FORM 9: Mozart

Friday, February 7, 2025

Mozart

* Mozart was actually baptised Johann Chrysostom Wolfgangus Theophilus.

* He seemed to prefer «Wolfgang Amadè» as can be seen on his marriage contract with Constanze Weber.

* Around a billiard table was the place to be in 18th-century Vienna! No wonder that you could find Mozart there, amongst aristocrats and other artists. More than the social interaction, the game also appealed to his very playful nature.

* Despite the age difference (Haydn being 24 years Mozart’s senior), Haydn and Mozart had great respect for one another, which quickly grew into a close friendship. Mozart dedicated six string quartets to his mentor, and Haydn admitted that his friend was able to express emotions like no other composer – himself included.

* Mozart claimed that he taught his pet bird, a starling, to sing the opening of his Piano Concerto Number 17, K 453.

* There is a frog named after Mozart, the Eleutherodactylus Amadeus, or Mozart Frog for short. It is so named because the frog’s croak resembles musical notes.

* No one really is sure where Mozart’s body rests today. The cause of death is also unknown, but the most likely theory is that he died of kidney failure or rheumatic fever.

* You would need 202 hours or about 8 and a half days of straight listening to get through Mozart’s entire body of work.

* Mozart often had fun distorting his identity, sometimes calling himself Trazom, Gangflow (Wolfgang in reverse) or even Mozartini… but he never signed Amadeus, a first name that would only be used after his death.

* Leopold, Mozart’s father, was opposed to his son’s marriage, fearing that a marriage would take him away from music. However, on August 4, 1782, Mozart married Constance Weber in Vienna. After this event, father and son kept their distance and only saw each other twice before Leopold’s death five years later in 1787. He had six children. Unfortunately, only two of them would survive infancy.