Josey Ventola Esthus period 8 Mozart and Salieri Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart died at the young age of 35 and

the cause of death is unknown. Although there are reasons why this could have been possible, we must consider other possible causes. A rivalry between the two composers that could have resulted in death is plausible there are 118 other causes of death that have been studied. Mozart was an extremely accomplished composer in the eighteenth century. Despite his short-lived life, dying at the age of thirty-five, Mozart composed 41 symphonies, 46 concertos, 36 violin sonatas and many, many more. Mozart is considered one of the greatest composers of all time. Mozart was a child prodigy and toured throughout most of Europe before the age of ten. He wrote his first concerto at age four and first symphony at eight. Mozart married Constanze Van Weber without his fathers blessing, Constanze and Mozart had two children that survived past infancy, Karl and Franz Mozart, neither of which carried on the Mozart name. Mozart began having severe symptoms and died early in the morning on December 5th, 1791, at the young age of just 35. Antonio Salieri, on the other hand, was a very well known composer at the time; he was the Kapellmeister for Emperor Joseph II. Salieri was also considered a German composer despite his Italian name. Mozart was hired by the Emperor to write Operas and Mozart remained in Vienna for his remaining years. The competition between the composers may have resulted in a rivalry that could have consequentially ensued in Mozarts death. Some people believe that Mozart was poisoned. The idea the Salieri could have killed Mozart arose shortly after Mozarts death. It is possible that Salieri was jealous of Mozart. Mozart was a young man who was writing masterpieces without breaking a sweat while Salieri

had to work hard for his accomplishments. Mozart also had the ability to retain sounds and could correct errors in his head, as if his compositions were just him taking dictation. Salieri may have thought that Mozart was getting all the good praise from the emperor, while in Mozarts believed Salieri is the only great in the Emperors eyes (Mozart 1). It is believed that Salieri may have confessed to the murder. Salieri, in his later years, was kept in a mental institution (Cormican web). Some believe that because Mozart had sabotaged his career, Salieri had allegedly confessed to poisoning Mozart (Wildman web). This myth has never been proven but Mozart had said to his wife I am only too conscious that my end will not be long in coming; for sure someone has poisoned me! (Wildman web). Beethoven writes in his Heiligenstadt testament my master [Haydn] is terribly distraught about the loss of his dear friend, Mozart was poisoned as they say by Salieri (Shapiro 309). This shows that popular belief of the time belonged to the idea that Salieri was Mozarts killer. A movie or play may have given way to the belief that Salieri killed Mozart. In 1830, Aleksandr Pushkin wrote his play; Mozart and Salieri which was made into Peter Shaffers Amadeus, 1984. In the movie Salieri is an old man in the mental institute, the opening scene shows Salieri slitting his own throat and yelling his apologies for killing Mozart; however, he survives and a young priest comes to take his confession. Throughout the movie, Salieri describes how immature and annoying Mozart was and how God was using him to deliver the Devine music and in doing this God was actually trying to prevent Salieri from being successful. So Salieri burns his cross and plots to have Mozart write his own requiem mass, or death mass, and kill Mozart himself! Salieri claims that it is one thing to dream about killing a man but entirely different to actually do it. But after assigning Mozart to the mass anonymously, Mozart suddenly becomes deathly ill and Salieri tries to help his foe finish his requiem but alas, Mozart

dies. The idea that Mozart was killed by Salieri was largely influenced by this movie and Pushkins play. The most widely accepted cause for Mozarts death is Rheumatic fever. Mozart already had a weak heart from a previous bout of Rheumatic fever and there was a fever plague in Vienna at the time. Rheumatic fever is when antibodies inadvertently attack the hosts heart, skin, joints and brain, this causes rash and inflammation to the extremities. The onset to Mozarts fever is believed to be Streptococcus Progenies which can be strep throat or necrotizing fasciitis. Mozarts father Leopold also says that his son had suffered from Rheumatic fever as a child. Another popular belief is Henoch-Schlein Purpura. HSP causes skin rash, diarrhea, bloody stools and arthritis. HSP is also a kind of kidney failure. This theory died in its infancy however because it did not explain half of Mozarts symptoms, but that does not mean that HSP was not part of Mozarts overall death. A newer perspective on Mozarts death is Uremia. Uremia is a kind of lung failure. It is known that Mozart had malformed ears, ears and kidneys are formed at the same time so it is likely that Mozart had malformed kidneys as well. It is said that Mozart perspired so profusely that his clothes were drenched and had a swelling fever. Mozart also had a violent attack of Colic, which ended in violent vomiting (Wildman web). These symptoms can all be related to Uremia. Salieri, most likely, did not kill Mozart. Jealousy may not have been evident; Salieri had higher salary, greater wealth, and better reputation and was the Emperors Kapellmeister. Salieri even conducted a few premiers of Mozarts works. Most serious scholars have dismissed the sensationalist claim (Van Horn 216). It is also possible that Mozart mistakenly killed himself from mercury poisoning due to modern day Syphilis treatments. But poisoning was proven

unlikely because his writing did not show tremors, no throat-burning, difficulty swallowing, abdominal pain, hypertension, cyanosis, difficulty breathing, delirilem, and erythroderma. Rheumatic fever is still the most widely viewed cause of death. The fact that Salieri and Mozart were co-workers and that they both deeply appreciated the others works was plausible, therefore shows that they may have been acquaintances or even friends. There is no body or remains of Mozart to study so the exact cause is unknown, but it is far more probable that he died of natural causes.

Works Cited Cormican, Brendan. Mozarts Death. Angelfire.com. Book. 10 April, 2011. <http://www.angelfire,com/bc2/mozart/text.htm>. Mozart, Wolfgang Amadeus. Great Composers 1300-1900. 1966. Biography Reference bank. Web. 11 April. 2011. Shapiro, Karl. Collected Poems, 1940-1978. Random House, 1978. Print. Van Horn Melton, James. Mozart, Wolfgang Amadeus (1756-1791). Europe, 1450 to 1789. Encyclopedia of the Early Modern World. Ed. Jonathan Dewald. Vol. 4. New York: Charles Schribners sons, 2004. 214-216. Gale Virtual Reference Library.Web. 10 Apr, 2011. Wakin, Daniel J. After Mozarts Death, an Endless Coda. Nytimes.com. The New York Times, 24 August, 2010. <http://nytimes.com/2010/008/25/arts/music/25death.htms>. Wildman, Farlander. BBC. 11 April, 2011. <www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A1304957>.