Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart remains one of the most famous and most prolific composers of his era. He started and finished his musical career at a young age — he wrote hundreds of musical compositions in his 35 years of life.
We know him as a composer and a skilled multi-instrumentalist. However, there’s a lot more to this classical creator than meets the eye.
In this post, we’re going to take a look at 18 interesting facts about Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart that made him a unique legend of his time.
1. He Began Composing at Five Years Old
It should come as no surprise that Mozart was a well-known and respected classical musician. Unlike many composers, he started his music career at the age of five.
His father, Leopold, began teaching him the harpsichord when he was very young, and Mozart wrote his first concerto at just five years old.
By the age of six, he was already a concert pianist and went on a European piano tour, making him the youngest to achieve such milestones. Because of this, many people see him as a natural genius.
2. He Had a Photographic Memory for Music
While this never received definite confirmation, most people speculated that Mozart had an eidetic (or photographic) memory for music.
This rumor started when he showed his ability to listen to a full-length classical piece once and then write it down perfectly.
While not technically an eidetic memory — since Mozart used his ears rather than his eyes — his exceptional skill remains unexplained. However, it helps explain why he was such a prolific composer during his lifetime.
3. The Trumpet Was His Kryptonite
Despite being a musical genius, Mozart struggled with the trumpet. His father said that he had a hard time learning to play it.
Mozart couldn’t compose successful music for it, and if you look for a Mozart trumpet piece, you’ll only find works by his father, Leopold Mozart.
This is because the trumpet caused the composer discomfort from a young age that he never got over, and many believe he was afraid of it! However, he quickly fell in love with the clarinet and preferred woodwinds over brass as he grew up.
4. He Had a Bizarre Sense of Humor
Among the other reasons Mozart was an odd character, he had quite a potty mouth; his jokes, both in his regular life and his musical works, were extremely crude. He often included toilet humor in his music and poetic letters to his family.
This is called scatological humor by scholars. While many of Mozart’s scatological works aren’t available, there’s plenty of evidence from family and friends that he enjoyed this type of comedy. His cousin, Maria Anna Thekla Mozart, is believed to have shared this sense of humor.
5. He Preferred the Nickname “Amadѐ”
At birth and baptism, Mozart was named Joannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart. While his name had many variants, he liked to call himself “Amadѐ,” a short form of his middle name “Amadeus.”
Mozart was usually the only one who referred to himself as Amadѐ, while others called him “Wolfgang Gottlieb” or “Wolfgang Amadeus.”
The popularity of his middle name likely came from his quirky sense of humor. He would mock traditional Latin by adding “-us” to the end of words and sometimes signed his name as “Wolfgangus Amadeus Mozartus.” This playful habit gave rise to the famous name we know today.
6. He Was Pretty Short
Even with the European average height for a man living in the 18th century (5’5”), Mozart was relatively short. Many historians claim that the composer didn’t stand much taller than 5’4.”
He was much closer to average height in his era, but he would most likely be viewed as very small in global society today.
Despite his impressively small stature, many biographers claim that he was a very vain little man with his pale skin and straight, light-colored hair.
Outside of his height, his appearance was entirely unremarkable as he blended in quite perfectly both in his area and his field.
7. He Knew 12 Different Languages
Given everything on his impressive resume, Mozart was somewhat of a prodigy. He tended to pick things up relatively quickly and garnered considerable knowledge despite his short lifespan.
Being a composer of Austrian origin, he effortlessly spoke German; but among the languages he was more proficient in, he possessed a decent fluency in Italian, English, and French.
Of the languages he held less proficiency in, he had a fair grasp of Spanish, Russian, Latin, Dutch, Czech, Polish, and Turkish. Many Mozart scholars note that he may have understood ancient Greek and biblical Hebrew a good bit as well.
8. He Would Shop Until He Dropped
Everyone has a vice, and Mozart was no different. Although he wasn’t poor for his time, he spent most of his money on material things to feed his shopping addiction.
He earned a good income from freelance work, making about 10,000 florins a year, which is roughly $42,000 in today’s US dollars.
Some historians argue that Mozart was impoverished, but this isn’t entirely true. He ended up with very little because of poor money management — he couldn’t even pay his bills because he spent too much.
9. He Had Many House Pets, Including a Starling
Along with his love for music, Mozart had a soft spot for animals of all kinds; he had a dog, canary, horse, and starling on his property.
He likely came into possession of the canary and starling as a way to blend his passion for music with his admiration for nature.
