If Bach is a great example of a composer who was never a crazy party animal, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was exactly the opposite. Mozart was a child star who toured all over Europe with his father and sister starting when he was only six years old, stunning people with his ability to play the piano and write music even better than the adults. When he grew up he was notorious for staying out all night and going to every party he could find, which helped to account for his death at age 35. Especially for someone who lived such a short life, Mozart wrote an enormous amount of music - including symphonies, operas, church music, songs, ballets, pieces for piano, and many, many more. He was legendary for his ability to hear a piece of music only once, even a very long and complicated one, and play it back perfectly from memory.

 

Mozart’s music may be the most popular of any composer, maybe because it has such beautiful and clear melodies. He was able to make even the most complicated musical ideas sound very simple and easy to play.

 

Like many famous people, many myths and legends have developed about Mozart’s life. One of the most popular is that Mozart’s friend and fellow composer Antonio Salieri was somehow responsible for his death. In the 1980’s an English playwright named Peter Schaffer wrote a famous play (and later a movie) called “Amadeus” that made Salieri into a villain - which made for a good story, but isn’t true. The real cause of Mozart’s death may never be known.