Mozart's RequiemFor the past two hundred years, the death of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart has remained a mystery. There are many theories about the death of the great composer, some say he was murdered, while others say he was ill and extremely exhausted. Historians have established that Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart suffered from different illnesses, but no one knows which, if any, contributed to his death. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was born on January 27, 1756 to Leopold and Anna Maria Mozart, in Salzburg, Austria. He was one of Mozart's seven children, five of whom died in infancy, leaving him with his sister Maria Anna, whom they called Nannerl. The Mozart children grew up in a very musical family, their father, Leopold, being a minor composer and court musician. Nannerl was a talented harpsichordist and was 4 years older than her brother. Young Wolfgang began his musical career at the age of three, listening to his sister and father, and gave his first concert, featuring pieces he wrote himself, at the age of five . According to Melograni, when Leopold Mozart realized Wolfgang's enormous potential, he began giving him lessons, based on the harpsichord manual he had written for the elder Nannerl. The manual contained 135 minuets and arpeggios, increasing in difficulty as the lessons progressed. Leopold established a strict training schedule, which little Wolfgang fully accepted. He began to love musical notes and cultivated an astonishing musical memory. Wolfgang used imitation of his father and sister as his main learning tool, which he used even in his adult career. Leopold devoted himself to the task of teaching his two children, seeing that it could provide them with financial stability, he must...... middle of paper ...... showed extreme potential to become a great musician, as well as a successful composer. . Although his work has earned him many fans, it may also have earned him an enemy. To this day, the death of the “child prodigy” remains a mystery: was it a murder? Or was it just an illness he's had his whole life. WORK CITED Landon, HC Robbins. Mozart's Last Year, 1791. Ed. American. New York: Schirmer Books, 1990. Print. Melograni, Piero and Lydia G. Cochrane. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: a biography. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2007. Print. Pettinger, Tejvan. “Biography of Mozart.” Online biography. Oxford, April 28, 2008. Web. March 25, 2014. http://www.biographyonline.net/music/mozart.html. Rushton, Julien. Mozart. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006. Print. Soloman, Maynard. Mozart: a life. New York, NY: Harper Collins Publishers, 1995. Print.