Mozart

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was an Austrian composer who lived from 1756 to 1791. A composer is a person who writes music. Mozart wrote more than 600 pieces of music in his short life, including symphonies, operas, and concertos. Many people think he is one of the greatest composers who ever lived.

Mozart was born in the city of Salzburg, in what is now Austria. His father, Leopold, was a violinist and music teacher. Leopold noticed that little Wolfgang could play tunes on the keyboard before he was four years old. By age five, Mozart was writing his own short pieces. By age six, he was performing for kings and queens across Europe.

His father took him and his older sister, Nannerl, on long tours. They played for the empress in Vienna and the king in London. Travel was hard in the 1760s. A trip from Salzburg to Paris could take weeks by horse-drawn coach. Mozart spent much of his childhood bouncing along rough roads from one royal palace to the next.

As a teenager, Mozart kept getting better. He wrote his first opera at age 14. He could hear a long piece of music once and write the whole thing down from memory. Once, in Rome, he listened to a sacred song that the church had kept secret for 150 years. Then he went home and wrote it out perfectly from memory.

As an adult, Mozart moved to Vienna, the music capital of Europe. He wrote some of his most famous works there. These include the operas The Marriage of Figaro and The Magic Flute, the Symphony No. 40, and a piano piece nicknamed "Twinkle, Twinkle" variations. The familiar tune of "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star" was a French folk song, and Mozart wrote 12 clever variations on it.

Mozart was not good with money. He earned a lot but spent even more. He often had to borrow from friends to pay his rent. He worked himself very hard, sometimes writing music day and night.

In 1791, while writing a sad piece called the Requiem, Mozart got sick. He died at age 35, before he could finish it. Doctors today still argue about what killed him. Some think it was a kidney disease. Others suggest a fever, a bad infection, or rheumatic fever. Wild rumors at the time even claimed he was poisoned by a rival, but historians do not believe that story.

More than 230 years after his death, Mozart's music is still played every day in concert halls around the world. Children learn his melodies before they know his name.