The starling was his most famous pet and inspired him to write short melodic pieces. After the starling passed away, Mozart wrote a poem in its honor and gave it a burial in his backyard.
10. He Was Good Friends with Joseph Haydn
Mozart was an outgoing extrovert. Among his friends, he grew very close to fellow Austrian composer Joseph Haydn.
Haydn is often considered Mozart’s best friend and musical mentor; they were more than just acquaintances.
They first met in 1781 at the premiere of Haydn’s La Fidelta. Mozart, already familiar with Haydn’s work from his time in Salzburg, attended the premiere to meet him in person.
While there isn’t a lot of documented proof of their mutual admiration, they frequently played their string instruments together.
11. He Traveled a Lot and Could Compose Music Anywhere
Mozart moved around a lot. Born and raised in Salzburg, Austria, he started traveling frequently by age 18. His constant travel helped him pick up many languages during his life.
He visited Germany, Italy, France, England, Switzerland, the Netherlands, the Czech Republic, and Slovakia after leaving Austria.
Despite his travels, Mozart returned to Austria and made Vienna his permanent home until he died.
12. He Had a Complicated Relationship with His Father
Mozart’s father, Leopold Mozart, was a composer before his famous son. He introduced Mozart to music at a young age.
Though they didn’t hate each other, their relationship grew strained over time. Leopold was seen as very possessive and controlling, which caused tension between them. Mozart wasn’t free from Leopold’s control until he moved to Vienna.
When Leopold died, Mozart didn’t attend his funeral. Instead, when his starling died a week later, Mozart chose to mourn the bird over his father.
13. He Was Extremely Outspoken and Out of Pocket
Given his incredibly crude humor, Mozart was an extremely out-of-the-box kind of character as a whole. He spoke as though his words would go unnoticed by those around him.
Consequently, this became an integral part of his personality. Between his interest in potty humor and his inability to control his crass vulgarity, this later led to the theory that Mozart might have suffered from Tourette’s syndrome.
14. He Fathered Six Children, but only Two Survived Past Infancy
After his betrothment to the singer Constanze, Mozart fathered six children with his beloved wife. Unfortunately, only two out of his six offspring made it past infancy.
There’s no apparent cause for the early deaths of four of his children, but the 18th century often appeared to be the era of grueling childbirth mishaps.
Neither of his two surviving children went on to have kids of their own, abruptly ending Mozart’s bloodline before the end of the 18th century.
15. He Was Very Unorganized but also a Perfectionist
In composing hundreds of pieces during his life, Mozart did a horrible job keeping track of all his hard work.
To this day, there is an innumerable amount of work from Mozart that the world will never get to hear. This unfortunate fact is due to his wife burning his remaining music that never saw the light.
While overwhelmingly unorganized, Mozart was still quite particular when it came to the composition and sound of his art. He was very detail-oriented, which is why his final piece before death remains unfinished.
16. He Wrote Over 600 Musical Pieces in His Brief Lifetime
Among more than 600 compositions from the respected composer, Mozart wrote 50 symphonies, 15 masses, and 21 stage operas.
These pieces are some of his more recognized works, but the musician had hundreds of musical compositions to show for his efforts in the classical field.
He lived a short life but managed to compose twice as much music as other musicians who remained in the musical field for an extended period and lived longer than him.
17. He Was Left-Handed
When your claim to fame is in a field such as music, your dominant hand becomes a non-factor to the ultimate cause.
Given that Mozart began his musical journey on piano, it took historians some time to figure out that Mozart may have been left-handed.
Many others argue that if he wasn’t left-handed, he at least had to be ambidextrous due to his ability to write sheet music with both hands. In his era, left-handed children still had to learn how to write with their right hand.
18. His Death Is Still a Mystery
In the past, Mozart scholars stated that the Austrian composer died from poison. Many believed his perpetrator to be Antonio Salieri, a musical professor of other great composers, including Ludwig van Beethoven.
People now think this rumor to be false, leaving Mozart’s actual cause of death a bit of an unsolved mystery.
Summing Up Our List Of Mozart Facts
Mozart’s life was full of interesting facts beyond his musical talent. He traveled a lot, which helped him learn many languages, and his love for animals and quirky sense of humor also made him unique.
Even though he faced money problems and personal struggles, Mozart never lost his passion for music. He turned his experiences into beautiful compositions that still captivate people today.
In the end, the fascinating details of Mozart’s life help us understand who he was and the world he lived in. As we honor his contributions, we also remember the rich and varied life he led.
