WOLGANG AMADEUS MOZART - A SUN THAT DIDN'T SHINE IN VIENNA

 

Among the Austrian Alps, in the city known for its exuberant beauties and historical owner of the secular corners of faithful musical composers. In that German-speaking country in Central Europe, with mountain villages, baroque architecture, imperial history and rugged alpine terrain. With its capital, Vienna, crossed by the Danube River and home to Schönbrunn and Hofburg palaces. Erected at that time as Salzburg, the “Fortress of Salt” or the “Castle of Salt”, whose barges transported salt by the Salzach River, a city in Austria located on the banks of the Salzach River, and close to the country's border with the German State of Bavaria . There, the heroic Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was born, recorded in the annals of Vienna on January 27, 1756, before the twenty-seventh day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. And after, the first day of birth, Mozart was baptized in the cathedral of Saint Rupert in Salzburg, with the name of Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart.

 

As is known, Mozart was the seventh child of Anna Maria and Leopold Mozart, since he held the position of composer at the court of the Prince-Bishop of Salzburg. Of the seven brothers, only a couple of children survived, Mozart and his sister.

 

It is stunning that on the day of the christening, the occasion was the commemoration of Saint John Chrysostom, naturally, Wolfgangus, was the name of his maternal grandfather and Theophilus in honor of his godfather, a great businessman from the town of Salzburg, known as Joannes Theophilus Pergmayr. The boy was already grown up, when his father shortened the name Wolfgangus to Wolfgang, eliminating the name Johannes Chrysostomus. In real truth, he never signed as Chrysostomus. Without delay, his name was like the clouds of Salzburg, they were always passing and changing time in diverse variations like the musical enchantments that rocked the planet earth.

 

With a few days of birth, still a breast child, Mozart gently raised his eyelids, and looked meticulously towards the violin strings, traveling to his eardrums the magic of compasses and musical harmony. And his father, Leopold Mozart, was enchanted in his soul with the passion for composing musical pieces, extracting triumphant melodies from the violin. While the child prodigy leaned in with laughter at the corners of his lips, watching with his hands over his mouth. Months passed, little Mozart, growing into the enthusiasm of a three-year-old, playing with his father's violin.

 

And on certain occasions, tears would come down her face with her pupils wide and reddened, asking her mother to let her hands run over the piano. Thus, he was answered to the child's pleas through his sister who congratulated with laughter when hearing the little hand press the first keys. When people at home were not paying attention to Mozart, unnoticed, he would push a chair to climb up and play on the piano. Due to bad luck, he fell several times, and his sister advised him not to do that, taking Mozart to play every time he insistently asked. Until one day, his father, observed attentively the aspiration of his levity with music.

 

On rehearsal nights, Mozart would not sleep, he would cry and scream from his room, asking to see his father play in rehearsals. Requests were granted, and the boy remained there in the corner, a little away with his finger in his mouth, and with round eyes looking directly at the violin he was playing. Thus, the little Amadeus Mozart captured the sounds and all the procedures of a musician playing with the instrument, delighting in the compositions. It was already very late, his father ordered him to sleep, he left angry and in tears. On other days, on a radiant afternoon in Salzburg, the students who learned music from Leopold Mozart, contented themselves with little Mozart who stayed close, asking questions and spelling out the first musical notes and getting his hands dirty in the inkwell, aspiring to write his first notes on paper, I used to observe how the scores were made with the violin and piano.

 

One morning, Leopold Mozart calls his son to teach and learn to play the piano, the little boy was a tribute in his father's eyes, gently fascinated the little fingers and arms that did not reach the entire piano keyboard. And his father taught him music theory and practice in violin lessons. The biggest surprise was Amadeus Mozart's friends, who stood in awe at the window, seeing Mozart's extreme willpower dominating the melodies. The ingenuity of that little prince of music was enchanting, despite his young age, mathematical numbers also became a joke, going from geometry to more complex calculations, as well as drafting several musical lyrics every day. On one occasion, his father watched what Mozart was doing in the living room with an inkpot, paper and pen. And he interrogated.

 

- Mozart, what are you doing there with my inkwell?

 

Mozart, smiling, replied suspiciously:

 

- I'm kidding daddy.

 

Leopold Mozart then questioned the minor and scolded:

 

- So, you are the one who spends my inkwell. Yesterday, I didn't compose any melody because the inkwell was empty. And you there scribbling with jokes on paper.

 

Warned little Mozart at just four years old.

 

- Dad, you're going to make a lot of money and we're going to have a lot of ink and paper.

