Question 1

True or false: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Salieri were bitter rivals, and Salieri likely poisoned Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.

Accepted Answer

False. No evidence supports poisoning; Salieri admired Mozart. The myth comes from Pushkin's play and the film 'Amadeus'.

Question 2

True or false: Mozart composed his Requiem as a secret commission from a mysterious gray-cloaked stranger.

Accepted Answer

True. In 1791, Mozart received an anonymous commission from a messenger, often described as gray-cloaked, sent by Count Walsegg, who intended to pass the work off as his own. Mozart never knew the patron's identity.

Question 3

True or false: Mozart's full baptismal name includes 'Amadeus,' but he rarely used it in daily life.

Accepted Answer

False. Mozart's baptismal name was Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart, not 'Amadeus.' He often used 'Amadeus' or 'Amadé' professionally, so the statement is incorrect.

Question 4

True or false: Mozart died a pauper and was buried in a mass grave with no mourners.

Accepted Answer

False. He had debts but wasn't destitute; his burial was a standard Viennese communal grave, not a pauper's pit.

Question 5

True or false: Mozart wrote his first symphony at the age of 8.

Accepted Answer

True. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart composed Symphony No. 1 in E-flat major (K. 16) in 1764–65, when he was around 8 years old, with guidance from his father Leopold.

Question 6

True or false: Mozart had a pet starling that could whistle part of his Piano Concerto No. 17.

Accepted Answer

True. He bought a starling in 1784 that sang a phrase from his concerto; Mozart even wrote a playful funeral poem for it.

Question 7

True or false: Mozart was the first composer to write a piece entirely in the key of F-sharp major.

Accepted Answer

False. Johann Sebastian Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier includes a Prelude and Fugue in F-sharp major, written before Mozart's birth, making Mozart not the first.

Question 8

True or false: Mozart once wrote a piece that included a part for a trained dog to howl along.

Accepted Answer

False. Mozart's 'Musical Joke' satirizes amateur performers but has no dog part. He wrote no piece with a trained dog. He did compose works for mechanical organ.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Trivia Questions