MOZART’S MUSIC
Recently, I read the book “Who was Mozart” by Yona Zeldis McDounough, and then we went to a concert in Vienna at a music hall where he played hundreds of years ago! This made me wonder even more about his life and his music. And it turns out he was a pretty interesting guy!
Wolfgang Amedeus Mozart was born in Salzburg on January 27, 1756, and we got to visit his birth house, which is now a museum. Mozart’s parents were Leopold and Anna Maria, his sister was Maria Anna, and his dog was Pimprel. Mozart started learning how to play instruments at the very young age of three and composed his first piece at five, and continued to write over 600 works in his lifetime. Mozart lived in Salzburg for most of his childhood, until he and his family permanently moved to Vienna to follow his music career. Kings and queens, emperors and empresses, dukes and duchesses all throughout Europe wanted to hear his music! Mozart loved dressing nicely, so he spent a lot of his money on new, fancy ensembles which was perfect because he was meeting royalty!
Mozart led a wonderful life, but had a mysterious illness that caused him to be very short. His life ended abruptly at the age of thirty five because someone is said to have poisoned him. No one will ever know what really happened though…
On Friday, my family and I went to a concert where they played Mozart’s pieces. The music was performed at Mozarthaus, which is a very important place because Mozart himself lived and played here from 1784 to 1787. The concert hall is beautiful, yet very small in size and the walls are covered in frescoes. The best part about this experience is that you are sitting in the place where Mozart played over 250 years ago. And we were so lucky to sit in the front row!
The musicians played in a string quartet: two violins, one viola and one cello. We learned that string quartets were invented when a king wanted music played in his palace, but did not want to invite a full orchestra. The composers would bring just these four musicians to play for the king.
During this concert, the string quartet played several pieces of music, but I only recognized one song: Eine Kleine Nachtmusik. It was my favorite song though!
I really liked the string quartet, and I now think that Mozart is a lot cooler than I used to think. He is one of the greatest musicians and composers known to women, and I now know why.
Das Ende!
