Classical Era Composers (1750-1830)

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791)

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart wrote over 800 works in almost every genre of Western classical music of the time. He was born in Salzburg, Austria. At that time it was not Austria, but considered the Holy Roman Empire. By the time Mozart was five-years-old he was already getting good at the keyboard and beginning to compose his first music. His father realized his talent and took him on trips to Italy to showcase his music and that of his sister as child prodigies. They began traveling all over Europe as a family.

Mozart worked as a musician in Salzburg when he was seventeen. After being dismissed in Salzburg, he decided to stay in Vienna. He became famous but still didn’t have much financial security. While in Vienna, Mozart composed piano concertos, the Jupiter Symphony, Eine Kleine Nachtmusik, a clarinet concerto, four operas, and a Requiem. Mozart died at the age of thirty-five, leaving his Requiem unfinished.  He’s considered one of the most significant classical era composers of his time.

Mozart Fun Facts

1. Mozart is one of the greatest composers of the classical era.
2. Mozart admired the works of Bach, Handel, and Haydn.
3. By the age of five, Mozart was writing his own compositions.
4. While visiting the Vatican, Mozart heard Gregorio Allegri’s Miserere performed in the Sistine Chapel and was able to write out the entire score from memory.
5. In 1784, Mozart joined the Freemasons – an organization dedicated to mutual friendship.
6. At the age of seventeen, Mozart received a prestigious job to play in the court of Vienna, Austria.
7. Mozart married Constanze Weber in 1782 and had six children, but only two survived infancy.
8. Mozart earned a lot of money from his successful operas, but he was bad at budgeting and had trouble with money.
9. Many of Mozart’s operas were funny.
10. Mozart popularized the alberti bass, a piano accompaniment that plays a broken chord in the order 1-5-3-5.
11. Mozart was a Roman Catholic and some of his greatest works were religious.

Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827)

Beethoven is considered a transitional composer. That means that at the beginning of his career he was considered a Classical era composer and towards the end of his career he became an example of a Romantic era composer. Beethoven was born in Germany and showed his musical talent at a young age. His first published work was in 1783 and was a set of keyboard variations. Beethoven was a virtuoso pianist. That means he could play really well.

Beethoven wrote 722 compositions over forty-five years. His earliest work was composed in 1782 and was a set of variations for piano. Beethoven wrote symphonies, concertos, string quartets, and an opera. He wrote music even when he began going deaf at the age of 28. He went deaf by the time he was about 45 years old. Some of his best work was written when he was deaf! He was a composer who was way ahead of his time musically.

ave one patron but wrote for the needs of many people. This gave him a wider audience. As he transitioned into the later stages of his life, he came to represent the Romantic era as well. He included many new musical ideas in his music harmonically and rhythmically and expanded the length of a typical symphony in his Eroica Symphony​. 

Franz Schubert (1797-1828)

Franz Schubert was born in the late classical era in 1797 as is considered a transitional composer (His work spanned both the classical and romantic eras). He composed more than 600 vocal works. Many of his vocal works are called lieder, which is an art song setting poetry to music. He also composed seven symphonies, sacred music, operas, chamber music, and other genres. Some of his famous Lieder include “Erlkonig,” “Gretchen am Spinnrade,” and “Ave Maria.” 

Schubert learned the piano and violin as a child. When he was eleven, he studied at the Stadtkonvikt school. He was studying to be a school teacher while also composing music. Schubert became a performing member of the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde. This helped him gain notoriety as a composer. He died eight months later from typhoid fever at the age of 31.

Joseph Haydn (1732-1809)

Another important composer during the classical era was Joseph Haydn. He was born in 1732 in Austria. Haydn helped develop chamber music and was nicknamed the “Father of Symphony” for his huge contributions to the symphonic musical form. For the majority of his career, Haydn was a court musician for the Esterhazy family at their castle.

The Life of Haydn

Haydn had a musically talented family, but they didn’t know how to read music. They liked to perform folk music with their family and friends. When they realized Haydn had talent, they sent him to a relative to be trained as a musician. Haydn wrote later that he was often hungry and embarrassed by the poor quality of his clothing, but he learned how to play the violin and harpsichord, and sang with a choir. In 1739, he impressed Georg Reutter the Younger, who was the director of music in St. Stephen’s Cathedral in Vienna. For the next nine years, Haydn was a chorister there. When Haydn’s voice began changing during adolescence, he was not considered a good singer any longer. When he pranked another chorus member by cutting her pigtail, this made Reutter very upset. He caned him and sent him to live in the streets.

Haydn taught himself music theory and took many freelance jobs to make due. In 1753, he composed his first opera, Der Krumme Teufel.”  He still had a difficult time, because people were giving away his sheet music for free and they had shut down his opera for offensive remarks. So he began teaching to make money while he kept composing. After a series of jobs, he finally was taken in by the Esterhazy family. His responsibilities while working for the Esterhazys included running the orchestra, composing, playing chamber music for the family and guests, and producing operas. Mozart was friends with Haydn and they sometimes played music together. Haydn died at the age of 77 in 1809.