Wolfgang Mozart—boy genius

Press, 5 December 1978, Page 14

Wolfgang Mozart—boy genius

Do you know' the music of Wolfgang Mozart? If you listen to it or learn t.o play some of it yourself, you will know it is fresh, deep with feeling, and very beautiful. Mozart died 200 years ago today. Wolfgang Mozart was bom in Salzburg and he was a remarkable child, one we w.ould call an infant prodigy. At the age of three he climbed to the keyboard of his father’s harpsichord and picked out thirds. He quickly learned to play the instrument and later he became an excellent violinist and organist as well. It was plain to his family that he was very gifted. His ear was so accurate and his musical memory so strong that he could detect a difference of an eighth of a tone and recall it the next day. His ear was also sensitive. He could not bear to hear the blast of a trumpet at close quarters!

Little Wolfgang soon became absorbed in music and by the time he was seven-years-old had composed several pieces. They were enchanting. The first was a little Minuet. On one occasion his father found Wolfgang busy with a pen and sheet of music and some paper. He was not used to writing with a pen and his work looked very messy.

At first his father was amused but when he looked at the boy’s “pianoconcerto” he realised that it showed a great deal of promise. He pointed out, though, that it would be too difficult to perform. Wolfgang did not mind this criticism, for he was a confident little boy and he replied: “Ah, but it must be practised.”

Leopold, the father, was himself a professional musician, and as well as encouraging Wolfgang and his talented elder sister, Maria Anna, he taught

them both. Then, when Wolfgang was six, he took them on a European tour. They travelled continually for the next few years and the children gave concerts and performed on the harpsichord at the courts of kings. They were received enthusiastically everywhere and Wolfgang, in particular, delighted the audiences. It must have been a strange, unnatural life for young children, but Leopold was an ambitious father. However, there were happy moments on the tours. At Vienna young Wolfgang had fun playing games with the daughters of the Austrian Emperor. They slid on the polished floor and when Wolfgang fell, he was helped up by Marie Antoinette, later to become a famous queen. “Thank you,” Wolfgang said. “You are kmd. I will marry you.” The father also took the children to London and

showed no false modesty when he advertised their concerts in these words: "For the benefit of Miss Mozart of eleven and Master Mozart of seven years of age. Prodigies of Nature . . . This method is therefore taken to' show to the Public the greatest Prodigy that Europe or that human- nature can boast of. Everybody will be struck with admiration to hear them. and particularly to hear a young boy of seven years of age play upon the harpsichord with such dexterity and perfection. . . “It surpasses all understanding and all imagination: and it is hard to say whether his execution upon the harpsichord and his playing at sight or his own compositions are the most astonishing . . . Tickets at half a guinea each to be had of Mr Mozart.” The Mozarts also toured Italy and. from Rome Wolfgang wrote home: “I have

had the honour of kissing St Peter’s toe in S. Pietro, and as I have the misfortune to be too small, they lifted me to his height, me myself, your old Wolfgang Mozart.” Wolfgang was not only a gifted boy. He had many delightful personal qualities. He was tender hearted, lovable, happy, and amusing. He was fascinated by people, bored by natural scenery, and he was very interested in mathematics. Unfortunately, his later life was sad. He wrote great ptusic but his marriage was troubled by overwork and hardship and. he did not always have enough to eat. He died when he was only 35 and was buried in a common grave reserved for paupers. Nobody even marked the position. But his work lives on and as one critic wrote: “If anything in this world is beyond good and evil, it is Mozart’s music.”