Sometimes I wonder whether I chose music, or whether music chose me. Whether my life was a calling, or simply a very noisy habit that never left me. All I know is that long after I am gone, people still hum melodies I once wrote at a desk much like this one – that alone surprises me.
But who, exactly, is Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart?
You may know the name. You may recognize a few melodies. Perhaps you have heard stories: the child prodigy, the prankster, the composer who seemed to write faster than others could listen. These stories are not untrue. They are simply incomplete.
This book is my attempt to fill in the space between them.
For a long time, I assumed that everyone’s childhood involved bowing before emperors, packing carriages with sheet music and powdered wigs, and navigating elegant music halls and muddy streets with equal regularity. Only later did I realize this was not usual.
Here, I will tell my story – year by year. The journeys and the work. The excitement and the disappointment. The friendships, the arguments, the love, and the losses. There were moments of triumph, and moments of doubt. There were days when music came easily, and days when it did not. All of it mattered.
If you choose to read on, this is what I can promise: nothing more, and nothing less, than my life as I (mostly) remember it.