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Yekaterina Todika Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was
baptized in Salzburg Cathedral on the day after his birth as Joannes
Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus. The first and last given names come from his
godfather Joannes Theophilus Pergmayr, although Mozart preferred the Latin form
of this last name, Amadeus, more often Amade, or the Italiano Amadeo. Whatever
the case may be, he rarely-if ever-used Theophilus in his signature. The name
Chrysostomus originates from St. John Chrysostom, whose feast falls on the 27th
of January. The name Wolfgang was given to him in honor of his maternal
grandfather, Wolfgang Nikolaus Pertl. He was the seventh and last child born to
musical author, composer and violinist, Leopold Mozart and his wife Anna Maria
Pertl. Only Wolfgang and Maria Anna (whose nickname was ‘Nannerl’) survived
infancy. He was born in a house in the Hagenauersches Haus in Salzburg, Austria,
on the 27th of January, 1756. The paternal ancestry of the family has been
traced back with some degree of certainty to Fndris Motzhart, who lived in the
Augsburg area in 1486; the name is first recorded, for a Heinrich Motxhart in
Fischach, in 1331, and appears in other villages south-west of Augsburg, notably
Heimberg, from 14th century. The surname was spelled in variety of forms,
including Moxarth, Mozhrd and Mozer. His mother’s family came mainly from the
Salzburg region, but one branch may be traced to Krems-Stein and Wien. They
mostly followed lower middle-class occupations; some were gardeners. 2 Though
Mozart did not walk until he was three years old, he displayed musical gifts at
extremely early age. At the age of four, he could reproduce on the piano a
melody played to him; at five, he could play violin with perfect intonation.
According to Norbert Elias, it took all of thirty minutes for Mozart to master
his first musical composition. The work , a scherzo by Georg Christoph
Wagenseiil, had been copied by his father into Nannerl’s notebook. Below it
Leopold jotted: “This piece was learned by Walfgangerl on 24 January 1791, 3
days before his 5th birthday, between 9 and 9:30 in the evening”. (68) Mozart
and his sister never attended school because their father dedicatedly and
instructed them at home. Besides music, he taught them German, Italian, Latin,
history science, mathematics and law. According to Ruth Halliwell, recognizing
his children’s special abilities, Leopold began to devote extra effort to their
education-with an emphasis on musical instruction. He became a loving, but
exacting, taskmaster. Some time later, he would somewhat ruefully describe to
correspondent how from a very early age Nannerl and Wolfgang had learned to wear
the “iron shirt” of discipline. The children themselves probably never relaxed
that life could be any different. Wolfgang, no doubt, enjoyed the extra
attention and found great pleasure in learning-and in pleasing his father. It
was the start of relationship that he would never quite break free of, and the
beginning of a career that would consume him altogether.(38} When the
six-year-old Wolfgang had provided his extraordinary talents at the keyboard,
Leopold was keen to exhibit those talents along with those of his gifted
pianists’ daughter, Nannerl. Thus Leopold undertook a four month tour to Vienna
and the 3 surrounding area, visiting every noble house and palace he could find,
taking the entire family with him.
Mozart’s first know public appearance was at
Salzburg University in September of 1761, when he took part in theatrical
performance with music by Eberlin. Like other parents of this time, Leopold
Mozart saw nothing wrong in exhibiting, or in exploiting, his son’s God-given
genius for music. He took Walfgang and Nannerl to Munchen, for about three weeks
from January 12th, 1762, where they played the harpsichord before the Elector of
Bavaria. No documentation survived for that journey. Later ones are better
served-Leopold was a prolific correspondent and also kept travel diaries. The
next started on September 18th, 1762, when the entire family set off for Wein;
they paused at Passau and Linz where the young Wolfgang gave his firs public
recital at The Trinity Inn, Linz, on October 1st, 1762. Soon afterwards, he
amazed the Empress at Schonbrunn Castel and all her royal guests with
fascinating keyboard tricks; playing with the keys covered with a cloth, with
his hands behind his back, and so on. (Anderson 120). There is also one funny
statistic about Mozart , while in Vienna age the age of six, Mozart appeared
before the Empress Theresa. When he slipped on the floor, the empress’s daughter
Marie Antoinette, who was only two month older then Mozart, helped him up,
whereupon he immediately proposed to marry her. She apparently waited for better
offer. As young Mozart’s reputation grew, his father realized the financial
opportunities then could arise from increased exposure of his son’s talents.
From than time on, Wolfgang and his sister spent much of their childhood
traveling through Europe. The 4 rulers of Europe and England were astounded by
Wolfgang’s abilities of composition, improvisations, and sight reading.
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