Free Music Studies: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Mozart: The Story of a Little Boy and His Sister Who Gave Concerts

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was a prolific Austrian composer during the Classical period.

Free eBook

Suggestions

Map the following (you’ll find mapping resources below):
- Austria
- Salzburg, Austria (where Mozart was born)
View a portrait of Leopold Mozart, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s father.
Read more about Leopold Mozart.
View a photo of a harpsichord used by Mozart.
View a portrait of Wolferl and Nannerl.
View a portrait of the Mozart family.
View a portrait of the Mozart family on tour.
View a map of the Mozart family tour at the time when Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was eleven years old.
Copy Mozart’s “rule” on Drawing & Writing Notebooking Paper and draw an illustration showing one way you can apply this rule to your own life.
Mozart was born in 1756, so in the picture he would have been ten years old. Add Mozart to your composer timeline.
Make a list of the different types of music Mozart composed.
Review Beethoven and Haydn.
Use this interactive timeline maker to create a timeline of Mozart’s life and include Benjamin Franklin, George Washington, John Adams, and Thomas Jefferson.
Listen to a portion of Mozart’s “Minuet in G” written at the age of five.
You can write or narrate your story on Mozart notebooking pages below.
Use the “Some Questions” section as oral or written narration prompts.
Learn more about Mozart from the Book of Knowledge:

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756–91) was born when Haydn was twenty-four; and he died, much too young, when Beethoven was twenty-one. The three men knew each other and learned from each other. Mozart’s father, Leopold, was one of the most respected and talented musicians of his time, not only in Salzburg, Austria, which was their home, but in all of the musical cities of central Europe. He was a violinist, a teacher and a composer. He taught with great care his little son Wolfgang who showed amazing talent almost from infancy. The child was so young when he learned to play the violin, piano and organ that we can hardly believe the facts. He wrote music before he wrote words. There are many true stories of “impossible” feats of hearing and performing that took place before Mozart was six.

It is fortunate that Mozart cared little for the play that fills the time of average small children. When he was six he started off with his father and his musical older sister on the first of many concert tours. Before he was twelve he had given concerts at most of the courts and in the large cities of Europe….

When Mozart was thirteen, Padre Martini, the greatest teacher of the time, accepted him as a pupil. Before he was sixteen Mozart had written an opera that was produced in Milan with huge success. This brought into the open the jealousy of many older musicians who saw their own weaknesses against the ability of the child.

Mozart as a man was often so poor that he had to worry about providing for his wife and two sons; but he never ceased thinking music. He wrote in all of the usual forms, symphonies (forty-one of them), string quartets, piano sonatas, piano concerti, violin concerti, trios, and operas of great charm and beauty. His sense of humor and his complete originality gave him ideas for instrumental combinations that did not occur to other composers. He wrote a beautiful sonata for bassoon and violoncello and another for two clarinets. Two pieces are for musical clocks and two for the glass harmonica, an instrument invented by Benjamin Franklin….

He was buried in a grave with others like himself, too poor to pay for a plot of their own. The general part of the cemetery is known, however, and a memorial has been built there by the city of Vienna.
“Three Great Centuries in Music” from The Book of Knowledge

Further Investigation

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Composer
Biography for kids from the Dallas Symphony Orchestra.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Simple biography at KidsMusicCorner.co.uk.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Biography aimed at students at ArtsAlive.ca.

Selected Works

Mozart: Greatest Hits
Our favorite listening series.

Symphony No. 40 in G Minor Molto Allegro

Serenade: Eine kleine Nachtmusik

Piano Concerto No. 21

Piano Concerto No. 21 — 2. Andante

Magic Flute “Overture”

The Marriage of Figaro “Overture”

“Turkish March” from Sonata in A

Symphony No. 41 (“Jupiter”)

Horn Concerto No. 4

Activities

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Biography, selected works, and activity sheet at ClassicsForKids.com.

Timeline
Use this interactive at ReadWriteThink.org to create a composer’s timeline.

Books

Mozart, The Wonder Boy by Opal Wheeler
Some really enjoy these music biographies by Opal Wheeler.

“Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart”
Chapter from Stories of Great Musicians by Katherine Lois Scobey.

“Wolfgang Mozart”
Chapter from The World’s Greatest Men of Music by Harriette Brower. Subtitled Story-Lives of Master Musicians, this public domain title tracks nicely with our free music studies.

“Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart”
Chapter from First Studies in Music Biography also by Thomas Tapper.

Child’s Own Book of Great Musicians: The Complete Collection from Bach to Wagner
Complete collection on Kindle (can be read on any device).

The Gift of Music: Great Composers and Their Influence by Jane Stuart Smith & Betty Carlson
Our favorite overall music appreciation reference book. Over 300 pages long covering 43 composers along with Christmas carols. Not only covers the influence of the composer but also how his faith influenced his works. Recommended reading and listening guides at the end of each section. Highly recommended!