Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was born on January 27, 1756, in Salzburg and was baptized the following morning at ten o'clock in Salzburg Cathedral by the city chaplain Leopold Lamprecht with the names Joannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus. He was called Wolferl, Wolfgang, or Woferl. Wolferl was his parents' seventh child, but only the second to survive. His siblings were Johannes Leopold Joachim (born in 1748, died at six months), Maria Anna Cordula (born in 1749, died at six days), Maria Anna Nepomucena Walburga (born in 1750, died at three months), Maria Anna Walburga Ignatia – Nannerl (* 1751, lived to be 78), Johann Bap. Karl Amadeus (* 1752, did not live to be three months old), and Maria Crescentia Franziska de Paula (* 1754, died at two months old). His father was Leopold Mozart, a chamber musician to the prince-bishop (court composer from 1757 and vice-kapellmeister from 1763) who had moved from Augsburg to Salzburg to study at the Benedictine University (1622–1810), and his mother was Anna Maria Pertl, who grew up in Sankt Gilgen. W. A. Mozart in court attire in an oil painting from 1763. Father Mozart in a letter dated October 19, 1762: “Do you want to know what Woferl's dress looks like? – It is made of the finest liloa-colored cloth ... It was made for Prince Maximilian ...” At the age of four, he and his sister Maria Anna Mozart, known as Nannerl, who was five years older, received their first music and general education lessons from their father in piano, violin (on the Buttergeigerl) and composition. As early as 1761, his father Leopold recorded an Andante and an Allegro as “Wolfgangerl Compositiones,” followed by an Allegro and a Menuetto, dated December 11 and 16, 1761, respectively. The minuet in G major with a minuet in C major as trio, K. 1, which is often mistakenly referred to as his earliest composition, was probably not written until 1764. Mozart's talent for playing the piano and violin also quickly became apparent. His first performances followed in 1762. Wolfgang and his sister Nannerl's first concert tours with their parents were arranged in early 1762 to Munich and in the fall of 1762 from Passau to Vienna to present the talented children to the nobility. Following the success of the child prodigy siblings in Munich and Vienna, the family embarked on an extensive tour of Germany and Western Europe on June 9, 1763, which lasted three and a half years until their return to Salzburg on November 29, 1766. Stops included Munich, Augsburg, Ludwigsburg, Schwetzingen, Heidelberg, Mainz, Frankfurt am Main, Koblenz, Cologne, Aachen, Brussels, Paris (arrival on November 18, 1763), Versailles, London (arrival on April 23, 1764), Dover, Belgium, The Hague (September 1765), Amsterdam, Utrecht, Mechelen, Paris again (arrival May 10, 1766), Dijon, Lyon, Geneva, Lausanne, Bern, Zurich, Donaueschingen, Ulm, and Munich, where the children performed at court or in public academies. During these travels, he composed his first sonatas for piano and violin and his first symphony in E-flat major (KV 16). The four sonatas for piano and violin, KV 6 to 9, were Mozart's first printed compositions in 1764. During this trip, Mozart became familiar with Italian symphonies and opera in London. There he also met Johann Christian Bach, who became his first role model. In 1778, Mozart wrote home from Paris after their reunion there: “I love him (as you well know) with all my heart – and have great respect for him.”