BY EBENEZER PROUT, B.A., Mus.D. PROFESSOR OF MUSIC, DUBLIN UNIVERSITY LONDON GEORGE BELL & SONS 1905 First Published, November, 1903. Reprinted, 1905. TABLE OF CONTENTS SOME BOOKS ABOUT MOZART THE CHILD (1756-1768) THE YOUTH (1769-1778) THE MAN (1779-1791) HIS ART—AN APPRECIATION LIST OF WORKS BY MOZART LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS MOZART AS A YOUNG MAN ... Frontispiece      ( From a print by Schwërer. ) MOZART AT THE AGE OF SEVEN      ( From a scarce French print. ) MOZART WITH HIS FATHER AND

Among the more important biographical and critical works on Mozart are the following: NISSEN, G. N. VON. "Biographie W. A. Mozart's." Leipzig. 1828. HOLMES, EDWARD. "Life of Mozart, including      His Correspondence." London. 1845.      Second Edition, edited by the writer of this book. 1878. JAHN, OTTO. "W. A. Mozart." First Edition,      4 vols. Leipzig. 1856-59. Second Edition,      2 vols. 1867. English translation, 3 vols.      London. 1882. KÖCHEL, DR. LUDWIG RITTER VON. "Chronologisch-the

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was born at Salzburg on January 27, 1756. His full name, as given in the church register, was "Joannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus"; his father used the German equivalent "Gottlieb" of this last name, and the composer himself subsequently adopted the Latinized form "Amadeus." His family had long been settled in Augsburg, where Wolfgang's father, Leopold Mozart, was born on November 14, 1719. With the object of studying jurisprudence, Leopold entered the university

The greater part of the year 1769 was spent quietly at Salzburg, where Wolfgang, under his father's direction, diligently pursued his studies. In December of that year the father and son set off for Italy, Leopold rightly feeling that such a tour would not only be advantageous to Wolfgang's reputation as a musician, but would enlarge his views and give him wider experience of the world. The lad was now no longer an infant prodigy, but, it might almost be said, already a mature artist, whose powe

In the middle of January, 1779, Mozart was once more in Salzburg, and for nearly two years he remained in that city, busied with his duties at the Archbishop's palace, and composing works of all kinds. The record of these years is chiefly one of almost ceaseless writing. Many of Mozart's best and ripest works date from this period. Among these are the Mass in C, published as No. 1, though really the composer's fourteenth. This is one of the finest of the series, as well as one of the most popula

In surveying Mozart's art work as a whole, one of the first things to strike the student is the comprehensiveness of his genius. There is hardly another of the great composers who has produced so many masterpieces in so many different styles. It may be at once conceded that in certain directions he has been surpassed by one or other of those who have succeeded him. Very few musicians will be found who will place him, either as a symphonist or as a writer for the piano, by the side of Beethoven;

Of all the great composers, Mozart was one of the most prolific. The chronological thematic catalogue of his works, by Kochel, published at Leipzig in 1862, contains 626 numbers, varying in length from short pieces of only a few bars to operas, the manuscripts of which fill hundreds of pages. Even a clearer idea of the enormous quantity of music written by Mozart in his short life of thirty-six years will be gained when it is said that the complete collection of his works, published by Breitkopf