Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (christened Johannes Chrysostomos Wolfgang Gotlieb, or Theophilus, Mozart) was born in Salzburg, Austria in January of 1756. By the age of four, he had exhibited such extraordinary powers of musical memory and ear-sophistication that his father, Leopold (a highly esteemed violinist and composer in his own right) decided to sign young Wolfgang up for harpsichord lessons. At five, he was composing music; at six, he was a keyboard virtuoso, so much so that Leopold took Wolfgang and his sister Maria Anna on a performance tour of Munich and Vienna.

From that time on, young Mozart was constantly performing and writing music. Wherever he appeared, people gaped in awe at his divine gifts. By his early teens, he had mastered the piano, violin and harpsichord, and was writing keyboard pieces, oratorios, symphonies and operas. His first major opera, Mitridate, was performed in Milan in 1770 to such unqualified raves that critics compared him to Handel.

At fifteen, Mozart was installed as the concertmaster in the orchestra of the Archbishop of Salzburg. Things did not go very well; Mozart didn't get along with the Archbishop, and relations deteriorated to the point where, in 1781, he quit this lofty position and headed for Vienna - quite against his father's wishes.

It has been told that Mozart once said, 'Since I could not have one sister, I married the other.' Whether or not this quote is true, the facts remain the same. Three and a half years after a young musician named Aloysia Weber refused Mozart's marriage proposal, he married her younger sister Constanze, on August 4, 1782.

What sort of person was Constanze Weber? Mozart, who nicknamed his bride Stanzerl, described her this way, 'She is not ugly, but at the same time, far from beautiful. Her entire beauty consists of two little black eyes and a nice figure. She isn't witty, but has enough common sense to make her a good wife and mother .... She understands housekeeping and has the kindest heart in the world. I love her and she loves me....' .

Constanze Mozart's life was far from easy. From June 1783 to July 1791, she bore six children. The Mozarts' first child, Raimund Leopold, died at the age of two months of an 'intestinal cramp' while his parents were away on a visit to Salzburg. Their third, Johann Thomas Leopold, lived less than a month, their fourth, Theresia, six months, and their fifth, Anna Maria, only one hour. The Mozarts were left with only two surviving children, whom Wolfgang barely had time to know. When he died, the eldest was seven years old, and the younger only six months. After Mozart's death, Constanze met and eventually married Nikolaus von Nissen, an official in the Danish Embassy, and it was he who raised Mozart's sons. von Nissen died in 1826, and Constanze in 1842.

The two boys led fairly uneventful lives. The elder, Karl Thomas (b. 1784), ended up as a minor official on the staff of the viceroy of Naples in Milan. He died in 1858. The younger, Franz Xaver Wolfgang, inherited his father's musical inclinations, if not all of his talent. He composed and conducted extensively throughout Europe, but perhaps the last word on this 'Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart the Younger' was best spoken by George Bernard Shaw in a letter he wrote in 1897. 'Do you remember the obscurity of Mozart's son? An amiable man, a clever musician, an excellent player, but hopelessly extinguished by his father's reputation. How could any man do what was expected from Mozart's son? Not Mozart himself even.'

Wolfgang and his father, Leopold had never regained the closeness they had shared in earlier days, but they reached a peace with each other, and maintained a steady correspondence. Leopold died in Salzburg on May 28, 1787, at the age of 67. Wolfgang had news of his father's illness in April, at which time Constanze was ailing as well. This turn of events left him greatly depressed, and his own health took a turn for the worse. His music from the preceding decade was only sporadically popular, and he eventually fell back on his teaching jobs and on the charity of friends to make ends meet. In 1788 he stopped performing in public, preferring to compose.

Mozart may have died of a number of illnesses. The official diagnosis was miliary fever, but the truth is that the physicians who attended him were never quite sure what Mozart died of. He suffered from rheumatic pain, headaches, toothaches, skin eruptions, and lethargy. A common theory today is that Mozart died of uremia following chronic kidney disease. Another possibility is rheumatic fever. Regardless of the cause, Mozart became bedridden for the last two weeks of his life. He died at shortly after midnight on December 5th, 1791, aged thirty-five years, eleven months, and nine days.