Without question, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was one of the most talented and innovative composers in the entire history of classical music as a genre. Although he lived for only thirty-five years, he managed to produce over 800 (!) compositions encompassing all aspects of music as it was known at that time. His skill at compositional construction, storytelling and the playing of multiple instruments was unparalleled. He was greatly admired by fellow composers such as Beethoven and Verdi. And yet, he died penniless and was buried in an unmarked pauper’s grave. The story of the life and death of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart is unique among the annals of famous classical composers. He pushed against the pre-existing boundaries of the musical establishment; he was political without playing the political game; he possessed grand visions for bringing the beauty and joy of music to commoners and royalty alike, and he had complete and total confidence in his own abilities to create and perform music as God had intended, even if that meant he lived his life as a musical outsider. While much of the story of his life is known, the story of his death is cloaked in intrigue and suspicion. Did he die because of a medical condition (that some attribute to syphilis), or was he poisoned (as he postulated, himself)? What caused him to literally work himself to death in an effort to complete the requiem mass (or funeral mass) that he was working on when he died? Was Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart actually murdered by a jealous rival?! In today’s post we will take a bit of a look at how Mozart lived his life and a more in-depth look at the circumstances that led to his death. I am no detective, so there will be no startling declarative resolution to this centuries-old mystery. However, there are clues that exist that many believe tell the most likely version of the truth. Let’s examine those, and then you can decide for yourself what you think the answer is to this greatest of mysteries. For now, here is the story of the life and times of the greatest composer the world has ever known…Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.
Mozart was born in 1756 and died in 1791. For most of his life, he lived in either Salzburg, Austria, or else in Vienna. At the very early age of five, Mozart was taken by his father all over Austria and made to perform recitals for various upper class patrons. Mozart showed all the signs of being a child prodigy. He delighted in performing for these audiences and proved to be quite the showman, often performing tricks while playing some of the most advanced and serious of existing classical pieces. Word soon reached the royal court in Vienna of a child who possessed unheard of musical prowess. In time, Mozart and his father were invited to perform in Vienna for the Austrian Emperor. When Mozart was invited, it was expected that he would showcase his talent in ways that conformed to the standard compositional structure for classical performances at that time. However, the first impression that he made was not a good one. His work was showy and exuberant. The impression that he gave was that he was an immature man-child who lacked the self-discipline necessary to perform as expected. Little did those who comprised the royal court at the time realize, but the person who caused them to be so aghast was actually a musical genius who, even as a young boy, was chafing at the limitations being imposed on his imagination by those who claimed that there was only one way to compose a symphony or a concerto. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart never really cared to play political games, especially with those whom he felt failed to understand his craft. His master was his music. To that he gave his utmost effort and respect. Although Amadeus, the Academy Award-winning movie of his life, is a historically fictionalized version of reality, there is a scene entitled “Too Many Notes” that is instructive for you to view. In this scene Mozart has performed for the royal court. The Emperor comes to congratulate Mozart after the performance. However, because Mozart was pushing the boundaries of what was considered acceptable when creating music, his work ended up puzzling the Emperor, who couldn’t quite understand what Mozart had done, musically, and why. In response, Mozart refuses to accept this criticism from the Emperor with grace and, instead, challenges him to explain exactly what he felt was wrong. Mozart’s challenging of the Emperor’s opinion shocks the established sycophants in the royal court. This scene goes a long way to illustrate why such a talented composer as Mozart never managed to garner royal patronages as most notable composers did. It shows why he was always considered an outsider within the musical establishment that existed in Austria at the time. The clip is well worth watching and can be found here.
