Wolfgang Mozart's Requiem

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Mozart's Requiem

For over the past two hundred years, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's death has remained a mystery. There are many theories on how the great composer died, some say that he was murdered, while others say that he was ridden with sickness and extremely exhausted. Historians established that Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart suffered from different illnesses, but no one knows which one, if any, contributed to his death.
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was born on January 27, 1756, to Leopold and Anna Maria Mozart, in Salzburg Austria. He was one of the seven Mozart children, five of which died in infancy, leaving him and his sister Maria Anna, whom they called Nannerl. The Mozart children grew up in a very musical household, with their father, Leopold, being a minor composer and a court musician. Nannerl was a talented harpsichordist, and was 4 years older than her brother. Young Wolfgang began his musical career at age three, by listening to his sister and father, and preformed his first concert, including pieces that he wrote himself, at the age of five.
According to Melograni, when Leopold Mozart realized Wolfgang's tremendous potential, he began giving lessons to him, from the harpsichord manual he had written for the older Nannerl. The manual contained 135 minuets and arpeggios, which increased in difficulty as the lessons progressed. Leopold made a strict practicing schedule, which little Wolfgang fully accepted. He began to love the musical notes, and he cultivated an amazing musical memory. Wolfgang used imitation, of his father and his sister, as his primary learning tool, which he used even in his adult career. Leopold dedicated himself to the task of teaching his two children, seeing it could provide stability financially, mus...

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... showed extreme potential to become a great musician, as well as a successful composer. Although his work gained him a lot of fans, it may have also gained him an enemy. To this day, the death of the "wunderkind," remains a mystery, was it murder? Or was it simply an illness that he had his entire life.

WORK CITED

Landon, H.C. Robbins. Mozart's last year, 1791. American ed. New York: Schirmer Books, 1990. Print.

Melograni, Piero, and Lydia G. Cochrane. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: a biography. Chicago: University of
Chicago Press, 2007. Print..

Pettinger, Tejvan. "Mozart Biography." Biography Online. Oxford, 28 Apr. 2008. Web. 25 Mar. 2014. http://www.biographyonline.net/music/mozart.html. Rushton, Julian. Mozart. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006. Print.

Soloman, Maynard. Mozart: a life. New York, NY: Harper Collins Publishers, 1995. Print.

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