<P> Mozart usually worked long and hard, finishing compositions at a tremendous pace as deadlines approached . He often made sketches and drafts; unlike Beethoven's these are mostly not preserved, as his wife sought to destroy them after his death . </P> <P> Mozart lived at the center of the Viennese musical world, and knew a great number and variety of people: fellow musicians, theatrical performers, fellow Salzburgers, and aristocrats, including some acquaintance with the Emperor Joseph II . Solomon considers his three closest friends to have been Gottfried von Jacquin, Count August Hatzfeld, and Sigmund Barisani; others included his older colleague Joseph Haydn, singers Franz Xaver Gerl and Benedikt Schack, and the horn player Joseph Leutgeb . Leutgeb and Mozart carried on a curious kind of friendly mockery, often with Leutgeb as the butt of Mozart's practical jokes . </P> <P> He enjoyed billiards and dancing, and kept pets: a canary, a starling, a dog, and a horse for recreational riding . He had a startling fondness for scatological humor, which is preserved in his surviving letters, notably those written to his cousin Maria Anna Thekla Mozart around 1777--1778, and in his correspondence with his sister and parents . Mozart also wrote scatological music, a series of canons that he sang with his friends . </P> <P> Mozart was raised a Roman Catholic and remained a devout member of the church throughout his life . </P>

Influences on mozart's life and musical career