Mozart’s unwillingness to adhere to existing musical protocol resulted in him being kept at arm’s length from those in positions of influence who could have helped him financially by securing teaching positions, as well as the commissioning of new works to be performed at ceremonial occasions. Because of this form of economic sanction, Mozart ended up creating works for trade unions and other public organizations and for individuals. The pay he received from these groups was far less than he could have earned if he had followed the traditional route of composers such as Handel, who climbed the ladder of influence by cozying up to members of the aristocracy at every chance he had. Because Mozart had no steady form of income, he was forced to work at a furious rate. In the last year of his life alone, he created almost 70 complete compositions! Such productivity was unheard of at the time. It also paints a picture of Mozart, not as a composer favoured by royalty, but more as an independent businessman whose job it was to create original music on demand for whoever wandered into his shop. This brings us to his Requiem Mass. It is also where the story takes a mysterious turn.
The official version of the story of the Requiem Mass is that Mozart was approached by a man named Count von Walsegg to create a requiem mass in honour of his deceased wife, Anna, on the anniversary of her death. Count von Walsegg made the request in October of 1791 and asked for it to be completed by February 14 of the following year. Mozart is said to have accepted the commission in return for a deposit up front with the remaining balance due upon completion. He cautioned the Count that he would work on it when time allowed and could not promise that it would be ready at any particular time except for the February 14th due date. Count von Walsegg agreed to those terms, and the contract was signed. This is the official story. However, there exist many conspiracy theories that suggest that there was much more going on here than the official story allows.
After Mozart’s death in December of 1791, his wife Constanze had a big role in perpetuating her husband’s legacy. She did this partially for love, but also for practical financial reasons. The greater she made Mozart out to be, the more value his unsold original compositions would be to potential buyers and the greater her income would continue to be. So, Constanze Mozart began to grant interviews about her husband’s final days. In particular, she discussed the circumstances surrounding the Requiem Mass. Her reason for doing this was that Mozart died before the composition was finished. An unfinished composition has no monetary value, so it was in her best interests to maintain the fiction that Mozart had created the entire work. In reality, the final third of the Requiem Mass was actually completed by another composer named Franz Xaver Süssmayr. It was not until after she had handed the completed composition to Count von Walsegg that Süssmayr’s role in the completion of the mass came to light. But there is more to the story than this.
In her interviews, Constanze made reference to a mysterious unnamed man who had actually requested the composition. She claimed that this man had agreed to all of Mozart’s terms (as had Count von Walsegg), but she stated that Mozart seemed fearful of this person. Mozart worked tirelessly on the Requiem Mass even though his health was in decline the whole time. During this time period, Mozart confided to his wife that he felt as though he had been poisoned. This has led many people to speculate that the person who requested the Requiem Mass in the first place may have been the person who poisoned Mozart, causing him to die an agonizing death. In the movie Amadeus, this theory forms the entire storyline of the film. The identity of the murderer is revealed to be Antonio Salieri, who, at the time, was the official Court Composer for the Austrian Emperor. The rationale given for this theory is that Salieri had risen to a position of authority and influence in the royal court because he had adhered to existing protocols and lived a pious life. However, because of his background, he, alone among the rest of the royal court, had the knowledge and skill set to recognize the genius that Mozart possessed and, by contrast, how mediocre his own talent was by comparison. The organizational structure of the movie Amadeus is constructed as a confession being given by Salieri to a Catholic priest in the hopes that he will be forgiven for his crime before he dies. It describes how Salieri actually worked to undermine Mozart at every turn, which led to him being denied patronage appointments and commissions. There is no actual forensic proof that Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was poisoned nor that Antonio Salieri murdered him. But there is a scene from the film that stands as one of my favourite movie scenes of all time. It is one in which a dying Mozart, desperate to complete the Requiem Mass, enlists the assistance of Salieri (whom he considers to be a friend and ally) to transcribe his musical ideas for him. That his potential murderer is sitting at the foot of his deathbed is not known by Mozart. From Salieri’s point of view, he gets the opportunity to witness the inner workings of Mozart’s musical imagination. The genius he witnesses reminds him that God may actually be speaking through this person that he has sworn to kill. It is a scene that is fraught with emotion and is poignant in all regards. You can watch this scene by clicking here.
