Mozart Settles in Vienna

In 1781 Mozart left Salzburg and lived in Vienna on teaching, concerts and publishing.

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Classical

When one man left a court, a city became his employer, and in 1781 Vienna turned that into a repeatable career.

Time and place

Vienna, March 1781. Mozart had travelled there with the Archbishop of Salzburg, Count Colloredo, and within months the relationship broke down and he was dismissed. He did not return to Salzburg but stayed in the imperial capital.

What happened

In June 1781 the quarrel with the archbishop came to a head. Mozart resigned and then lived on teaching, concerts, published scores and commissions. In July 1782 Die Entführung aus dem Serail opened at the Vienna National Theatre, and in August he married Constanze Weber. Between 1784 and 1786 he ran subscription concerts in several halls, with his own piano concertos as the centrepiece. In 1785 he dedicated six string quartets to Haydn, calling them in a letter the fruit of long labour.

What changed

For the first time a musician made a living in a city as a freelance, paid by pupils, audiences and publishers rather than by an annual court salary. That changed what got written. A concerto had to display the composer as performer, a quartet had to work among friends, an opera had to be in German and addressed to ticket buyers. Vienna developed a listening habit based on public sale of seats, and a composer's reputation began to depend on the market rather than on a post. The risk was equally new, since income rose and fell with the season and with patrons' attention.

Listen for the turn

Begin with the overture and arias of Die Entführung, where Turkish percussion and German dialogue push opera out of the court box and into the city theatre. Then the slow introduction of the Quartet K. 465, where chromatic dissonance still unsettles in 1785 before a clear allegro resolves it. Finally the slow movement of the Piano Concerto No. 21, where piano and orchestra converse in an undertone. All three were written for particular occasions in the first five Vienna years, and the occasions themselves were new.

Related

This turn belongs to Classical and connects 莫扎特, 从教堂乐师到自由艺术家 and 公共音乐会兴起.

Sources

• Grove Music Online, entry "Mozart, Wolfgang Amadeus" — Vienna years, works and dates checked, not quoted
• Maynard Solomon, Mozart, A Life (HarperCollins) — freelance career and concert life checked, not quoted

Used for fact-checking only; all prose is original.