“As an artist, as a musician, Mozart was not a man of this world.” – Albert EinsteinWolfgang Amadeus Mozart is the greatest and most famous composer of the classical period and the most gifted musical genius in history. Born on January 27, 1756 in Salzburg, Mozart was not appreciated as a composer in his time. Great success only came to the generation of romantics, who found in Mozart what they believed to be a kindred spirit. Through an examination of his early life as a child prodigy, his musical mastery, the large number and range of works, mastery of classical style, and endless praise from his fellow composers, we can begin to understand why his legacy grew and remained strong after his death.Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why violent video games should not be banned”?Get the original essayWolfgang Mozart was a child prodigy who revealed his extraordinary talent at the incredibly young age of three. Mozart's seven-year-old sister Marianne began receiving keyboard lessons from their father Leopold, a violinist in the Salzburg Archbishops' Orchestra. Meanwhile, Mozart would sit at the keyboard and entertain himself for hours. Like any child, Mozart loved hearing the sound coming from the keyboard, but it was its added awareness of tension and harmony that caught his father's attention. Leopold soon recognized the extraordinary musical gift his son possessed and began to cultivate it. At the age of four, Mozart began receiving keyboard lessons from his father. He learned a number of minuets easily, needing only half an hour to play each one "perfectly, cleanly and with the most regular rhythm". At the age of five, Mozart began to compose his own short pieces, which his father proudly wrote. Leopold noted in the margins of the score, as "the compositions of little Wolfgang in the first three months after his fifth birthday". These notes became the young Wolfgang's first indications as a composer. In 1763, when Mozart was about seven years old, he wrote his first major composition: six sonatas for violin and piano. The simple fact that Mozart was able to play and compose these pieces at such a young age is a testament to his musical genius. In 1762, Leopold took Mozart on a trip across Europe and the United Kingdom to showcase his talent. During this trip, he demonstrated incredible talent, such as sight-reading Bach pieces and improvising beautiful melodies on the figured bass of a Handel piece. The tour was a great success, with Mozart being rewarded with praise and recognition. In London, Mozart was heralded as “Seven-Year-Old Master Mozart, Nature Prodigy.” During the trip, Leopold proudly wrote to his friend that "everyone is amazed, especially at the boy, and everyone I have heard says that his genius is incomprehensible." Leopold continued to promote his son's musical talent until 1773, when Mozart ceased to be under his father's instruction. Leopold's influence on Mozart deserves to be recognized. After all, Mozart was never subject to musical teachings from anyone except his father. Leopold recognized his son's potential, developed his talent and made his genius known throughout Europe. Without his father's influence, Wolfgang would never have achieved the character and greatness that he achieved. Mozart had an undeniable mastery of music. He was a superb keyboardist, “one of the greatest keyboard virtuosos of his time.” Although he also mastered the violin, it was the keyboard that primarily held his attention. Niemetschek,who was one of Mozart's first biographers, praised the composer's pianistic talents when he wrote: "His admirable dexterity... his feeling, his delicacy and his beautiful expression... as well as his abundant ideas and his knowledge of composition must have captivated every listener and made Mozart the greatest pianist of all time.” After seeing Mozart perform, fellow composer Muzio Clementi also applauded Mozart's piano skills when he told his own student: "Until then I had never heard anyone play with such spirit and grace." . Improvisation was one of Mozart's most impressive skills. During his early years of composition, he did not need to write piano sonatas or variations, he could simply improvise them. He only put his compositions on paper if a student wanted to learn them or if he wanted to send them to a publisher. A friend of Mozart's, Maximilian Stadler, wrote of Mozart's improvisational talent in his own autobiography: "His improvisations were as well ordered as if he had written them in front of himself. This led many to think that when he performed an improvisation in public, he must have thought and practiced everything beforehand. From these first-hand accounts, it is clear that Mozart mastered the art of improvisation. Mozart was incredibly gifted in the art of composition. What's extraordinary about his way of composing is that it came so naturally to him. He didn't need to look for ideas about what he wanted to write – the compositions would simply appear in his head and he would then write them down. Creating a piece of music was so easy for him that sometimes he would work on two or three pieces at a time because they appeared in his mind at the same time. Mozart could also compose a piece with impressive speed. He once composed a sonata for pianoforte and violin the day before it was to be performed in concert. Having no time to write the music or rehearse with his partner, he played the sonata from memory the next day. Within his compositions are numerous examples of his absolute artistry in contrapuntal combinations, movement structure, use of counterpoint, harmonic modulations and tonal color. With his extraordinary keyboard, improvisation and composition skills, there is no denying that Wolfgang Mozart possessed a profound mastery of music. Mozart wrote an impressive number and variety of works during his short life. The entire catalog is exhausting, but among the works are twenty operas, fifteen masses, seventeen church sonatas, more than a hundred arias, songs, choirs and vocal canons, around fifty symphonies, fifty concertos, seventeen piano sonatas, forty-two sonatas for violin and piano, twenty-six string quartets, eight string quintets, seven piano trios, two piano quartets – all written with an exceptional degree of perfection. In a letter Mozart wrote to his father in 1778, he said: "As you know, I can more or less adopt or imitate any type and style of composition." The number and extreme versatility of his work testify to this self-proclaimed ability. Mozart was the greatest master of the classical style. A key element of the classical style was a lightness that contrasted with earlier works of the Baroque period. Mozart achieved this with his melodies, which placed him above the rest of the composers of his time. A great melodist named Richard Strauss said: “The most perfect melodic forms are found in Mozart; it has the lightness of touch which is the real goal.” His ability to create such “light” melodies was