Have a question? Need assistance? Use our online form to ask a librarian for help.
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791) began composing at the age of five. With his prodigious ability, he soon began composing and performing for royalty throughout all of Europe. Despite his death at age 35, he composed over 600 works in almost every genre of his time, including symphonies, operas, concertos, and chamber music. He is considered one of the most well-known and influential composers of Western classical music, and was particularly influential on the young composer Ludwig van Beethoven.
The Performing Arts Reading Room provides access to the Music Division's primary and secondary resources related to Mozart. These materials include music manuscripts, facsimiles, first and early editions of music scores, critical editions, scholarly literature on Mozart, correspondence, special collections, opera libretti, iconography, and access to a variety of subscription databases.
Find these materials by searching in the Library of Congress Online Catalog, browsing the Library's Digital Collections, searching within Special Collections using the Finding Aids Tool, searching within the many Databases and Electronic Resources to which the Library subscribes, or browsing the Music Division's on-site card catalog. Several of the Library's databases are available off-site, but many may only be accessed on-site at the Library or via your local public or academic library.
Read published content related to and highlighting Mozart materials and research in the Library's collections in the Music Division's blog In the Muse.
Contact the Recorded Sound Research Center or the Moving Image Research Center for information on recordings and film footage.
The Performing Arts Reading Room is the access point for the collections in the custody of the Music Division at the Library of Congress. Numbering approximately 20.5 million items and spanning more than 1000 years of Western music history and practice, these holdings include the classified music and book collections, music and literary manuscripts, iconography, microforms, periodicals, musical instruments, published and unpublished copyright deposits, and close to 500 special collections in music, theater, and dance.