The success of Amadeus has done a lot to create the notion that Mozart was murdered and that Salieri was the one responsible. However, the truth of the matter actually exists somewhere between the imaginative storytelling of playwright Peter Schaffer (who wrote the original play) and the words of Constanze Mozart, who was trying her best to ensure that she continued to have access to an income that would provide support for her and her two children. In fact, Constanze eventually remarried so that she could be provided for. With her second husband, she dictated the story of Mozart’s life and was able to earn a steady source of income from the sale of his biography. However, no one knows for sure why Mozart died, except that he did without having completed his precious Requiem Mass. As he was dying, perhaps he came to believe that he was actually speaking with God through his music and was creating the mass for himself? All that anyone knows for sure is that Mozart was buried in a pauper’s grave along with several other nameless, faceless citizens who had fallen on hard times. His body was placed in a canvas sack. Once in the mass grave, it was covered with lime and, in time, the hole was filled in. No one from the royal court attended his funeral. In the movie, Salieri is shown to have been there, but there is no record of his attendance in real life. Shortly after the Requiem Mass was handed over to Count von Walsegg, it was played in public for the first time at a benefit concert organized by Constanze Mozart. Since then, it has served as the soundtrack for the funerals of many notable people such as Beethoven, Handel and German philosopher von Goethe and many others..
As for the actual composition itself, the concept of a requiem mass is one that will be quite familiar to those of you who attend a Catholic church. The simplest explanation is that a requiem mass is a church service akin to a funeral. The mass has several components to it that extend over a period of time. While many of these components involve church-related rituals, the essence of a requiem mass is the formal act of praying to God to allow the deceased human to enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Requiem masses have been held for hundreds of years. Mozart’s version may be one of the most celebrated examples of such a mass, but, in the end, it is but one version among many that exist in the Catholic church. Because a requiem mass has such great meaning for practicing Catholics, the creation of one would have held great meaning for Mozart, too. It certainly held great financial meaning for Constanze Mozart, who went to considerable lengths to see that it was completed in secrecy. It also held great meaning for Count von Walsegg, who remained a widower for the rest of his life. Every February 14th for as long as he lived, Count von Walsegg arranged for a performance of Mozart’s Requiem Mass in honour of his lost love.
One final note regarding this extraordinary piece of music. As Mozart lay dying in his bed, manuscripts strewn all around him, he came to realize that he might not be able to complete this composition. In preparation for this possibility, he began to leave notes in the margins of his manuscripts to help guide anyone tasked with completing the requiem mass on his behalf. It was these notes that guided Süssmayr in finishing the composition. The original manuscripts were saved and donated to a museum. During the 1958 World’s Fair in Brussels, these manuscripts were placed on display for all to admire. On the bottom corner of the final page of the manuscripts, Mozart had written the musical instruction “Quam olim d: C”. Somehow, somebody who was visiting the fair saw this exhibit and managed to tear off those instructions. The thief/vandal has never been found, and the instructive phrase has been lost since then. These were, in all likelihood, the final words that Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart ever wrote. In many ways, the mystery of how the manuscript was vandalized, by whom and for what reason, is a mystery in keeping with that which surrounds his actual death in 1791. What isn’t in doubt is that Mozart’s Requiem Mass is one of the world’s great feats of musical craftsmanship. With the deepest respect for the man who created these notes, I offer Mozart’s Requiem Mass for you to listen to and enjoy. As for the man himself, may peace be with you Herr Mozart, now and forever more.
The link to the video for Requiem in D Minor by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart can be found here.
The link to the video from the movie Amadeus (that shows Mozart being buried in the pauper’s grave while the completed music from the Requiem plays) can be found here. ***FYI, the scene with Salieri taking dictation and this funeral scene play back to back in the movie. One shows the creative process that went into the composition, and one shows the finished result. If you would prefer to watch the scenes back to back as well, then by all means do so.
The link to the official website for Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart can be found here.
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