Diego Minoia - The Mozarts, Who They Were (Volume 1)

Wolfgang

Johannes Chrisostomus Wolfgang Theophilus was born in Salzburg on 27 January 1756 at 8:00 p.m. and was baptized according to the Catholic rites on 28 January.

Physical appearance

He was of a small stature with a slight frame and a rather large head and his left ear was slightly deformed (wigs were the fashion in that epoch, which served to hide this defect). Wolfgang was certainly not blessed with a physique that the collective imagination would immediately define as a genius. Small, as we said, thin with fair skin and visible scars left from smallpox from which he was infected as a child. He had blue, protruding eyes (typical of nearsightedness) and a pointed nose "with a beautiful head of blonde hair, of which he seemed proud". He constantly moved his feet and hands, which were rather thick and chubby (far from the romantic, eighteenth century pianist Listz' hands, to use an example), so much so, that today he would probably be subjected to tests of hyperactivity and hyperkineticism.

His delicate build favored the enthusiasm of an audience that was amazed by the "child prodigy", so his father would usually subtract one or two years in order to increase the effect. The fact that he was not gifted with a particularly muscular build raises some question as to the reason possibly being exposure to numerous diseases. And of his precocious death, it may have been due to the considerable stress and strain imposed upon him by his father during the course of his childhood and adolescent musical formation, combined with the fatigue of his travels and frequent exhibitions.

In truth, both Wolfgang and his sister, Nannerl never make mention of anything found in writing to have suffered any such commitments, which were anyway very common in that epoch of all musicians who desired to create a future by developing their talents. All of the great musicians throughout history, from Bach to Haydn, were subjected to considerable stress in order to reach the heights that would consent them to emerge in the world of music. This was not the rule only in Germany and Austria. All one needs to do is think of the many hundreds of hours of work that the Italian conservatories required; Neapolitan or Venetian, it was likewise for all young students. Rather, if we want to highlight a negative aspect of the young Wolfgang's formation, it should be noted that the most important part of his life under the relational aspect that was almost completely missing were his peers. He had no friends with which to play with the exception of his sister who was 5 years older; no friends with which to quarrel and make up, no one with which to explore human sentiment and build a mature personality in the proper phases of development and with the necessary composure.

Music and study, keyboard and violin, singing and improvisation; these were the "games" of the young Mozart children. How can we understand Mozart as a man without keeping in mind these fundamental aspects? In fact, since his childhood, Wolfgang was a small adult, both in his behavior and dress, ready to properly face aristocratic surroundings as his father's dream would represent the destiny of his son. This is how a young fourteen year old Goethe saw him during an exhibition in Frankfurt in 1763: "a little man with his wig and his sword". Much literary hagiography shows us an image of Wolfgang as a little genius innately gifted with a creativity that led him to compose a mass production of masterpieces, without fatigue or error.

A few years ago, a study was done by the Cambridge University (Cambridge Handbook of Expertise and Expert Performance, published by the Cambridge Press), and based on the accurate analysis of 120 gifted personalities in various fields of expertise, this simplified method of identifying a genius was contested. From the study emerges a formula of genius which, in its synthetic and bare truth, is composed as follows: 1% innate ability and inspiration, 29% qualified instruction and formation, 70% hard work (prolonged, since on average the genius personalities that were analyzed had to apply themselves with consistency for at least ten years, if not more, in order to obtain the first great results).

In any case, another more concise saying, and not without humor (which could be attributed to Hemingway, as well as Edison or even Mozart himself) states that "genius is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration". Or rather: sweat and fatigue.

From the tender young age of 3 years old, Mozart showed signs of the 1% genius inspiration, but the subsequent years (many more than what the Cambridge study indicates) were applied to his formation (thanks to the outstanding teachings of his father and his musical studies from other significant composers) and for the rest of his life, he honored that 70% of hard work as we see in the formula. Regarding young Wolfgang's quality of studies, aside from the musical preparation of which his father was sufficiently prepared, some would disagree as defining it as world-class. While it is true that Leopold had a high level of cultural upbringing, having attended the Jesuit school in Augsburg and at least one year of university in Salzburg, can we truly consider Wolfgang's general cultural education equal to his musical genius?

Undoubtedly, the foundation of his musical formation imparted by his father, combined with the experiences of a life full of many European journeys, gave him passage into a world that very few of his peers could have only dreamed about. From his letters and from what other sources tell us, however, Wolfgang never developed a passion for anything that was not musical. Of the monuments and artistic masterpieces that he had seen in the various cities visited, he never left a written comment. Likewise for any literature that he may have read.

He writes to his mother from Milan about a hanging that he witnessed (he had also seen one in Lyon) without mentioning, for example, the Duomo, Leonardo da Vinci's "The Last Supper" or any work of art housed in the city. Neither was Wolfgang a great reader. We know that he read "One Thousand and One Nights", some stories, a few comedies by Molière and Goldoni, and of course, many librettos of opera which were useful for his favorite diversion: creating the melodramma.

Hence, a human being deprived of educational experiences typical of the various developmental phases that he never found in the culture (or in literature, a wealth of potential inspiration toward education, discussion and debate) that would have rivaled the excessive power of his interior musical world. We could compare Wolfgang to the custom used in Paris in his epoch which speaks of the cultural preparation of the ladies-in-waiting for their entry into society from the convents and boarding schools reserved for nobility, who "knew everything without having learned anything". But, in contrast to the above-mentioned ladies, he never learned to truly "be a member of society", to understand human nature (on an individual level or publicly) or to conform to that which was considered appropriate for a person of his social station.

Artistically speaking, he was honest and sincere, even to a self-destructive fault...and this led him to the solitude of the last years of his life. We could cite "The Solitude of Prime Numbers", alluding him to the famous Italian novel...and he was certainly a prime number, undividable if not to himself and the nature of individualism. The first number, whose dividing relationship with the prime number only served to put him in front of his own image. The prime number contains all numbers (attainable through multiplication) and so this is how we are able to discern all of the principle composers of his epoch and every single developmental phase of form and expressive innovations of which they are characterized. In my opinion, all of the aspects of his formation explain that quality of the inability to live and integrate positive relations with other humans that would characterize the brief adult life of Mozart. We will take a closer look at these aspects in due time, based on the correspondence with his father and sister.