Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Toured Europe's courts from age six under his father's management; died at 35 writing a requiem.
- Born
- 1756 · Salzburg, Austria
- Roots
- Austrian; a court musician's family
- Family
- Middle class
- His father Leopold, a court composer and author of a famous violin method, gave up his own career to manage his two prodigy children.
- Education
- Entirely by his father; no school
- Started with
- A father's tour
- Leopold displayed the prodigies across Europe for three and a half years, starting when Wolfgang was six.
- Affiliations & societies
- FreemasonryDocumented
- Initiated in Vienna's 'Zur Wohltätigkeit' lodge in 1784; The Magic Flute is laced with Masonic symbolism, and lodge brothers lent him money in the lean years.
- Information only — claims like these are often unverifiable and may be wrong.
The pathway
- 1762 · age 6The grand tour begins
Munich and Vienna, then Paris and London — the family income rides on the children's performances.
- 1770 · age 14The Miserere from memory
Transcribes the Vatican's guarded choral work after one hearing.
- 1781 · age 25Kicked out of service
Breaks with Salzburg's archbishop — dismissed, by his account, with a literal kick — and gambles on freelancing in Vienna.
- 1786 · age 30The Figaro years
Freelance Vienna: operas, subscription concerts, and teaching — with recurring begging letters to a Masonic brother.
- 1791 · age 35The Magic Flute
A popular-theater hit in his final year.
- 1791 · age 35Dies mid-Requiem
Buried in a common grave per Viennese custom; over 600 works catalogued.
Sources
Compiled from these references and contemporaneous press reporting. Figures are approximate; verify before relying on them.