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Article: Mozart, Wolfgang Amadeus (1756–1791)
- Article from:
- Europe, 1450 to 1789: Encyclopedia of the Early Modern World
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MOZART, WOLFGANG AMADEUS (1756
–
1791)
MOZART, WOLFGANG AMADEUS
(1756
–
1791), Austrian composer, widely considered one of the most gifted figures in the history of Western music. Born in the archbishopric of Salzburg, a territory of the Holy Roman Empire, Mozart by the age of six had already acquired a reputation throughout Europe as a musical prodigy. According to his father, Wolfgang was already composing minuets at the age of four, and he was barely six when he performed on the harpsichord for the Habsburg imperial family in Vienna. Yet Mozart's astonishing precocity as a composer and performer should not obscure the role of his father, Leopold, in nurturing his genius. ...