On 5 December 1791, the composerWolfgang Amadeus Mozart died at his home in Vienna, Austria atthe age of 35. The circumstances of his death have attracted muchresearch and speculation.
The principal sources of contentionare: (1) Whether Mozart declined gradually, experiencing great fearand sadness, or whether he was fundamentally in good spirits towardthe end of his life, then felled by a relatively sudden illness; (2)Whether the cause of his death was from disease or poisoning; (3)Whether his funeral arrangements were the normal procedures for hisday, or if they were of a disrespectful nature.
There are a range of views on each ofthese points, many of which have varied radically over time.
The course of Mozart's final illness
The traditional narrative
Mozart scholarship long followed theaccounts of early biographers, which proceeded in large part from therecorded memories of his widow Constanze and her sister Sophie Weberas they were recorded in the biographies by Franz Niemetschek andGeorg Nikolaus von Nissen. For instance, the important biography byHermann Abert largely follows this account. The following is asummary of this view.
When in August 1791 Mozart arrived inPrague to supervise the performance of his new opera La clemenza diTito (K. 621), he was "already very ill". Duringthis visit, Niemetschek wrote, "he was pale and expressionwas sad, although his good humor was often shown in merry jest withhis friends." Following his return to Vienna (mid September1791), Mozart's condition gradually worsened. For a while, he wasstill able to work and completed his Clarinet Concerto (K. 622),worked toward the completion of his Requiem (K. 626), and conductedthe premiere performance of The Magic Flute (K. 620) on 30 September.Still, he became increasingly alarmed and despondent about hishealth. An anecdote from Constanze is related by Niemetschek:
On his return to Vienna, hisindisposition increased visibly and made him gloomily depressed. Hiswife was truly distressed over this. One day when she was driving inthe Prater with him, to give him a little distraction and amusement,and they were sitting by themselves, Mozart began to speak of death,and declared that he was writing the Requiem for himself. Tears cameto the eyes of the sensitive man: 'I feel definitely,' he continued,'that I will not last much longer; I am sure I have been poisoned. Icannot rid myself of this idea.'
Constanze attempted to cheer herhusband by persuading him to give up work on the Requiem for a while,encouraging him instead to complete the "Freimaurerkantate"(K. 623), composed to celebrate the opening of a new Masonic templefor Mozart's own lodge. The strategy worked for a time – thecantata was completed and successfully premiered on 18 November. Hetold Constanze he felt "elated" over the premiere. Mozart is reported to have stated, "Yes I see I was ill tohave had such an absurd idea of having taken poison, give me back theRequiem and I will go on with it."
Mozart's worst symptoms of illness soonreturned, together with the strong feeling that he was beingpoisoned. He became bedridden on 20 November, suffering fromswelling, pain and vomiting.
From this point on, scholars are allagreed that Mozart was indeed very sick, and he died about two weekslater, on December 5.
Revisionist accounts
The view that Mozart was in near-steadydecline and despair during the last several months of his life hasmet with skepticism in recent years. Cliff Eisen supervised thereissue of Abert's biography in 2007 in a new edition, supplementingit with numerous footnotes. While generally deferential to Abert,Eisen expresses sharp criticism in the footnoting of the sectionleading up to Mozart's death:
...in this context, the evidencecited by Abert is selective and suits the intended trajectory of hisbiography. With the exception of citations from Mozart's letters, allof the testimony is posthumous and prompted by complicated motivesboth personal and financial. Although it is 'authentic' in the sensethat it derives from those who witnessed Mozart's death, or wereclose to him, it is not necessarily accurate. ... To be sure, Mozartwas under the weather in Prague. But there is no evidence that he was'very ill' and it is not true that his health 'continued todeteriorate'. As Abert himself notes later in this chapter, Mozart'shealth improved in October and early November.
In the main biography article of theCambridge Mozart Encyclopedia, Ruth Halliwell writes of thedecline-and-despair account:
While later sources describe[Mozart] as working feverishly on [his Requiem], filled withpremonitions of his own death, these accounts are hard to reconcilewith the high spirits of his letters from most of November.Constanze's earliest account, published in Niemetschek's biography of1798, states that Mozart 'told her of ... his wish to try his hand atthis type of composition, the more so as the higher forms of churchmusic had always appealed to his genius.' There is no hint that thework was a burden to him.
