Wolfgang A Mozart Family / Mozart's Son
Franz Xaver Wolfgang Mozart
Franz Xaver Wolfgang Mozart (born 26 July 1791 – died 29 July 1844), born in Vienna, also known as Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Jr.. He was the youngest child of six born to Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and his wife Constanze and the younger of his parents' two surviving children, the elder son, Karl Thomas Mozart. Franz Xaver was born five months before his father died and he almost did not know him. He
was called ‘Franz’ as his great-grandfather and his great-uncle, who
died the same year of his birth but his father Wolfgang nicknamed him
‘Wowi ‘. He studied music in Prague, and also with Hummel, Salieri and others in Vienna. Like his father, he was a prodigious child; he published a piano quintet when he was only eleven years old.
Franz Xaver Wolfgang Mozart (left)
Carl Thomas Mozart (right)
He was a composer, pianist, conductor, and teacher of the late classical period whose musical style was of an early Romanticism, heavily influenced by his father's mature style. Franz Xaver was successful as a music teacher and there were years when he didn’t compose a single piece, so it is rather hard to compare his output (around 30 works) to his father’s over 600 works. His last opus number is around 30. His early works are heavily influenced by his father, just like Wolfgang Sr.'s early pieces were influenced by Leopold’s style. Franz Xaver Mozart's pivotal piece seems to be Piano Concerto no. 1 in C major, op. 14, which could easily be mistaken for his father’s late piano concerto KV 500 and above. The pieces Franz Xaver wrote after op. 14 gradually shift to Romanticism, seemingly looking for his own style.
Listening Pleasure:
Franz Xaver Mozart spent most of his years in various posts in or near Lemberg in the Ukraine. In 1838, Mozart left for Vienna and then for Salzburg, where he was appointed as the Kapellmeister of the Mozarteum. From 1841, he taught the pianist Ernst Pauer. Mozart died from stomach cancer on 29 July, 1844 in the town of Karlsbad (now Karlovy Vary) where he was buried.
Like his brother, he never married and died
childless. Upon death, his will was executed by Josephine de
Baroni-Cavalcabò, his lover and longtime patron to whom he
had dedicated his cello sonata. The shadow of his father loomed large over him even in death as evidenced by the epitaph which was etched upon his tombstone: "May the name of his father be his epitaph, as his veneration for him was the essence of his life."
Photo Credit:
1/ The two surviving sons of Wolfgang Amadeus and Constanze Mozart: Franz Xaver Wolfgang Mozart and Karl Thomas; painting by Hans Hansen, Vienna, 1800. Wiki. Public Domain.
2/ Franz Xaver Wolfgang Mozart (1825) by Karl Gottlieb Schweikart (1772–1855). Wiki / Public Domain
3/ Grave of Mozart's son Franz Xaver Wolfgang in Karlovy Vary ( Ger. Karlsbad / Eng. Carlsbad ) in Czech republic. He wanted on his tombstone the name of his great father.
Resources:
Mozart: A Life. Maynard Solomon. New York: HarperPerrenial Publishers. 1995.
The Mozart Compendium, edited by H.C. Robbins Landon. London: Thames and Hudson Publishers. 1990.
(c) September 2010. Updated July 26, 2023. Tel. Inspired Pen Web. All rights reserved.
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