App: Splendorocity

[hatesalzburg]

Player Information:
Name: Jordan
Journal: pocketmolecule
Method of Contact: AIM: envythechemnerd, Plurk: Compoundeyes
Previous characters: Nope


Character Information:
Full Name: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Series: Amadeus
Canon point: May 1786; after the premier of The Marriage of Figaro
Age: 30
Species: Human
Appearance/PB: Hi I am Mozart
Appearance upon arrival: Not too different from that picture. He'd have a classy, old-fashioned 18th century outfit on, complete with frilly cravat and powdered wig.


History:
Previous RP memories: Nada
Bringing someone along?: Nope
Character History: Amadeus || Mozart himself


Personality:

When one thinks of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, one usually thinks about Classical music, the 1700s, Austria, and Falco. But let's ignore those last three things right now and focus on his music. Mozart is one of the most well known musicians of the Classical period and with reason! His music is catchy, accessible to most people, and just more pleasing to listen to (and more innovative) than his peers. Mozart? He knows this. When it comes to his music, Mozart as portrayed in Amadeus has a huge ego. He speaks highly of himself as a composer and even higher of his music. He believes his music is perfect as it is and that correcting his music in any way, shape, or form is ridiculous and unneeded. As such, he really can't understand it when his work is criticized. His opera has too many notes? It only has as many notes as needed; not too many nor too few. This actually gets Mozart in trouble quite a bit. Because he thinks so highly of his own music and talent, he does not trust others to judge his music. For instance, when asked to submit his music to a panel of Josef II's court musicians as an application for a job, he refuses to do so because he does not respect 'the Italians' as musicians and, as a result, their opinions on his music. After all, he knows he's the best, so why should he need other people to tell him things like that? Basically, he's a music snob and he kind of has been that way for his whole life. Mozart's music, as implied by the movie, is somewhat based on events in his own life and events that happen around him. He bases some of the arias in The Magic Flute off of his Landlady and friends he knows in real life, and several other pieces are shown as improvisations in the movie.

Also connected to his music in a way, Mozart has a very inflated sense of self-worth. He knows he composes good music and he knows people will listen to it and praise him (usually), so his head's a bit large, metaphorically speaking. He has issues with being a servant; because the Prince Archbishop of Salzburg expected certain behavior out of him and, from Mozart's point of view, he quits on the spot without securing another job beforehand. If Mozart does not feel his music is appreciated, he will not be a happy dude at all. In fact, it's likely he will storm out of whatever situation he's in or quit because of this. On the other hand, though, appreciating his music will make him the happiest person ever. That said, though, if he's truly down on his luck, he isn't above 'degrading' himself by stepping down from where he's most comfortable and working in an environment where he doesn't feel fully appreciated.

Mozart is irresponsible, impractical, rash, easily overtaken by emotion, and kind of sucks at time management. Mozart likes doing things at his own pace and doing what he wants to do before what he has to do. Someone commissioned something? He'd rather write a few concertos before getting to the commission. Work to do? Let's go to a party instead. Mozart really does not think things through before doing them for the most part. Sure, when it comes to music, he thinks things through and winds up writing beautiful music, but in other matters? Not so much. At one point, he gets so frustrated with people criticizing his work and demanding he remove parts of it that he throws the entire score in the fire because he wasn't thinking, he was just raging. (Thankfully Constanze was around to save the score). If it's a subject he's passionate enough about, he will even forget to abide by social mores of the time and even mouth off to the emperor of all people. Not the wisest idea, obviously. Mozart also is extremely irresponsible in areas other than his music, too. He is horrible when it comes to money matters. Money just flows through his fingers, because Mozart enjoys buying expensive things, going to parties, and playing billiards. He'll even offer to help his friends by lending them money when he himself doesn't have much.

Mozart is also extremely naive, especially when it comes to the future and other people's opinions of him. Though he can, after a while, tell when someone might have a grudge against him, it takes him a while unless he dislikes that person for something they've done. In other words, he kind of assumes everyone loves him until they do something he finds irritating or something that hinders him from doing as he wants. He genuinely thinks everyone likes him and is more than willing to do him favors and lend him money and things like that. As for being naive about the future, well, that has to do with his issues with money. He believes he will be able to afford a nice, large house for his father to come stay with him and his family, and that his operas are wonderful and will be accepted and well-loved by audiences no matter the subject matter. Mozart has issues listening to reason, as well. Because of his naivety and inflated sense of self-worth, he doesn't really listen to anyone. He expects things to go the way he wants because he's Mozart, so he thinks he shouldn't have to do anything to get things to go the way he wants. In fact, one of the only people that can get Mozart to do things even if it's something he doesn't necessarily want to do is his father. Mozart really wants his father's approval most of all, and will try and act responsible and actually listen to his father just so that he'll praise him. Of course, even then there are things his father can't get Mozart to do. Move back to Salzburg? But the people of Vienna love me! Don't get married? But I love Constanze! He has some daddy issues, if you couldn't tell. He also doesn't really get the fact that certain behaviors are expected of him. True, he does usually abide by most social mores of the time, but when he slips up, he doesn't really get why that's bad. He's Mozart, after all, so it's fine if he slips up from time to time, right? People will still appreciate him. Or at least they should, according to him. Mozart also does not take no for an answer unless people are really forceful with him. Again, this deals with his sense of self-importance and his belief that everyone likes him and wants to do things for him.

