Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (baptized as Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart) (January 27, 1756 – December 5, 1791) was a prolific and celebrated composer of Classical music. His enormous output of more than six hundred compositions includes works that are widely acknowledged as pinnacles of symphonic, chamber, piano, operatic, and choral music. A legendary child prodigy, Mozart is among the most enduringly popular of European composers, and many of his works are part of the standard concert repertoire.
The young Mozart toured as a child and won the patronage of both nobility and clergy in his native Austria. Unlike the music of J.S. Bach and the composers of the Baroque style, whose music was highly polyphonic and steeped in religious connotations, Mozart’s music is marked by an uncomplicated texture that would become a defining trait of the “Classical” era. This style, known as homophonic music, is characterized by a single melodic idea accompanied by a chordal underpinning, as opposed the countrapuntal conventions of the Baroque, in which multiple melodies are woven into a singular musical expression.
