Mozart

JOHANN CHRYSOSTOM WOLFGANG A MADE US, (mozahrt',) a great composer of the German school, B. at Salzburg, 1756. So early as the age of six years he gave manifestations of an extraordinary musical genius, and performed before the courts of Munich and Vienna with astonishing succe . In the following year, the child M. electrified the Paris i an musical world by his gifts as an improvisatore, and thence carried his honors to London. In 1769-70 he visited Italy, where he was hailed with enthusiasm, and where he produced at Milan his first succe ful opera, Mithridate, followed in 1773 by another, also succe ful, entitled Lucio Silla. In1779 he became chapel-master to the Archbishop of Salzburg, and produced for the Elector of Bavariahis third opera, Idomeneo. Then followed a rapid series of symphonies, sonatas,quartets, motets, dance-pieces. In 1786 appeared his great comic opera, The Marriage of Figaro, and in the next year, Don Giovanni, the " chefd'œuvre" of his genius. In 1791 he gave to the world The Magic Flute (Zauberflöte), his last operatic production. Before he D., in Dec., 1791, he composed his Requiem-a piece without a rival of its kind. [s. 622]