, Wolfgang and his sister toured all over Europe as child prodigies. Do you know what a prodigy is? Maria Anna Mozart

8. Mozart started composing at the age of 4. It took him until the ripe old age of 12 to write his first complete opera!

9. Mozart was pushed by his father to be successful. Leopold Mozart was an accomplished composer and musician in his own right, and taught both of his children to play Violin & Harpsichord, and to compose music. Leopold Mozart

10. Leopold felt that it was proper, and might also be profitable, to exhibit his children's God-given genius; so in mid-1763 the family set out on a tour that took them to Paris and London, visiting numerous courts on the way. Mozart astonished audiences with his skills; he played to the French and English royal families, had his first music published and wrote his earliest symphonies. The family arrived home late in 1766; nine months later they were off again to Vienna.

11. On the way back from the second European tour, Leopold and the children passed through Rome on Easter. As with any tourist, they visited St. Peter's on April 11, 1770 to hear the famous “Miserere” sung at the Sistine Chapel. The “Miserere” is a 10 minute piece written for 9 voices. You are listening to it now. It was so sacred that it was only performed once a year in the Sistine Chapel on Easter. Nobody, except the performers, was ever allowed to see the music. After each performance, the musicians and singers were required to immediately turn in their music to Roman Catholic authorities. Upon arriving at their lodging that evening, the 14-year old Mozart sat down and wrote out the entire 10-minute piece from memory.

12. Here is an excerpt of a letter from Wolfgang’s father to his mother: "...You have often heard of the famous Miserere in Rome, which is so greatly prized that the performers are forbidden on pain of excommunication to take away a single part of it, copy it or to give it to anyone. *But we have it already*. Wolfgang has written it downand we would have sent to you in this letter, but as it is one of the secrets of Rome, we do not wish to let it fall into other hands.”

13. Pope Clement XIV A few weeks later, when the young Wolfgang performed for Pope Clement XIV as scheduled, he told the Pope about his accomplishment and showed him the music score which he had written. Instead of banishing Mozart as was the rule, the Pope showered him with praise and bestowed upon him the Cross of the Order of the Golden Spur.

14. Mithridates, King of Pontus On Christmas day in 1770, Mozart’s first major opera, Mithridates, King of Pontus, was performed in Milan when he was still only 14 years old. Critics praised the work and stated that he was the greatest composer since Handel, the composer of the Hallelujah Chorus. Handel

15. Back home in Salzburg, the 15-year-old Mozart began working in the court of the ruler, Prince-Archbishop Colloredo. Mozart worked at Colloredo's court because his father worked there, and it was considered natural that the son would follow the father's footsteps. Wolfgang earned only a pittance, and to be paid so little for a job he loathed was the worst of insults. In a letter to his father in 1778, Wolfgang wrote, "the Archbishop glorifies himself through his dependants, robs them of their services and pays them nothing for it!" Archbishop Colloredo

16. Perhaps the Archbishop heard rumors of Mozart's opinions, or, just as likely, Mozart did not trouble to hide his feelings. In either case, the employer was equally displeased with the employee. Their infamous final encounter in 1781 was a festival of insults from both sides, resulting in Wolfgang's expulsion from the court, propelled through the door by a kick in the seat of the pants by the Archbishop’s assistant. The young composer described the experience as "a happy day for me!"

17. The film Amadeus was made about Mozart’s life. Although not everything in the film is completely true, it does give us a good look at what kind of person Mozart was.

18. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Antonio Salieri The movie tells the story of two composers, Mozart, and a rival composer, Antonio Salieri, who was an Italian Composer working as the court composer in Vienna (a very important position).

19. In the first clip we are about to see, Salieri is now an old man living in an insane asylum who has confessed to killing Mozart many years ago. A priest has heard about the confession and comes to hear Salieri’s story. Salieri begins to tell the priest his story about how he wanted to be a composer, and how he first met Mozart. Then, as the video plays on, you will see a flashback of Mozart’s wife trying to get Salieri to help them since they need money. Salieri looks through Mozart’s music and is amazed and very moved by it. He gets extremely jealous and refuses to help. Click here to watch the 2 clips.

