Machine translation of the 1948–1954 Italian original. The original text is authoritative.
MOZART, WOLFGANG AMADEUS. — Born in Salzburg on 27 January 1756, died in Vienna on 5 December 1791. Of absolutely exceptional precocity, he was introduced to music by his father and soon presented to the admiration of the cultured and aristocratic society of Europe’s principal artistic centres. Already in 1762 his first journey took place to Munich and Vienna, in which the child performed in concert with his sister Anna Maria. This was followed, from 1763 to 1766, by numerous travels to Paris, London, and the principal cities of Germany and the Low Countries; from 1769 to 1773, three journeys to Italy, where in Rome he was received by the Pope, who conferred upon him the title of Knight of the Golden Spur. From 1773 to 1777 he remained in Salzburg, whence he went, in search of better fortune, to Munich, Augsburg, Mannheim, and finally to Paris; recalled by his father, he reluctantly entered the service of the Archbishop of Salzburg, but in the summer of 1781 he resigned his post and settled in Vienna. Having begun his career as a freelance artist, the early years of the Viennese period brought him, on the whole, the greatest recognition of his genius; but especially after the great success of The Marriage of Figaro, he encountered bitterness caused by envious rivals, led by Salieri. In 1787 he returned to Prague for the first performance of Don Giovanni, which was triumphant; in November of the same year he succeeded Gluck as “chamber musician” to the Emperor. Returning to Vienna from Prague, where La clemenza di Tito had been performed, he composed The Magic Flute and worked on the Requiem, left unfinished at the Lacrimosa and completed by his pupil Ignaz Xaver von Seyfried.
Prodigious in both quantity and quality was his artistic output across every musical genre (cf. Ludwig von Köchel, *Chronologisch-thematisches Verzeichnis sämmtlicher Tonwerke W. A. M.'s*, 1st ed. 1862, revised and expanded by A. Einstein, Leipzig 1937). Orchestral music: 41 symphonies, cassations, divertimenti, serenades, marches, and various dances; 25 piano concertos with orchestra, one concerto for two pianos and another for three pianos, 6 concertos for violin and piano, concertos for various instruments. Chamber music: 7 string quintets, one with horn and one with clarinet, 26 string quartets, a quintet and other quartets for various instruments, 8 trios, 42 violin sonatas; divertimenti, cassations, serenades for various instruments; 17 sonatas, 4 fantasias, numerous variations for piano. Secular vocal music: arias, Lieder, songs, choruses. Dramatic music: *La finta semplice* (1768), *Bastien et Bastienne* (1768), *Mitridate* (1770), *Ascanio in Alba* (1771), *Il sogno di Scipione* (1772), *Lucio Silla* (1773), *Il re pastore* (1775), *La finta giardiniera* (1775), *Zaide* (1779–80), *Idomeneo* (1781), *Die Entführung aus dem Serail* (1782), *Le nozze di Figaro* (1786), *Der Schauspieldirektor* (1786), *Don Giovanni* (1787), *Così fan tutte* (1790), *La clemenza di Tito* (1791), *Die Zauberflöte* (1791).
Of great importance is his religious music, largely composed during the Salzburg period; besides 12 organ and instrumental church sonatas, offertories, motets, vespers, and litanies, Mozart left works that bear the mark of his genius.
Among the 18 masses (in addition to fragments of masses), the oratorios *Betulia liberata* (1771) and *Davidde penitente* (1785) are less significant; of great expressive intensity are the sublime *Ave verum* (1791) and the *Requiem* (1791), his final composition, left incomplete at the *Lacrymosa* and finished by his pupil Ignaz Xaver von Seyfried.
During the Romantic period, Mozart’s music was viewed with less favour, yet his religious compositions from his youth show the influence of Austrian sacred music (especially that of Michael Haydn), to which was later added the Italian style as it had developed in the works of the Neapolitan school. Gradually, Mozart’s expression transcended the predominantly fragmentary conception of individual pieces to achieve a deeper cohesion of parts. Contributing to this were not only his profound engagement with the religious text—revisited with sincere Catholic faith—but also a new stylistic orientation in which his more complex works display a distinctive originality. Particular mention should be made of the Litanies, the three Masses in C major of 1776, and other works from the Salzburg period; among these, the *Great Mass in C minor* (K. 427), left incomplete in the Credo and lacking the Agnus Dei, and above all the *Ave verum*, in which celestial beauty conceals technical perfection, and the *Requiem*, in which the sections written by the master (the completed Requiem and Kyrie, seven parts of the Dies irae sketched in vocal and bass parts and hinted at in the orchestration) contain some of the loftiest moments of Mozart’s inspiration.
100. (mibriai e f'retini Fincani Miorant. WOLFGANG AMADEUS. Portrait.
in many of the 18 masses (in addition to fragments of masses). Less significant are the two oratorios Betulia liberata (1771) and Davidde penitente (1785); of great expressive intensity are the stupendous Ave verum (1791) and the Requiem (1791) last
