Classroom lesson · Music · 🇦🇹 Austria

Salzburg & Mozart

A musical city where the world's most famous child composer was born

Photo · Wikimedia Commons

What is it?

Salzburg is a beautiful Austrian city sitting beside a river, with a huge fortress on the hill above it. It is famous all over the world as the birthplace of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, who was born there in 1756 and began composing music when he was just four years old. The city is so proud of him that you can find his face on chocolate balls sold in every sweet shop.

Tell me more

Mozart started playing the piano almost before he could walk. By the time he was five he was already writing his own short pieces of music. By six he was performing concerts for royalty across Europe, travelling with his family in a horse-drawn carriage. His older sister Nannerl was also an excellent musician, and they often performed together.

Salzburg's old town is one of the best-preserved in all of Europe. The streets are narrow and lined with golden-coloured buildings. The Hohensalzburg Fortress sits on a rocky hill above the rooftops and can be seen from almost everywhere in the city. You can ride a small funicular railway up to it.

Every summer, Salzburg hosts the Salzburg Festival — one of the most famous music and theatre festivals on earth. Concerts are held in grand old buildings, outdoor courtyards and purpose-built halls. Musicians travel from every corner of the world to perform there, and the city fills with visitors who love classical music.

Salzburg is also famous for being the place where the film 'The Sound of Music' was set. The hills, gardens and squares where the story takes place are all real locations visitors can still walk around today. Locally, people find this quite funny — it is much more popular with tourists than with Salzburg residents.

In the classroom

Walk your class through this in 15 minutes.

Talk together

Discussion prompts

  1. 01Mozart composed music at age four. What is something you started learning at a very young age? How does starting early help?
  2. 02Music can make a city famous for hundreds of years. Can you think of a place near you that is known for its art, music or sport?
  3. 03If you visited Salzburg, would you rather explore the fortress on the hill or walk the old town streets? Why?
Try this

Classroom activity

Compose a very short piece of music — just eight notes — using a xylophone, recorder or even a row of cups filled with different amounts of water. Give it a title like Mozart would, using Italian or German words (look a few up). Write down your notes so a classmate can play it.