Mozart was born in Salzburg, Austria, the son of composer, musical author,
        and violinist, Leopold Mozart and his wife, Anna Maria Pertl. His given
        names were Johann Chrysostom Wolfgang Theophilus, the last of which is
        Gottlieb in German, and Amadeus in Latin. He used Wolfgang and Amadeus
        in his signature, so he is generally known by these two names.

        He displayed marked musical gifts very early, playing the keyboard
        confidently when aged four, composing his first pieces for it aged five, and
        quickly mastering the violin. Leopold was keen to exhibit his son's
        extraordinary talents, along with those of his gifted pianist-daughter,
        Maria-Anna (called Nannerl) (1751--1829), and he undertook a series of
        tours across Europe with them when Mozart was just six years old.

        In 1767 the family went for five months to Vienna, where Mozart wrote an
        opera buffa (comic opera) for the Emperor, La finta semplice (trans, the
        Pretend Simpleton); and a Singspiel (a German-language opera with some
        spoken dialogue), Bastien und Bastienne (1769), commissioned by Dr
        Franz Anton Mesmer. However, in Vienna the Italian musicians at court,
        including the composer Antonio Salieri, made it difficult for him to produce
        his operas. He returned to Salzburg, and was appointed honorary
        Konzertmeister to Archbishop Sigismund von Schrattenbach.

        There followed three extended visits by father and son to Italy (1770--2).
        Musical experience gained on these tours helped mould Mozart's style,
        especially in dramatic music. He was prolific, writing sacred vocal pieces
        and instrumental works too. By 1772 he had written about 25 symphonies
        (some are lost), and his first quartets. Further quartets and symphonies
        followed during and after a visit to Vienna in 1773, when he came into
        contact with Haydn's music. Between 1775--6 he composed two operas: La
        finta giardiniera (trans The Lady Who Disguised Herself as a Gardener)
        and Il re pastore (The Shepherd King); five violin concertos; the Haffner
        Serenade, and masses for the Salzburg Court Chapel. Bach, Haydn, Handel,
        and the Italian composers were all major influences on him at the time.

        Unhappy with the austere and unmusical Archbishop Colloredo of Salzburg,
        who was appointed at the death of Sigismund, Mozart left his service in
        1777 and, travelling with his mother, sought employment elsewhere. They
        stayed at Mannheim, where he composed some piano concertos and flute
        quartets, and fell in love with a coloratura soprano, Aloysia Weber. In 1778
        his mother died in Paris. He composed the Paris symphony the same year.
        His father then persuaded him to return to Salzburg. Mozart visited the
        Webers on his way back to find that Aloysia seemed to have forgotten him
        entirely.

        Back in Salzburg, Mozart reluctantly accepted the post of court organist
        (1779). At this time he composed the Coronation Mass (1779), the Sinfonia
        Concertante in E Flat Major for Violin, Viola and Orchestra, and the
        Serenade in D Major. In 1780 he received an important commission from
        Munich, the opera seria (serious opera) Idomeneo . In 1781 Colloredo
        summoned Mozart to Vienna for the coronation of Emperor Joseph II.
        Again, he left the archbishop's service, this time after a stormy scene, but
        remained in Vienna, which became his home for the rest of his short, full
        life.

        Aloysia Weber had married a court actor and Mozart had turned his
        attentions to her sister Constanze, whom he married in 1782 - the year of
        his Singspiel , Die Entfhrung aus dem Serail (The Abduction from the
        Harem). Married life was humorous and happy, but financially insecure.
        Mozart eked out his income by teaching. They had six children, two of
        whom survived. He became a Freemason in 1784, and in the same year he
        produced six piano concertos. In 1785 he composed a futher three, and in
        1786 three more. These marked the rich flowering of his maturity, along
        with the six quartets dedicated to Haydn; the Linz and Prague symphonies;
        and the three Italian comic masterpieces composed to libretti by Lorenzo da
        Ponte: Le nozze di Figaro (1786, The Marriage of Figaro, after
        Beaumarchais), Don Giovanni (first performed in Prague, 1787), and CosÏ
        fan tutte (1790, trans Thus All Women). The string quintets in C major and
        G minor (1787), the last three symphonies (1788) - including his
        masterpiece of counterpoint, the Symphony no.41 in C Major, the Jupiter -
        the quartets for the King of Prussia, and a clarinet quintet mark the peak of
        his instrumental powers.

        The letters to fellow Masons in his last three years make sad reading,
        reflecting his countless anxieties about finance or health. He hoped for new
        commissions or a court post on the accession of Emperor Leopold II, but
        nothing was forthcoming. In 1791 he applied unsuccessfully for the post of
        Kapellmeister of St Stephen's Cathedral. His last complete works were the
        masonic Singspiel , Die Zauberflote (1791, The Magic Flute); an opera
        seria, La clemenze di Tito (1791, The mercy of Tito), and a clarinet
        concerto for Leopold's coronation. Commissioned by an unknown stranger
        to compose the Requiem Mass, Mozart became obsessed with the idea that
        it was for his own death, and he died before the work was finished after a
        three-week fever. No convincing evidence about the cause of death has
        come to light, although there has been much speculation about it. Deeply in
        debt at the time of his death, Mozart did not live long enough to enjoy the
        financial rewards from the success of The Magic Flute , and was buried in
        a pauper's grave.