Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Mozart: A World Famous Composer

When Mozart died in 1791, he took his last breath in the arms of his wife Constanze, who had remained close to her husband during his final illness. They were so impoverished that he was buried the very next day, after a brief funeral service at St. Stephen's Cathedral in Vienna. It was the very same Cathedral that they had been married in on August 4th, 1782, only nine years before.

Mozart was but 35 years of age when he died, having been born on January 27, 1756. It was indeed a short life, filled with promise, hope and tragedy. He left behind a legacy of over 600 masterpieces, yet was buried in a cheap coffin, on an unmarked grave. The grave was an hour's walk outside the great city of Vienna. There was strong suspicion that he had been murdered.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was born in Salzburg, in the Austrian Alps. It was a society which knew no middle class as we have it today. Musicians were considered like other craftsmen and relied on patrons for their income. Such was the case with Wolfgang's father, Leopold. He was a violinist in the court orchestra of the Archbishop of Salzburg. In later life, young Mozart would try to throw off the shackkles of patronage. He wanted a musical life of freelance compositions and performances. As we shall see, this turned out to be not only unwise, but a disaster.

Leopold and his wife, Anna Maria, had seven children altogether. By the time of Mozart's birth, only one had survived. She was a little girl named Maria Anna. The other children had died from smallpox or scarlet fever, or at birth. By the age of four, Mozart was playing and composing. His father, was convinced that he had a child prodigy or genious on his hands. Maria Anna had also become proficient in performing. She had learned to play piano by age seven.

When Maria Anna was eleven and Wolfgang was six, Leopold took them on tour to perform in high circles, hoping to earn more income and gain fame. This was the first of many journeys Mozart was to embark on. From 1763 to 1789 he toured Paris, London, Italy, Mannheim, Prague, and Berlin. Mozart's star began to shine at an early age and success followed him wherever he went. By the age of fourteen he had already received a very high honor from the Pope. He was made a knight of the Order of The Golden Spur.

For several years Mozart was engaged to write and perform for the Archbishops of Salzburg, but by 1777 they parted company and Wolfgang sought to earn his living by becoming a freelancer. By 1780 he had been commissioned to write the opera "I Domeneo" for the Munich carnival season of 1781. It was his first great opera in which the cast of characters were able to express wide ranging human emotions such as rage, joy, grief, suffering, and all through the medium of music.

Life for Mozart was always a struggle. Money was a constant problem. With his marriage to Constanze in 1782, he was visited with some degree of happiness. They got on well together and in 1783 their first son was born. His name was Raismund. Within six weeks of his birth he died. Their second son, Carl, was born in 1784. He lived a long life and eventually died at age 74. Only one other child, Franz Xaver, would survive, while three others died.

Perhaps the most curious turn of events in the entire life of Mozart came about in 1784. It is very difficult to explain and was probably the result of constantly needing money. Mozart was determined to free himself from the system of patronage. In freeing himself from one overlord, he descended into bondage under the the influence of the Freemasons, a secret society he joined in December of that year.

It is difficult to believe that a Catholic like Mozart, who had composed beautiful masses and church music for the great Cathedral of Salzburg, could ever become involved with an organization like the Freemasons. Their sole purpose was to overthrow the Catholic faith and indeed the overthrow of existing governments. Quite simply put, they were nothing more than atheistic anarchists. They were responsible for the calamity known as the French Revolution.

Mozart however, needed money and saw his own membership in the Freemasons as a way to climb the social ladder. Membership included many rich and powerful men and that is still true today. He began writing music for various Masonic functions, the most important being The Magic Flute. This was a thoroughly Masonic work and proved to be a big success.

By the end of 1785, Wolfgang's compositions were being performed all over Germany and Austria. Masterpieces such as The Marriage of Figaro and Don Giovanni were being seen and heard by thousands. The bloom was off the rose however by 1787. Mozart and his wife were short of cash and had to go begging to their associates among the Freemasons. They were forced to move three times to even poorer quarters and to earn extra money, Mozart was compelled to work on arrangements of other composers' musical works.

Between 1789 and 1791, he visited Berlin and Frankfurt, always hoping to be noticed by someone important and always looking for a new source of income. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was certainly one of the greatest composers of any age. He is credited with writing 20 operas, 55 concert arias, 17 masses, 48 symphonies, 21 serenades, 23 concertos, and 18 sonatas. Hundreds of other compositions complete the legacy.

Perhaps his greatest mistake was to become involved with the Freemasons. The Magic Flute was a Masonic opera. In it, he revealed some of the most secret Masonic rites and ceremonies. This was forbidden by the order under pain of death. In the autumn of 1791 Mozart fell seriously ill and he believed he was being slowly poisoned by the Masons for having composed The Magic Flute. His condition became grave, with severe fever, horrible stomach pain, and kidney disease.

All of his suffering was indicative of poisoning and all he could think of was the completion of a Requiem for the end of his own life which he knew to be at hand. He died in his own bed, at one in the morning, Monday, December 5, 1791. His music will be treasured as long as civilization lasts. Today, in Salzburg, there exists a beautiful monument to his memory.

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