49 Fun Facts About Mozart

In which present-day country was Mozart born?

Austria claims him, but when he was born his home city was a separate church-ruled state within the Holy Roman Empire.

Mozart's Requiem was sung at which composer's 1849 Paris funeral?

Frédéric Chopin's funeral at the Madeleine needed special church permission for women to sing the Requiem, since female singers weren't normally allowed there.

Which Benjamin Franklin invention did Mozart write a quintet for in 1791?

The glass harmonica won Mozart over when the blind virtuoso Marianne Kirchgessner played it in Vienna, so he wrote her the Adagio and Rondo, K. 617.

Emperor Joseph II staged a 1781 piano contest in Vienna between Mozart and which Italian virtuoso?

Muzio Clementi played his own music at the contest, and Mozart seems to have reused one of its themes a decade later in The Magic Flute's overture.

The name Amadeus is the Latin form of the Greek baptismal name Theophilus, meaning what?

Loved by God is one rendering of Theophilus (others say friend or lover of God), yet as an adult Mozart generally signed himself Wolfgang Amadè.

In Così fan tutte, Despina disguises herself as a doctor to parody which magnet-wielding physician?

Mesmer's 'animal magnetism' is the joke: the fake doctor revives the suitors, who are pretending to have taken poison, with a magnet.

What was the nickname of Mozart's elder sister Maria Anna, a child prodigy who toured with him?

Nannerl performed beside her brother on the early tours, but by her late teens her touring days were over, and Wolfgang toured Italy without her.

Leopold Mozart published a famous 1756 textbook on which instrument?

The violin was Leopold's own instrument, yet young Wolfgang took it up without lessons and astonished him by sitting in on second violin during a run-through of six trios.

Where did Mozart write his first symphony while his ailing father needed silence?

London: with the harpsichord off-limits while his father recovered, he wrote for orchestra, and his sister recalled him asking her to remind him to give the horn something good.

Which Sistine Chapel choral work is the teenage Mozart said to have transcribed from memory?

Allegri's Miserere was, Leopold wrote home, so closely guarded that the choir was forbidden to copy it, yet Wolfgang had written it down.

Which prince-archbishop dismissed Mozart in 1781, reportedly with a kick from a steward's boot?

Colloredo had treated Mozart as a servant, making him dine with the valets and cooks, and after the break Mozart settled in Vienna as a freelancer.

Whom did Mozart marry in Vienna on 4 August 1782?

Constanze Weber later married the Danish diplomat Georg Nissen, and together they produced one of the early biographies of her first husband.

Which Mozart opera celebrated Leopold II's coronation?

La clemenza di Tito was commissioned so late that Mozart had only a few weeks to compose it before the coronation festivities.

What was the name of Mozart's youngest son, born four months before his father died?

Franz Xaver Wolfgang, always called Wolfgang at home, became a pianist and composer, but his father's great name overshadowed his own career.

Mozart joined which organisation in December 1784, later writing music for its ceremonies?

The Freemasons are widely seen in The Magic Flute's temple trials and rituals, though some scholars think that Masonic influence is exaggerated.

Which pet did Mozart buy in 1784 and later bury in his garden under a gravestone with a verse epitaph?

A starling: beside its purchase in his expense book, Mozart jotted down its slightly garbled version of a theme from his new concerto and wrote 'That was beautiful!'

At which game did the tenor Michael Kelly say he always lost to Mozart?

Billiards was a passion: Mozart bought his own table as part of a lavish lifestyle in which he saved little of his income.

Which librettist collaborated with Mozart on The Marriage of Figaro, Don Giovanni and Così fan tutte?

Lorenzo Da Ponte later settled in the United States, where his memoirs were published in 1823.

The Marriage of Figaro is based on a comedy by which French playwright, banned at first in Vienna?

Beaumarchais's comedy was barred from Vienna's stage for its freedom of tone, yet the opera went ahead after the librettist won the Emperor's approval himself.

In which city did Don Giovanni premiere in October 1787?

Prague had welcomed Figaro so warmly that its opera company commissioned the new opera from Mozart, who travelled there to prepare the premiere.

What is the full Italian title of Don Giovanni translated into English?

The Rake Punished lives up to its name: the Commendatore's statue gives Giovanni a last chance to repent, and when he refuses, demons drag him down to hell.

Who wrote the German libretto for The Magic Flute and staged it at his own Vienna theatre?

Emanuel Schikaneder later built the Theater an der Wien, yet a court theatre restaged the opera without crediting him as its author.

In The Magic Flute, whom does the Queen of the Night ask Prince Tamino to rescue?

Her daughter Pamina is held in Sarastro's castle, yet instead of defeating him, Tamino ends up seeking entry to Sarastro's temple and undergoing its trials.

What is the name of the bird-catcher who accompanies Tamino in The Magic Flute?

