Mozart Biography - History of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart - CMUSE

On May 13, 1767, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's first opera "Apollo et Hyacinthus", written when he was 11 years old, premiered in Salzburg. A short excerpt from the text:

"There are many anecdotes about Mozart as a child. For example, it was said that he had begun picking out chords with precise pitch memory when he was just three, could play short pieces by the time he was four, and at five, had begun scribbling and composing a concerto. As a matter of fact, there is a somewhat intellectual disagreement about whether Mozart actually wrote his first musical compositions at age four or age five, but they still agree that he wrote three within weeks of one another.

When he was seven years old, it’s said that at a musical gathering, he picked up a violin, snever having had a lesson, and sight-read part of the work with absolute perfect precision and accuracy. By eight, he had written his first symphony, most likely with his father transcribing most of it for him, but the implication is simply astounding! Mozart became the most celebrated and most known child prodigy as he was an unusually gifted child.

He was the most universal of all composers, still able to accommodate the specific tastes of each and every musical audience. Some of his later works, such as operas, piano concertos, and symphonies, were and still are superb examples of music imitating art. His music was so profoundly well composed, that even his lesser works still feature masterful music as well.

From the time he was three, it could be seen that Mozart was not only a child prodigy but a musical legend in the making. Mozart ended up composing well over 600 musical works and he is still revered today as a composer of which there is no comparison."