Mozart Death
For the past two hundred years, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's death has
been
shrouded in mystery. Some say his great rival, Antonio Salieri, or
the
Freemasons murdered him. Others say he was simply exhausted. And some
believe he
died from sickness. It has been established that Mozart suffered
from various
illnesses, which no doubt contributed to his death. But some
researchers have
concluded that physical and mental exhaustion greatly
affected Mozart, and
contributed to his early death. These researchers claim
that by cramming more
work and play into one year than most people did in ten
years, Mozart literally"burned himself out". The constant strain on his body
forced it to succumb
to the plaguing illnesses that continuously nagged at
Mozart’s health, and
that he otherwise might have been able to withstand. It
has been said that
Mozart had a peculiar mental and physical lifestyle,
and that he was a child who
never grew up. Physically, he had childlike
energy levels, and worked at an
incredibly exhausting pace. The only way he
knew to gain respect was to write
music. An early Mozart biographer, Ignaz
Arnold wrote, "No need for poison
here—his powers were worn out, his
constitution destroyed." He also wrote"what straining of his imagination, what
constant wearing-down of his spirit,
what excitement of his brain fibers!
What continuous sapping of his vital life
forces!" In a word: his whole life
was—the consumption of life. History
shows us a host of great spirits who
burned themselves out. In this passage, he
is talking about the destruction
of Mozart’s "creative energies". He also
wrote about Mozart’s physical
exhaustion, six piano concertos, one piano
quintet, one string quartet, and
two sonatas and two sets of variations for
piano are listed, as well as a few
smaller compositions. This enormous output
was not the work of a composer
writing in undisturbed peace and seclusion, but
of one whose schedule
included teaching obligations, as well as all kinds of
other distractions of
which would have been enough to make an ordinary person
nervous. And all of
this is more amazing considering that Mozart was sickly and
frail. Despite
these setbacks, he almost never slowed his pace. For years, often
during
sickness, Mozart continued to compose, give performances, travel, teach,
and
maintain a lively social life. It is clear that Mozart was always on the
go,
and this could not have been healthy for him, considering his physical
state. I
believe that his grueling schedule led to exhaustion, which, along
with his
illness, finally led to his death. Some people believe that the
Freemasons
murdered Mozart because he revealed secrets about their
organization in his
opera, The Magic Flute. After reading a little about
this, I found no evidence
that the Freemasons had anything to do with
Mozart’s death. In fact, I
discovered that the Masons cared very much for
Wolfgang and he for them, as
well. Mozart joined the Freemasons in December
1784. He belonged to the lodge
called Zur Wohltatigkeit, which translates
into Beneficence. Freemasonry was
very popular with the intellectually elite
during the early 1780’s. When
Mozart joined the lodge, it consisted of
200 members, led by Master Ignaz von
Born. Master von Born was a
scientist, mineralogist, and writer, who Mozart
supposedly used as a model
for Sarastro, a character in The Magic Flute.
Mozart’s father, Leopold,
and his close friend Joseph Haydn also joined the
lodge, no doubt under
Mozart’s influence. Mozart was a dedicated member of his
lodge. He wrote
music for their ceremonies, including Maurerische Trauermusik
(K.477), which
was written for the funeral of two aristocratic members. The
heavy symbolism
in this piece reveals Mozart’s total involvement in the
Masonic theories
about life and death, and their symbolic relationship to the
Master
Masonic Degree. He even used these theories in a letter to his father,
who
was then on his deathbed. The Freemasons promoted brotherhood and
moral
principles in their organization and in society as a whole. They looked
after
their "brethren", including Mozart. When Mozart was having a
financial
crisis, at the end of the 1780’s, and could not pay his bills,
Michael
Puchberg, the treasurer of Mozart’s lodge, loaned him a
considerable amount of
money to make it through. Puchberg was a close friend
of Mozart’s, and after
Mozart died, he waited until Mozart’s wife,
Costanze, had regained her
financial stability before asking for repayment.
Upon his death, the lodge
published a speech held at the funeral ceremony in
Mozart’s honor. They also
printed one of his last pieces, Kleine
Freymaurer-Kantate in score for
Costanze’s benefit. Antonio Salieri was
the court composer in Austria. Shortly
after Mozart’s death, gossip spread
that in great envy, he murdered Mozart. In
his last years, Salieri even
confessed to killing Mozart, but he was very ill,
and his ramblings were
influenced by his insanity. I do not believe that Salieri
murdered Mozart. In
1823, Salieri, who was then in a mental institution,
admitted to the
poisoning of Mozart. Word spread around Europe, and many people
apparently
believed the rumors, including Ludwig van Beethoven. In his journal,
he
wrote, "Salieri is very ill again. He is quite deranged. In his ravings
he
keeps claiming that he is guilty of Mozart’s death and made away with him
by
poison. This is the truth, for he wants to make a confession of it, so it
is
true again that everything has its reward". Although there was no real
motive
for Antonio Salieri to kill Mozart, people soon invented one. For
example, the
famous Russian writer, Aleksandr Pushkin wrote a one-act play
entitled Mozart
and Salieri. In this play, Pushkin suggested that Salieri was
overwrought with
jealousy because he knew that he could never write as
beautiful music as
Mozart’s. He was angry that God would grant such
talent to an "idle
hooligan", and he supposedly poisoned his rival in slow
stages. The idea that
Salieri killed Mozart out of professional jealousy
was so intriguing that it
became the most popular theory of Mozart’s death.