 

Exclaimed Leopold regretting the present situation.

 

-O Mozart! God hear you! In this city of ours I never made money, what I earn is enough for our livelihood. And I have to remain silent when I receive nothing.

 

Time passed quickly, and Mozart already exceeded the time limit a thousand times with extraordinary wisdom, in addition to delving into the financial problems of his time. The music accelerated the pulses of the heart in beats contemplated in the image of a child's dream. At the age of five, he composed a minuet for harpsichord. And in the tuned step, his understanding of melodies stood out in duets and small compositions for two pianos duly cataloged for him and his sister. And marveling at the development of his father Leopoldo, he was enchanted after seeing the works of the little young man, who described the songs in too many numbers.

 

As soon as he turned six years old, and the financial needs that afflicted the family, he sought from his father the precision of traveling to other places, where they could earn a lot of money.

 

He asked Mozart with attentive eyes.

 

- Dad, why are you sad? You were never downcast.

 

Leopold Mozart replied with a melancholy air.

 

- No Mozart, I'm not sad. I have been worried about your studies. I'm already tired of making so many joys and not receiving anything, just promises and more promises If it weren't for my students payments, what would today be, you and your sister? And this is not a child's issue.

 

Argued little Mozart.

 

- It's dad, the people here are bad, they just want you to stay playing until dawn, for free, without receiving anything. I'm a kid, but I understand things.

 

Said Leopold Mozart.

 

- Tell me no more about this matter.

 

Invited the boy Mozart.

 

-Let's travel daddy, let's show your songs around the world.

 

Replied the father.

 

-It's not that easy Mozart, we need a lot of money, we have to buy clothes and take some money too.

 

Amadeus Mozart clarified, insisting on the trip.

 

-More daddy, why don't we make a big musical here in Salzburg, and with the little of that money, we can travel. Let me collect the contract plus my sister.

 

And on that foggy morning of 1762, in Salzburg, Leopold, Mozart and Nannerl, say goodbye with smiles, giving many kisses to the neighbors and Mozart still waved goodbye, leaving for a great tour of the courts of Europe in search of financial conditions. In France, they surprised the French and arriving in England, they rented a small room, and for several nights, the little prince of the arts, enchanted everyone. Well, Mozart, with his beautiful voice, sang, played the violin and stretched out on the piano, the influences that this little young man made were magnificent. The applause enriched his soul, and harmony invaded the beats in time, swinging his arms in the chants of a happy night, in the sequence of body movements performed in a rhythmic manner. All eyes turned to him, the tiny musician with his mastery, created the tonalities of sound in magical steps of an acclaimed God in musicality.

 

As a poor child, his health was seriously damaged, and money was quickly disappearing in the consumption of medicine, clothing and daily expenses.

Mozart asks his father in the hotel room.

 

-Father, have you heard from my mother and sister?

 

Leopold Mozart replies:

 

-Yes, everyone is fine, thanks to the good Lord.

 

The boy talks to his father and asks:

 

-Dad! Call the doctor and ask us to go back to Vienna. I don't need applause or praise. I have health, I have everything from God. Here, everything we earn in Europe is spent.

 

The doctor examines little Mozart, and they return to their hometown. For he was not lacking for occasions to manifest his triumphant gifts anywhere. Upon completing ten years, little Mozart was one of the most respected musicians in Europe, the improvisation of this extraordinary boy appeared much more often than the sun that is reborn every day, conducting court orchestras and choirs. Wherever this boy went, he left charms and glories, until Pope Clement XIV, opened the doors of his heart with the wonders of the little musician, granting him, for the first time to a child, the highest decoration of the “Order of Knights of Europe of Gold”, holding a sword and a wig on his honored head.

 

In Rome, the memorial “Miserere” to 9 voices and 2 choirs by Gregory Allegri, who was a tenor in the pontifical chapel during the papacy of Urban VIII, whose canticle was sung in the Sistine Chapel in Rome, has been banned for over two centuries. Wednesdays of Holy Week, since the Church had prohibited copying the originals of the work. Knowing this mystery, Mozart decided to go to Rome in 1770, after listening to a single and last time on Holy Wednesday the Canto “Miserere”, one of the most complex chants because it contains different sounds and echoes in its melodies, Mozart transcribed the entire work by ear in a single audition made by the pontifical choirs, without missing a single melodic note. The surprise was so great that many went to check it out and saw that there was not even a flaw in the composition. After the pope learned of the audacity of this phenomenal man, since the Church reserved the exclusivity of this work for itself, he ordered the excommunication of whoever carried it out. That young man, aged just 14, composed masses, psalms, small concerts for 2 to 4 voices, motets and symphonies, among them Mitridade, which was the greatest success of his career. At that time, already counting 15 years old, he spoke fluently French, English, Italian and had complete knowledge of the rules of the Latin language.