As for why Constanze might have been"prompted by complicated motives both personal and financial"(Eisen), Halliwell contends that "Constanze and Sophie werenot objective witnesses, because Constanze's continuing quest forcharity gave her reasons to disseminate sentimental andsensationalist views." By"charity" Halliwellmay be referring to the many benefit concerts from which Constanzereceived income in the years following Mozart's death, as wellas, perhaps, the pension she received from the Emperor; seediscussion below as well as Constanze Mozart.
Christoph Wolff, in a 2012 bookentitled Mozart at the Gateway to his Fortune, disputes the view thatMozart's last years represented a steady slide to despair and thegrave; he also disagrees with interpretations of the music asreflecting late-life despair (for example) "the hauntinglybeautiful autumnal world of [Mozart's] music written in 1791".
Cause of death
Theories involving homicide
An early rumor addressing the cause ofMozart's death was that he was poisoned by his colleague AntonioSalieri. This rumor, however, was not proven to be true, as the signsof illness Mozart displayed did not indicate poisoning. Despitedenying the allegation, Salieri was greatly affected by theaccusations that he had contributed to Mozart's death, whichcontributed to his nervous breakdowns in later life.
Beyond the Salieri theory, othertheories involving murder by poison have been put forth, blaming theMasons, Jews, or both. One such theory was the work of MathildeLudendorff, wife of the German general Erich Ludendorff. HistorianWilliam Stafford describes such accounts as outlandish conspiracytheories.
Theories involving disease
Stafford described the effort todetermine what disease killed Mozart:
What did he actually die of?Mozart's medical history is like an inverted pyramid: a small corpusof primary documentation supports a large body of secondaryliterature. There is a small quantity of direct eye-witness testimonyconcerning the last illness and death, and a larger quantity ofreporting of what eye witnesses are alleged to have said. Altogetherit would not cover ten pages; some of it is vague, and some downrightunreliable. All too often later writers have used this datauncritically to support pet theories. They have invented newsymptoms, nowhere recorded in the primary sources.
In the parish register, the entryconcerning Mozart's death states he died of "severe miliaryfever"; – "miliary" referring to theappearance of millet-sized bumps on the skin. This does not name theactual disease.
Mozart had health problems throughouthis life, suffering from smallpox, tonsillitis, bronchitis,pneumonia, typhoid fever, rheumatism, and gum disease. Whether theseplayed any role in his demise cannot be determined.
Conjectures as to what killed Mozartare numerous. The following survey is arranged in rough chronologicalorder.
Some ascribe Mozart's death tomalpractice on the part of his physician, Dr. Closset. Hissister-in-law Sophie Weber, in her 1825 account, makes theimplication. Borowitz summarizes:
When Mozartappeared to be sinking, one of his doctors, Dr. Nikolaus Closset, wassent for and finally located at the theater. However, according toSophie's account, that drama-lover "had to wait till thepiece was over." When he arrived, he ordered cold compressesput on Mozart's feverish brow, but these "provided such a shockthat he did not regain consciousness again before he died.
A 1994 article in Neurology suggestsMozart died of a subdural hematoma. A skull believed to be Mozart'swas saved by the successor of the gravedigger who had supervisedMozart's burial, and later passed on to anatomist Josef Hyrtl, themunicipality of Salzburg, and the Mozarteum museum (Salzburg).Forensic reconstruction of soft tissues related to the skull revealssubstantial concordance with Mozart's portraits. Examination of theskull suggested a premature closure of the metopic suture, which hasbeen suggested on the basis of his physiognomy. A left temporalfracture and concomitant erosions raise the question of a chronicsubdural hematoma, which would be consistent with several falls in1789 and 1790 and could have caused the weakness, headaches, andfainting Mozart experienced in 1790 and 1791. Additionally, anepisode of aggressive bloodletting used to treat suspected rheumaticfever on the night of December 4, 1791, could have decompensated sucha lesion, leading to his death on the following day.
