Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart may have been the first musician to have enjoyed the rush of fame of a modern rock star, and had his life in part shaped by promtion and "public relations".  He died a tragic and premature death.

Mozart's Life

What is indisputable is that Mozart was a child prodigy.

By the age of six he was giving public concerts.

Before his seventh birthday he was touring Europe.

And with the same aggressiveness as any modern rock promoter, Mozart's father Leopold promoted the career of his talented son, accompanied by his sister Nannerl who performed as a vocalist.

Leopold would arrange concerts for the "miracle children" at the most influential local court in each city. Private concert requests from the lesser nobles would then pour in. These concert programs each lasted one and one half to three hours.  The concerts were scheduled by Mozart's father two per day, and were richly rewarding.

As a six year old on a grueling tour, Mozart, on the long carriage rides from venue to venue, constructed an imaginary land, the Kingdom of Black. It was endowed, his sister later recorded, "with everything that could make good and happy children". Mozart himself was the king of this elaborate imaginary kingdom, and was able to identify the names of each city, village and town to the family servant, whom Mozart had persuaded to draw up a map.

One of Leopold's letters makes casual mention of the fact that Wolfgang was cutting a new tooth. The celebrated star of Vienna's society had not yet reached his seventh birthday.

But fame is fleeting, and child prodigies grow up. By his early twenties Mozart, employed as a court musician in his hometown of Salzburg, was frustrated that his position did not mach his talents.

When he finally received permission to leave his post as court musician, he traveled to Mannheim, and developed a passion for two things: the clarinet, and the lovely soprano Aloysia Weber. The death of his mother, and his return to Salzburg, left him once again in a position he despised: that of lowly court organist. While he was able to attract commissions, he was unable to find a full-time position as a composer. And he received the news that his beloved Aloysia had married.

He once again extricated himself from his employment in Salzburg, and this time journeyed to Vienna - the center of culture and high society. In 1782 he married Constance Weber, the sister of his previous love, Aloysia.

Mozart's life thereafter became a story of attempting to support a somewhat lavish lifestyle, on his work as a freelancer - teaching, publishing his music, playing concerts, and composing commissioned works. It seemed that however much he was paid, he was continually in debt. And at times, he was unable to find commissions.

It was in 1791 that Mozart was approached, at age 35, with the mysterious request that he write a requiem (a mass honoring the dead), for which he would be well paid, but which would be anonymous. We since know that the mass was commissioned by a Count for his wife. The Count was in the habit of commissioning works from famous composers, and copying them over, presenting them as his own work.

Mozart was consumed by the assignment. Superstitious by nature, frightened of the dark and of the supernatural, Mozart was haunted by the possibility that the commission portended his own death.

Within the year, Mozart was dead, the still unfinished requiem left with instructions for his students.

Debate about the cause of Mozart's death raged for centuries. A plot by a rival composer, Salieri, to poison Mozart, to which Salieri reportedly confessed on his deathbed, has been all but dismissed. It is generally believed that a return of rheumatic fever, which Mozart had suffered as a child on grueling tour, perhaps complicated by the mercury used at the time to treat the illness, but now known to be poisonous, made worse by Mozart's history of heavy drinking, resulted in kidney failure.

After his death, Mozart's wife Constance sold his manuscripts, retaining the unfinished drafts. It is this deft move which many believe was the beginning of the romanticized myth which surrounds Mozart, and his reputed ability to compose entirely in his mind.

The undisputable truth about Mozart's life is shown in his work - brilliant and truly prodigious output, one of the most voluminous legacies of musical composition in history - all from a single mind.

Mozart's work

While Bach is often thought of as having perfected the art of counterpoint, and Beethoven as the master of the symphonic form, Mozart's prodigious output of brilliant music defies the listener to reduce it to a particular aesthetic or technical principle or concept.

Some 200 years after Mozart's death, Ludwig von Köchel, a botanist by training and a musical amateur with a passion for the music of Mozart, undertook to compile a complete, accurate catalogue of Mozart's works, each listed in chronological order. Although the list has been added to from time to time, "K" (for Kochel) numbering is still used to refer to Mozart's works.

The "Kochel" list today enumerates more than 600 distinct works by Mozart. Every form of musical composition is represented - more than 50 symphonies, 21 stage and opera works, 26 string quartets, 25 piano concertos, and many others, including pieces featuring one of Mozart's favorite instruments - the clarinet.

During his adult life, perhaps the greatest success Mozart enjoyed was as a composer of operas. Mozart had composed his first opera at age 12. His marriage to Constance Weber took place following the success of his tremendous opera, The Abduction From The Seraglio. His operas Don Giovanni and Marriage of Figaro enjoyed huge popuar success.

But it was Mozart's final stage work, The Magic Flute, based on an oriental myth, that truly opened a magical door. At the core of the opera are an enchanted flute, and a glockenspiel, that confer magical powers on those who play them. Beethoven lauded Mozart's The Magic Flute as having encompassed every form of music.

Mozart's immense body of work has influenced every generation of musical composition. Beethoven paid him homage by reprising elements of Mozart's work in his own (listen for themes from the Magic Flute in Beethoven's Variations for Cello and Piano). Beethoven reportedly considered Mozart to have written the finest melody imaginable. The composer Gustav Mahler, on his deathbed, reportedly spoke the word "Mozart" with his final breath. Tchaikovsky, a great composer of the Romantic period, celebrated Mozart in his composition "Mozartiana".

More recently, psychologists have identified a phenomenon termed the "Mozart Effect".  Experiments revealed that listening to the music of Mozart made people more relaxed, and, in measurable ways, more intelligent. This surprising effect reportedly occurs for a wide range of classical music, but is generally associated with the music of Mozart, perhaps because his compositions are considered the most perfectly formed.

Recommendations for Newbies:

For anyone with even the slightest interest in music, Mozart is a must-listen. Good starting points, each a different entry point into this man's remarkable music, are:

Serenade in G major (Eine kleine Nachtmusik). - a remarkable and unforgettable melody

"Dies Irae" from Mozart's Requieum - powerful driving rage

The Magic Flute - witty and noble, at the same time. Start with the overture.