With their father’s encouragement and guidance, they both were introduced to music at an early age. His only sister was Maria Anna (nicknamed “Nannerl”). Wolfgang’s mother, Anna Maria Pertl, was born to a middle class family of local community leaders. Leopold was a successful composer, violinist, and assistant concert master at the Salzburg court. The small city-state of Salzburg would be the birthplace of one of the most talented and prodigious musical composers of all time.īorn on January 27, 1756, in Salzburg, Austria, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s was the sole-surviving son of Leopold and Maria Pertl Mozart.

The music of the Renaissance and Baroque periods was transitioning toward more full-bodied compositions with complex instrumentation.

Political leadership of small city-states like Salzburg, Vienna, and Prague was in the hands of the aristocracy and their wealth would commission artists and musicians to amuse, inspire, and entertain. The result was competing rivalries between these municipalities for identity and recognition. The remnants of the Holy Roman Empire had divided into small semi-self-governing principalities. Early LifeĬentral Europe in the mid-18th century was going through a period of transition. Over the years, Mozart aligned himself with a variety of European venues and patrons, composing hundreds of works that included sonatas, symphonies, masses, chamber music, concertos and operas, marked by vivid emotion and sophisticated textures. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was a musician capable of playing multiple instruments who started playing in public at the age of 6.

Wolfgang amadeus mozart music