In a 2000 publication, a team of twophysicians (Faith T. Fitzgerald, Philip A. Mackowiak) and amusicologist (Neal Zaslaw) reviewed the historical evidence andtentatively opted for a diagnosis of rheumatic fever.
The hypothesis of trichinosis was putforth by Jan V. Hirschmann in 2001.
A suggestion is that Mozart died as aresult of his hypochondriasis and his predilection for taking patentmedicines containing antimony. In his final days, this was compoundedby further prescriptions of antimony to relieve the fever he clearlysuffered.
A 2006 article in a UK medical journalconsidered several theories for Mozart's death and, based on hisletters from his last year, dismisses syphilis and other chronicdiseases. The attending physicians wrote he died with fever and arash, and a physician they consulted wrote later "this maladyattacked at this time a great many of the inhabitants and not for afew of them it had the same fatal conclusions and the same symptomsas in the case of Mozart." The article's conclusion was"death came as a result of an acute infectious illness."
In 2009, British, Viennese and Dutchresearchers performed epidemiological research combined with a studyof other deaths in Vienna at the time of Mozart's death. Theyconcluded that Mozart may have died of a streptococcal infectionleading to an acute nephritic syndrome caused by poststreptococcalglomerulonephritis. In Austria this disease was also called"Wassersucht" (dropsy/edema).
In a journal article from 2011, it wassuggested that Vitamin D deficiency could have played a role inMozart's underlying medical conditions leading to his death.
Funeral
The funeral arrangements were made byMozart's friend and patron Baron Gottfried van Swieten. Describinghis funeral, the Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians states,"Mozart was buried in a common grave, in accordance withcontemporary Viennese custom, at the St. Marx Cemetery outside thecity on 7 December." Otto Jahn wrote in 1856 that Salieri,Süssmayr, van Swieten and two other musicians were present.
The common belief that Mozart wasburied in a pauper's grave is without foundation. The "commongrave" referred to above is a term for a grave belonging to acitizen not of the aristocracy. It was an individual grave, not acommunal grave; but after ten years the city had the right to dig itup and use it for a later burial. The graves of the aristocracy werespared such treatment.
A description of Mozart's funeral,attributed to Joseph Deiner, appeared in the Vienna Morgen-Post of 28January 1856:
The night of Mozart's death was darkand stormy; at the funeral, too, it began to rage and storm. Rain andsnow fell at the same time, as if Nature wanted to shew her angerwith the great composer's contemporaries, who had turned outextremely sparsely for his burial. Only a few friends and three womenaccompanied the corpse. Mozart's wife was not present. These fewpeople with their umbrellas stood round the bier, which then takenvia the Grosse Schullerstrasse to the St. Marx Cemetery. As the stormgrew ever more violent, even these few friends determined to turnback at the Stuben Gate, and they betook themselves to the "SilverSnake". Deiner, the landlord, was also present for the funeral.
As Slonimsky notes, the tale was widelyadopted and incorporated into Mozart biographies, but Deiner'sdescription of the weather is contrary to records kept of theprevious day. The diarist Karl Zinzendorf recorded on 6 December thatthere had been "mild weather and frequent mist". The Vienna Observatory kept weather records and recorded for 6December a temperature ranging from 37.9 to 38.8 degrees Fahrenheit(2.8 °C–3.8 °C), with "a weak east wind at all ... timesof the day".
Aftermath
Following her husband's death,Constanze addressed the issue of providing financial security for herfamily; the Mozarts had two young children, and Mozart had died withoutstanding debts. She successfully appealed to the Emperor on 11December 1791 for a widow's pension due to her as a result ofMozart's service to the Emperor as a part-time chamber composer.Additionally, she organized a series of concerts of Mozart's musicand the publication of many of her husband's works. As a result,Constanze became financially secure over time.
Soon after the composer's death aMozart biography was started by Friedrich Schlichtegroll, who wrotean early account based on information from Mozart's sister, Nannerl.Working with Constanze, Franz Niemetschek wrote a biography as well.Much later, Constanze assisted her second husband, Georg Nikolaus vonNissen, on a more detailed biography published in 1826. SeeBiographies of Mozart.