Papageno claims he killed the serpent that attacked Tamino, so the Queen's veiled ladies padlock his mouth to punish him for lying.

The Magic Flute, which mixes arias with spoken dialogue, is an example of which genre?

Singspiel got an imperial boost when Joseph II founded a German-language opera company, which staged Mozart's Abduction from the Seraglio.

Who anonymously commissioned Mozart's Requiem, apparently intending to pass it off as his own?

Count Franz von Walsegg liked passing off commissioned music as his own, and in December 1793 he conducted the Requiem himself under his own name.

Which of Mozart's pupils completed the Requiem after his death?

Franz Xaver Süssmayr took on the task only after Joseph Eybler, one of the first composers the widow asked, had started filling in the score and then given up.

Friends singing the Requiem at Mozart's bedside on his last afternoon reportedly stopped at which movement?

Lacrimosa: Mozart began to weep and laid the score aside, and he died about eleven hours later, leaving the movement unfinished.

What nickname is given to Mozart's last symphony, No. 41 in C major?

Jupiter was never Mozart's own title: the nickname was added by others, and even who coined it is uncertain.

Mozart's 'Prussian' string quartets were written for which cello-playing king?

Frederick William II played the cello well, so Mozart gave the cello unusually prominent, singing parts in these quartets.

What is the literal English meaning of Eine kleine Nachtmusik?

A little night music is just how Mozart logged the serenade in his catalogue on 10 August 1787, probably as a description rather than a title.

Mozart's famous 'Turkish March' is the last movement of which kind of work?

A piano sonata in A major ends with it: Mozart headed the movement 'Alla turca' and imitated the sound of Ottoman Janissary bands.

Mozart wrote twelve piano variations on a French folk tune now sung as which children's song?

Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star borrows the tune, but Mozart didn't write it: the French melody was in print by 1761, and the English words came only in 1806.

For which clarinettist did Mozart write his Clarinet Concerto in 1791?

Anton Stadler's reputation suffered after Mozart's death: the widow and early biographers portrayed him as a man who abused the composer's good nature.

Mozart's works are identified by K numbers from a catalogue completed in 1862 by whom?

Ludwig von Köchel ordered the works chronologically, so the numbers follow Mozart's life, and the Requiem, one of his last pieces, is K. 626.

Which older composer and friend received the dedication of six Mozart string quartets?

Joseph Haydn heard the quartets and told Mozart's father that his son was the greatest composer he knew, in person or by name.

Which court composer was long rumoured, without evidence, to have poisoned Mozart?

Antonio Salieri, far from harming the family, later became a teacher of Mozart's younger son.

Who played Mozart in the 1984 film Amadeus?

Tom Hulce was nominated for the Best Actor Oscar, only to lose it to his own co-star, F. Murray Abraham.

Peter Shaffer's play Amadeus was inspired by an 1830 play by which Russian writer?

Alexander Pushkin's short play later served Rimsky-Korsakov as the libretto for an 1897 opera.

The Mozartkugel was created in 1890 by a confectioner in which city?

Salzburg confectioner Paul Fürst's sweet was soon copied, as other confectioners began selling similar products.

The 1993 study behind the so-called "Mozart effect" reported a short-term boost in what?

Spatial reasoning was all the 36 college students were tested on, yet in 1998 Georgia's governor had classical music CDs handed out for newborns.

At the Vienna court in 1762, six-year-old Mozart reportedly vowed to marry which future queen?

Marie Antoinette is said to have helped him up when he slipped on the polished palace floor, prompting his offer of marriage.

Which opera did the 14-year-old Mozart write for Milan in 1770, leading to further commissions?

Mitridate, re di Ponto silenced Milanese doubters who had said so young a boy could never write an Italian opera.

In which city did the 21-year-old Mozart fall in love with the young singer Aloysia Weber?

Mannheim is where Mozart hoped to marry the young singer, though it isn't clear how serious he was or whether she ever returned his feelings.

Which Mozart opera premiered in Munich in January 1781?

Idomeneo opened weeks before Mozart was summoned to Vienna, where the quarrel that ended his court job in his home city began.

Whose death in November 1787 freed up the 'chamber composer' post that Joseph II gave Mozart?

Christoph Willibald Gluck's death gave Mozart an imperial title, yet it paid just 800 florins a year and asked little more than dances for the court's masked balls.

Which Baroque manuscript collector introduced Mozart to the music of Bach and Handel in 1782-83?

Gottfried van Swieten hosted Sunday sessions where only Handel and Bach were played, and he later had Mozart rescore Handel's Messiah for his concerts.

Which future composer lived in the Mozarts' Vienna home as a child pupil?

Johann Nepomuk Hummel was taught and housed by Mozart for two years, until his father took the boy away on a concert tour.

What did the official record give as Mozart's cause of death?

Severe miliary fever only described a rash of millet-seed-sized bumps, so the record never named the illness that killed him.