Mozart doesn't realize the effect he has on other people, as well. This ties in with him not being able to really distinguish how people feel about him and assuming everyone loves him, but he honestly cannot tell how his behavior and music can impact others. He does assume that everyone will love it and that people will love him, but since the reality is far from the truth, he doesn't or refuses to notice it. Take Salieri for instance. Mozart, throughout the whole movie, acts friendly toward and even sort of trusts Salieri. He says that Salieri was the only one of his colleagues that regularly attended his performances and that, though he might have guessed at some point that Salieri might have been fed up with him, because he helped him complete his requiem, he sees Salieri as a friend. Salieri, obviously, did not. Mozart's behavior and talent when it comes to musical composition frustrated and angered Salieri, since he couldn't do what Mozart could, and Mozart did not realize this in the least.

If there is one thing everyone knows and recognizes about Mozart as he appears in Amadeus, it's that he's really, really eccentric. He laughs a lot, he makes dirty jokes, says weird things, and is, in general, a kind of vulgar dude. This is all true. The laughter, though, apart from when he actually does find things funny or is having fun, is something Mozart uses to lighten up what he feels is a tense or awkward moment. When he's either in his element (playing or speaking about music) or alone with his family (where he does not have to act the way society expects him to act), he does not really laugh in that weird laugh of his. Dirty jokes, though, those he does tell a lot. Mozart likes to have fun, you see. He's a fun guy and he likes to joke around, be it through word puns and jokes or gross toilet humor or even weird comments. When he's in a good mood and things are going his way, he does this sort of thing more often than not, and unlike the laughter, he'll even say these kinds of things around his family (with the exception of daddy Leopold, since he wants Leopold to see him as mature and responsible and all that). The less things work out for Mozart, though, the more eccentric he gets. Whether this has to do with his habit of drinking when he's down on his luck or if he does it as a way of coping with serious, grim-looking situations or both I'm not sure. Either way, though. He's also pretty optimistic most of the time, but even more so when things are going his way. With his inflated ego and all that, it's not like he has a reason to be pessimistic most of the time. Well, until he runs out of money, anyway. On that subject, Mozart can be pretty superstitious ("A GHOST COMMISSIONED A REQUIEM FROM ME!") and he will freak out if something supernatural or whatever spooks him a bit. Also, he drinks when he's down on his luck.

That's not to say Mozart can't be the sort of person he wants his father to think he is, though. Mozart can be serious when he wants to be. If he's speaking about his own music, conducting music, or instructing others about music, he will be very, very serious, because music is serious business to Mozart. Also, when things don't go his way and he gets irritated and rage-filled, he will drop his usual eccentric act and be super serious. It's easier to get across what he wants that way, after all, but he'd much rather be care-free, bright, and all that like he usually is than all super serious. Now this might seem odd given other aspects of Mozart's character, but when he is really close to people, he will even talk down about himself to make other people seem better. When his father questions his wife's work ethic and, well, general wife-y-ness, I guess, Mozart calls himself a slob, a pig, things of that nature, just to make his wife sound better. This also ties in with his issues with daddy Leopold and wanting to be accepted by him above all else.

And finally, Mozart states that he is not too fond of politics sometimes, particularly when they interfere with his music and his ability to compose and perform what he wants to (see: the Marriage of Figaro), opera is his favorite thing to compose, and he's fed up with the traditional subjects of operas and wants to compose new things.

Extra:
Character Abilities: He's a pretty normal guy, really. His only special ability is the ability to compose some of the most beautiful music ever. Because that's what he does. He may also have the ability to incite jealousy and anger in other composers, but that's purely accidental and not his fault at all. Oh, speaking of his music, did I mention he has it all composed in his head? He can write it down note for note without needing to make corrections because he already knows what he wants to write.
Possessions: Aside from his clothes and powdered wig, he'll have a stack of manuscript paper and an ink well and an old fountain pen thing to write with.
Anything else: Not that I can think of...


Samples:
Action/Communication thread/post sample: [ Museboxing, yeaaaah ] [ also a meme, if that counts]

Log/Prose sample:

Mozart stared at the half-finished commission sitting on the far end of his billiard table, idly wondering if he should write down the last portions now or wait until later. The piece was already finished, of course. He'd finished it long ago in his mind and he still remembered every note and dynamic and every other little nuance of the piece, and he knew it would be perfect and fit the commission wonderfully. However, he could not bring himself to write down the other half of the piece. Be it from laziness or the fact that he really did not care too much for the piece itself, he wasn't sure. He liked all of his compositions, yes, but the person that commissioned this piece asked for too many flute parts and at the moment, Mozart was not too fond of composing for the flute. Why compose for the flute when there were hundreds of new piano works he could come up with?

As he continued to stare at the piece, the fact that the commissioner had paid half of the price in advance came to mind. At this point, delivering him a half-finished version of what he asked for would be not only rude, but unwise, even for Mozart. He did need money, after all. Not to mention that Stanzi would want him to finish it on time; if she found out he was slacking off, he knew she would be, well, pretty upset to say the least. And besides, if he did go ahead and finish the piece now, a while before its due date, he could write to his father and tell him how responsible he was being and how much money he was making in Vienna. Imagining what his father would write back to a letter like that was what eventually motivated Mozart to pick up his pen and scribble down a few more measures of music. This didn't last long, however, because as he was writing this piece down, another piece came to mind, causing him to set his pen down and stare at the unfinished commission yet again.

"I'm sure Stanzi won't mind," he mused aloud, "if I simply take a break from this to work on another piece. As long as it gets finished on time, it does not matter when I finish writing it down." Because that's totally perfect logic if you're Mozart.