Mozart's musical reputation rosefollowing his death; 20th-century biographer Maynard Solomondescribes an "unprecedented wave of enthusiasm" forhis work after he died, and a number of publishers issued editions ofhis compositions.
What may have been Mozart's skull wasexhumed in 1801, and in 1989–1991 it was examined foridentification by several scientists.
Remembrances of Mozart's death
An 1857 lithograph by Franz Schramm,titled Ein Moment aus den letzten Tagen Mozarts ("Moment fromthe Last Days of Mozart"). Mozart, with the score of theRequiem on his lap, gives Süssmayr last-minute instructions.Constanze is to the side and the messenger is leaving through themain door.
A portrayal by Joseph Heicke of thejourney of Mozart's coffin through a storm to the cemetery. Engravingfrom about 1860, a few years after the Deiner story appeared.
Individuals present at the time ofMozart's death eventually committed their memories to writing, eitheron their own or through interviews by others. The stories they toldare often contradictory, which may be due in part to some of theevents not being recorded until the 1820s, when the witnesses'memories might have faded.
Benedikt Schack, Mozart's close friendfor whom he wrote the role of Tamino in The Magic Flute, told aninterviewer that on the last day of Mozart's life, he participated ina rehearsal of the Requiem in progress. Schack's questionable accountappeared in an obituary for Schack which was published in the 25 July1827 issue of the Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung:
On the very eve of his death,[Mozart] had the score of the Requiem brought to his bed, and himself(it was two o'clock in the afternoon) sang the alto part; Schack, thefamily friend, sang the soprano line, as he had always previouslydone, Hofer, Mozart's brother-in-law, took the tenor, Gerl, later abass singer at the Mannheim Theater, the bass. They were at the firstbars of the Lacrimosa when Mozart began to weep bitterly, laid thescore on one side, and eleven hours later, at one o'clock in themorning (of 5 December 1791, as is well known), departed this life.
Biographer Niemetschek relates avaguely similar account, leaving out a rehearsal:
On the day of his death he asked forthe score to be brought to his bedside. 'Did I not say before, that Iwas writing this Requiem for myself?' After saying this, he lookedyet again with tears in his eyes through the whole work.
The widely repeated claim that, on hisdeathbed, Mozart dictated passages of the Requiem to his pupilSüssmayr is strongly discounted by Solomon, who notes that theearliest reference for this claim dates to 1856. However, Süssmayr'shandwriting is in the original manuscript of the Requiem and SophieWeber did claim to recall that Mozart gave instructions to Süssmayr.
An 1840 letter from the composer Ignazvon Seyfried states that on his last night, Mozart was mentallyoccupied with the currently running opera The Magic Flute. Mozart issaid to have whispered the following to Constanze in reference to hersister Josepha Hofer, the coloratura soprano who premiered the roleof the Queen of the Night:
Quiet, quiet! Hofer is just takingher top F; — now my sister-in-law is singing her second aria, "DerHölle Rache"; how strongly she strikes and holds the B-flat:"Hört! hört! hört! der Mutter Schwur" [Hear! hear! hear!the mother's oath].
Solomon, while noting that Mozart'sbiographers often left out the "crueler memories"surrounding his death, stated, "Constanze Mozart told Nissenthat just before the end Mozart asked her what [his physician] Dr.Closset had said. When she answered with a soothing lie, he said, 'Itisn't true,' and he was very distressed: 'I shall die, now when I amable to take care of you and the children. Ah, now I will leave youunprovided for.' And as he spoke these words, 'suddenly he vomited—it gushed out of him in an arc— it was brown, and he was dead.'" Mozart's older, seven-year-old, son Karl was present at his father'sdeath and later wrote, "Particularly remarkable is in myopinion the fact that a few days before he died, his whole bodybecame so swollen that the patient was unable to make the smallestmovement, moreover, there was stench, which reflected an internaldisintegration which, after death, increased to the extent that anautopsy was impossible."