In 1898, another Russian
composer, Nikolay Rimsky-Korsakov turned Pushkin’s
play in to an opera, also
titled Mozart and Salieri. This inspired British
playwright Peter Shaffer to
write Amadeus. This led to the 1984 film of the
same name that I already
completed a film critique on. All of these
productions depicted Salieri as a
weak man with minimal talent, driven by an
insane jealousy. The real question
is, did Salieri actually kill Mozart?
There is no hard evidence at all and the
only points against Salieri are made
up of hearsay. Although it is true that the
court composer did do his best to
prevent the emperor from hearing Mozart’s
music, and he criticized his music
in private conversations, this is hardly
enough to justify an accusation of
murder. Even Mozart’s wife Constanze,
trusted him enough to have him tutor
her son in later years at the piano, and
one of Salieri’s pupils, upon
visiting him on his deathbed, later said "the
reunion was a sad one; for his
appearance shocked me, and he spoke only in
broken sentences of his
approaching death; but finally with the words"although this is my last illness,
however I assure you in good faith that
there is no truth in the absurd
rumor; you know what I mean—that I poisoned
Mozart. But no... tell the
world that it is malice, pure malice; old Salieri,
who will soon be dead, has
told you this." In conclusion, although Antonio
Salieri was jealous of
Wolfgang, it is very unlikely, in my opinion, that he
would go as far as to
murder him. The people were obviously caught up in a false
accusation that
was exciting, interesting, and incredibly romantic, without
taking into
consideration reasonable thought. Throughout Mozart’s life, he was
plagued by
many illnesses. Modern scholars have tossed aside the popular
yet
unconvincing theory that Mozart was poisoned, and are focusing on a
more
plausible cause of death, sickness. Before his death, Dr. Closset
examined
Mozart. The doctor recorded symptoms such as fever, rash, and
swelling of the
hands and feet. These symptoms are indicative of disease, but
it is more
difficult to determine which disease actually killed him. Mozart
was a frail
man, and continuous bouts with different diseases led him to
become increasingly
unhealthy in his old age. The people who are trying to
piece together what
disease killed Mozart believe that whichever disease it
was, Mozart probably
suffered from it previously. Luckily, Mozart’s father,
Leopold, wrote letters
to the rest of their family describing all of the
illnesses that Wolfgang
suffered from. According to Leopold, at age six,
Mozart suffered from his first
serious illness, an upper respiratory
infection. He had two serious relapses of
this infection in 1762. In the same
year, he contracted a case of rheumatic
fever, which was most likely a result
of his strep infections. Two years later,
Mozart suffered from
tonsillitis, and the following year he was struck with
typhoid fever. Leopold
recorded the side effects of the typhoid, which included
weight loss, slow
pulse, skin rash, high fever, and pneumonia. Mozart also
lapsed into a coma
because of the typhoid fever. The sicknesses that Mozart
exhibited in his
childhood were only the beginning of a long life filled with
various
ailments. The next twenty-three years included such illnesses as a
second
bout with rheumatic fever in 1766, smallpox in 1767, severe frostbite
in
1770, hepatitis in 1771, a painful dental abscess in 1774, bronchitis
in 1780, a
third attack of rheumatic fever in 1784, and another serious
streptococcal
infection in 1787. In the 1800’s and early 1900’s, after
examining
Mozart’s health record and the symptoms just before death, a
few scholars put
together the disease theory and printed it. But it did not
get much attention
because of all the excitement about the poisoning theory.
Starting in the early
1960’s, another wave of disease theories came into
light. Most of these
contained one of two main causes of death. The first
suggestion that Mozart’s
death was brought about by another attack of
rheumatic fever. The second cited
kidney failure due to repeated
streptococcal infections as the cause of death.
Evidence supporting the
rheumatic fever theory has been introduced. This
evidence includes Mozart’s
symptoms, especially high fever and swollen hands
and feet, which are
characteristic of rheumatic fever. Another shred of evidence
supporting this
theory is the fact that Mozart suffered from recurring rheumatic
fever.
Studies have shown that each successive attack weakens the heart, and a
final
serious bout with the disease could have been the final blow
for
Wolfgang’s heart. After studying all the evidence supporting the
disease
theory, I have concluded that Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart probably died
from a
serious illness, more specifically rheumatic fever. Although this is
the most
convincing theory, there will always be disagreement about the death
of the
world’s greatest composer,
Mozart.