20. This concludes the first part of the presentation. Start the next class period with the next slide.

21. To say that Mozart was a composer of unequalled genius is scarcely scratching the surface of this man's remarkable gifts.  He wrote music - complete and perfect, down to the last accent and inflection, as fast as he could think, and this astonishing rate of production continues to stupefy scholars today.  Mozart Part 2

22. Operas, such as Don Giovanni (pictured here) and The Magic Flute (which you are listening to) were a popular form of entertainment at the time, and Mozart was well-known for his great operas.

23. Mozart had an incredible gift, but he really just wanted to have fun.

24. Although Mozart wrote a tremendous amount of music, he often was paid with gifts instead of money. He did make a good living by musician’s standards, but what money he did make he had trouble keeping. He liked to play billiards and to gamble at card games, and he was terrible at both of them.

25. Mozart could often be rude to nobility and to other composers. While he was blessed with a great musical talent, he wasn’t as well blessed in people skills. He knew that he was a genius, and often offended other composers and royalty. You can see that this letter is addressed to Haydn, with whom he studied a little and was a good friend.

26. In this next clip, the emperor summons Mozart to meet him. We get another glimpse into the genius of Mozart. Click here to play the video.

27. The Abduction from the Seraglio Now a grown man, Mozart initially thrived in Vienna.   He was in great demand as a performer and composition teacher, and his first opera, "The Abduction from the Seraglio", was a hit.  But life was not easy.  He was a poor businessman, so finances were always tight, especially after his marriage to Constanze Weber, of whom his father never approved. Constanze

28. Mozart’s music of the next decade was very creative but not always popular and he eventually fell back on his teaching jobs and on the charity of friends to make ends meet. In 1788 he stopped performing in public, preferring to compose.

29. Mozart fell ill in September of 1791, and by November was bedridden. One night, a stranger, masked and dressed in grey, accosted Mozart and commissioned him to compose a requiem, or funeral music for a dead person. The stranger was representing a wealthy nobleman who frequently asked great composers to produce works for him, but to Mozart, as ill as he was, it appeared that this stranger was a messenger from “the world beyond” sent to warn the composer that it was time to compose his own requiem for his looming and untimely death. Through sleepless, delirious nights, the messenger haunted Mozart's thoughts and he feverishly worked upon his requiem. He was found at his desk unconscious and taken to bed, the physician announced that Mozart was seeing his last days, but Mozart already knew that he was dying.

30. On December 5, 1791 at the age of thirty-five, he said farewell to his family and turned his face to the wall, and shortly afterwards he was dead. Mozart's wife Constanze, whom he married against his fathers wishes, told anyone who'd listen that she believed Court Composer Antonio Salieri had conspired against her husband. Salieri denied having conspired against Mozart or having had anything to do with his death, however near the end of his life, he suffered from nervous breakdowns which resulted in periodic hospitalization. It is rumored that at such times he would make outrageous claims. Perhaps spurred on by Constanze Mozart's accusation, he claimed he had killed the great composer, but once back to his normal frame of mind, he would recant.It is these stories that are the basis for the film Amadeus.

31. Here’s a scene from the movie “Amadeus.” Mozart, too sick to compose, tells Salieri what notes to write for his requiem. Watch the final video clip.

32. Mozart died in Vienna, Austria in 1791. He was buried in an unmarked communal grave. When Constanze returned with flowers one week later, she could not find the grave. The exact location is unknown to this day.

33. Was Salieri a bad person? It doesn’t seem so. Most of his music lessons he gave for free, and he also served as the president of a society that helped support the widows and children of musicians. Did Salieri kill Mozart? It’s highly unlikely. Mozart certainly never considered him an enemy. In all his letters, Mozart referred to Salieri in the warmest of terms and even asked him to tutor one of his children. Salieri and Mozart even composed a cantata for voice and piano together. When Salieri attended Mozart’s opera “The Magic Flute,” Mozart wrote about it in a letter to his wife, "He (Salieri) heard and saw with all his attention, and from the overture to the last choir there was no piece that didn't elicit a bravo or bello out of him." In addition, there is no proof that even during his nervous breakdowns that Salieri ever admitted to killing Mozart. Salieri's two nurses, as well as his family doctor, attested that he never said any such thing.

