When we bring into one view all the qualifications of Mozart as a
composer and practical musician, the result is astounding. The same man,
under the age of thirty-six, is at the head of dramatic, sinfonia, and
piano-forte music--is eminent in the church style--and equally at his
ease in every variety, from the concerto to the country dance or baby
song: he puts forth about 800 compositions, including masses, motetts,
operas, and fragments of various kinds; at the same time supporting
himself by teaching and giving public performances, at which he executes
concertos on the piano-forte, the violin, or the organ, or plays
_extempore_. But when we learn that the infant Mozart, at four years of
age, began to compose, and by an instinct perception of beauty to make
correct basses to melodies; and also that he became a great performer on
two instruments, without the usual labour of practice, we cease to be
surprised at the mechanical dexterity of his fingers in after-life, when
composition and other pursuits had engrossed the time usually employed
in preserving the power of execution.

The father of Mozart held the situation of Vice Kapell-meister and
violinist in the chapel of the archbishop of Salzburg. In the service of
this haughty and ignorant nobleman, (who appears to have been a complete
feudal tyrant, and to have represented all the pride and insolence for
which the then beggarly-princes of Germany were remarkable), he was so
ill paid, that notwithstanding his utmost exertions as an instructor, it
was with difficulty he supported a wife and family. Anna Maria,[3] born
August 29, 1751, and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, born January 27, 1756,
were the only two of seven children who survived. The sister made such
progress on the harpsichord, that in the first journeys which the father
took in order to display the talents of his children, she divided the
public attention with her brother. Wolfgang, however, not only profited