 

Upon returning to Salzburg, Count Hieronymus Colloredo, archbishop of the city, changed Mozart's situation, he did not like that one of his musicians, considered a simple servant, could not spend all his time traveling outside the court. However, Mozart had a job as a concertmaster and his dissatisfaction was great, and Mozart complained and was even more disgusted by the prohibitions that were made to them, with the slights that were attributed to them, making a small difference in his career. And in the year 1781, Colloredo orders Mozart to be part of his entourage in Vienna. Irresigned, he resigns for being placed among the servants of the Court. Very sad, suffering, unemployed, and with no financial conditions, he leaves to live on very small income from the concerts of friends who invited him, at other times with the publicity of his unpublished works and private lessons for a small group, who also did not have conditions to attend. pay you. But the students admired the king of the musical arts, the “maximum”, the “master” and it was in that tumultuous period that he was most successful in his career in 1781 and 1782, with operas (Idomeneo - 1781 and O Rapto do Seralho in 1782, with piano sonatas, chamber music (with six string quartets dedicated to Haydn) and various sequences of piano concertos.

 

The dream of living in England became impossible and in that same year, 1781, Mozart, already quite dissatisfied in his hometown, headed for Vienna, renting a room in the house of Cacilia Weber, wife of Fridon Weber, still taking with him the cash balance. of the last concert night, paying three months rent in advance. And from his room playing the violin, he invades the thoughts of the young girl, daughter of the late Fridon Weber, called Constanze Weber, a German. The links between the girlfriend's sisters radiate Mozart, leaving Constanze Weber's heart in the purest emotion of the greatest music magician known to date. Mozart, had fun in the evenings in Vienna, as well as an excellent master of billiards. His father Leopold Mozart did not accept the courtship and neither did promises of a future marriage, not giving Mozart permission to distort the hallucinating passions of the great love for that woman. Desires are great, comments knock on the doors of Vienna, letters and more letters descend towards Salzburg, until Mozart manages to extract his father's permission, marrying Constanze Weber in 1782, and they have six children.

 

In all the works, the 1786 one in which he composed his first opera in collaboration with the librettist Lorenzo da Ponte, The Wedding of Figaro, had a sudden failure in Vienna, annoyed by the lack of recognition in his country that he loved so much, the opera explodes like a bomb in Prague, and Mozart receives a commission for a new opera, Don Giovanni as his greatest masterpiece drawn from the depths of his heart. Again, Vienna fails to recognize its greatest musical son, without giving him any adventure, and still dissatisfied with the lack of recognition, he writes with Cosi fan tutte, with a libretto by Da Ponte, in 1789. It is known that from the first opera , success no longer walked by his side, financial difficulties were his company, and for all the misfortune, Mozart did not give up writing and making beautiful compositions, he had no money, plus a rich memory as did the string quintets (K .515 in C major, K.516 in G minor in 1787), symphonies (K.543 in E flat major, K.550 in G minor, K.551 in C major in 1788) and a fun for string trio ( K.563 in 1788). At the age of 35, he looks around and observes that everything he has done has not served him, with the affection of his wife Constanze, still sick, he composes his last two operas: A clemência de Tito and A fluta Mágica, his last piano concerto. (K.595 in B Flat Major) and the beautiful Concerto for Clarinet in A Major (K.622).

 

  At home, saddened by misfortunes, illness, weakness and lack of money, he still receives a disastrous order for a requiem (K.626), even though he is working on other projects he leaves unfinished. Mozart spends the last days of his life, silent, melancholy, pacing back and forth, looking at the piano, running his fingers over the violin, embracing hundreds of unpublished scores. And see inside your soul, the purity that was a boy, abandoned and despised. And there in Vienna, the greatest musician the world has ever known dies.

 

So young a novice, only thirty-five years old, without a funeral, forgotten and swept away from his own homeland, he didn't even have money to pay the gravediggers, who, out of commiseration, still buried him in a common grave in Vienna, and to this day nobody knows what happened. place of his tomb because he was a poor man. “Woe to me, Vienna, if it weren't for Mozart, the king of charm and mastery, who used to live elsewhere”.