34. How good was Mozart? When the famous composer, Haydn, heard some of Mozart’s works, he told Leopold, "Before God and as an honest man I tell you that your son is the greatest composer known to me either in person or by name: He has taste, and, furthermore, the most profound knowledge of composition."

35. Mozart died young (35), but left behind an enormous amount of music. If you listened to all of it back to back for 8 hours a day, it would take 3 months to hear it all!!! How long would it take to hear all of your favorite band’s music back to back?

36. In his short life, he composed over 600 works, including 21 stage and opera works, 15 Masses, over 50 symphonies, 25 piano concertos, 12 violin concertos, 27 concert arias, 17 piano sonatas, 26 string quartets...the list is endless.  And what makes these numbers doubly unfathomable is the peerless craft with which each piece of music was created.

37. Studies have proven that listening to Mozart’s music has a stimulating effect on our brain. It is a fact that listening to his music for a period of 20 minutes or more will temporarily raise your I.Q. up 20 points! This is called the Mozart Effect. (Since you have been listening to Mozart’s music for this presentation, you should all remember this information perfectly!)

38. More studies are being done to see if the Mozart Effect can have a PERMANENT effect on people if they listen to it at a very early age. Many CD’s of Mozart’s music are available for parents to boost their baby’s IQ’s. Some experts say the earlier the better, and recommend that pregnant mothers use headphones to play music for their unborn babies.

39. What did Mozart look like? Who knows! Every portrait of him looks entirely different.

40. Listening: (click to continue) Overture to the Marriage of Figaro Eine Kleine Nachtmusik

41. In recent years, Mozart's fame has reached new heights on the popularity of the film Amadeus.  Music scholars love to poke holes in what is admittedly a fantastical portrait of Mozart's life, and ensuing arguments over his relationship with his musical "rival" Salieri, his method of composing, and the events surrounding his death have created more public misunderstandings about this divine figure than ever existed before.  What the recent Mozart vogue has created for the good, however, is increased awareness of his music, which must be counted among the absolute wonders of the world. Mozart's last work, the Requiem, was composed under mysterious circumstances. In 1791 a stranger, masked and dressed in grey, accosted Mozart and commissioned him to compose a requiem. The stranger was representing a wealthy nobleman who frequently asked great composers to produce works for him which he later presented under his own name but to Mozart, as ill as he was, it appeared that this stranger was a messenger from the other world sent to warn the composer that it was time to compose his own requiem. Through sleepless, delirious nights, the messenger haunted Mozart's thoughts and he feverishly worked upon his requiem, He was found at his desk unconscious and taken to bed, the physician announced that Mozart was seeing his last days but Mozart already knew that he was dying. To his pupil, Süßmayer, he explained precisely how the Requiem was to be completed and before he died he attempted to sing parts of his last great work. On 5 December 1791 at the age of thirty-five, he said farewell to his family and turned his face to the wall, shortly afterwards he was dead. Mozart's remains were thrown into a pauper's grave and one week later, when Constanze returned with flowers she could not find the grave. Because Mozart had died like a pauper, his grave had been left unmarked, his body unidentified. In his short life, he composed over 600 works, including 21 stage and opera works, 15 Masses, over 50 symphonies, 25 piano concertos, 12 violin concertos, 27 concert arias, 17 piano sonatas, 26 string quartets. His Requiem, composed not long before his own death, stands with Bach's St. Matthew Passion as the supreme example of vocal music. New studies have proven that listening to Mozart’s music has a stimulating effect on our brain. It is a fact that listening to his music for a period of 20 minutes or more will temporarily raise your I.Q. up to 20 points! (So you should all remember this information terrifically!)