Arts Features

Dates in Mozart's life

Jan 27, 2006, 12:48 GMT

Hamburg - Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was a genius. Even as a child the son of a music teacher showed extraordinary talent. In his 35 years, the composer created a body of work that is regarded as the epitome of the beautiful and the complete. Important dates from his life:

1756: Mozart is born in Salzburg on January 27 and is baptised one day later with the name Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart. He called himself Wolfgango Amadeo in Italy after 1770, and later Wolfgang Amade.

1761: The 5-year-old Mozart writes his first compositions.

1762: Mozart travels with his father and his older sister by five years to Munich, Passau and Vienna, where the talented children perform in front of the nobility.

1763: The wunderkind starts a three-and-a-half year tour of Europe with his family.

1764: His first published compositions are produced: 16 sonatas for piano and violin.

1767: The family travels to Vienna where Mozart writes his first opera, 'La finta semplice'.

1769: Mozart becomes an unsalaried third concertmaster in the Salzburg court orchestra. There he receives the Papal order of the Knight of the Golden Spurs and becomes a member of the Accademia Filarmonica di Bologna.

1772: Mozart is made a salaried concertmaster. He attempts to escape the strict regime in Salzburg by travelling. Five years later he asks to be relieved of his post.

1778: After failing to find a job in Munich, Augsburg and Mannheim, Mozart travels to Paris with his mother. He does not find any work there either, and his mother dies. In 1779, he becomes the court organist in Salzburg.

1781: He moves to Vienna to work as a freelance composer. As a commission from Emperor Joseph II he writes 'Die Entfuehrung aus dem Serail'.

1782: Mozart marries Constanze Weber in St Stephan's Cathedral in Vienna. In the next few years she bears six children. Four of them die shortly after birth.

1784: He joins the Viennese 'Zur Wohltätigkeit' Freemasons' lodge.

1785: He creates his string quartets. They are dedicated to his friend Joseph Haydn.

1786: 'The Marriage of Figaro' has its premiere in Vienna.

1787: Mozart is made an imperial court composer. 'Don Giovanni' has its premiere in Prague.

1788: Mozart writes three great symphonies in 10 weeks.

1791: 'The Magic Flute' has its premiere in Vienna. On December 5 Mozart dies of a fever. He is buried in the graveyard of St Marx at the gates of Vienna. The exact cause of death is still not clear.