Mozart Pt. 3: How did he die?

    As it did with Shakespeare, a feeling of mystery surrounds the death of Mozart. As I have mentioned before, the composer died at an unusually young age (35!)--even younger than Shakespeare. While I believe that it is entirely probable that he died from stress and overwork, a more interesting theory has made its way into popular tale--and even film: Mozart was poisoned. The suspicion for this awful deed falls on one man, and one man alone. Antonio Salieri. 

     Salieri was Mozart’s main rival, or rather, Mozart was Salieri’s rival. There really was no way Mozart was actually threatened by Salieri, but not so the other way around. Let’s take a quick look at Antonio Salieri himself.

      While Mozart was an obvious genius, with no lack of enchanting melodies and tunes, Salieri was just a normal man. He had talent, however, and had worked  his way up to become the highest-ranking composer in the western world. He had become the Court Composer for the Austrian Emperor Franz Josef of Vienna. This was no little position, and Salieri had a right to be proud of his achievements. Having been born in 1750, he was, after all, only a few years older than Mozart himself. Despite his young age when he received the job, he held the position of Capellmeister for a whopping eighteen years. Salieri was also a teacher to several now famous men: Beethoven, Lizst and Schubert being among them. 

     As for the reasons for rivalry, they become apparent at a closer look. Mozart was six years younger than Salieri but one hundred times as famous. Mozart wasn’t considered respectable (he didn’t pay his taxes) but he seemed able to whip up the respect of his audiences in no time at all–albeit, it died quickly. While Salieri was trying to make his way into the music world as a mature, dignified composer, Mozart was young, seemingly unstoppable, of questionable character and full of endless music. I have to admit that all these things would make me jealous of Mozart, were I in Salieri’s shoes. In short, the Court Composer of Vienna found himself affronted and easily conquered by the fame and genius of the young man. With all these facts laid bare, it is time to turn to the mystery at hand. Did Salieri murder Mozart? 

     On one hand, Salieri was definitely threatened by this young composer’s genius. Sometimes, the young Mozart barely even seemed to try. “Though it be long, the work is complete and finished in my mind. I take out of the bag of memory what has previously been collected into it,” he wrote at one point. “For this reason, the committing to paper is done quickly enough. For everything is already finished, and it rarely differed on paper from what it was in my imagination. At this work I can therefore allow myself to be disturbed. Whatever may be going on about me, I can write and even talk" (Goulding).  On the other hand, by the time that Mozart’s most famous operas were coming out in the late 1780s, Salieri had been Capellmeister for over ten years. While he may have felt upset by the fact that Mozart’s music was so much better than his, it seems unlikely that he actually felt his job was threatened by it–and therefore that he needed to kill Mozart over it. 

     Thus, in the end, I’m inclined not to think that Salieri killed our great genius. There is little evidence that he did–in fact only popular tall tales and legends. (One of the first notable appearances of these rumors was at Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony where sinister pamphlets were handed out to the audience, dropping hints that Salieri had poisoned Mozart.) Nevertheless, it is always intriguing to find out all you can about any mystery at hand–so feel free to research it and tell me the conclusion you arrive at! We will never know for sure which is right!

     Deus Benedicat tibi

     (God bless you.)

Works Cited:

Blakemore, Erin. “A German Composer uncovered a collaboration between Mozart and Salieri.”     

     Smithsonionmag.com. Smithsonian Magazine, 16 February 2016. Web. 17 February 2024.

Goulding, Phil. Classical Music. New York: Ballantine Books, 1992. Print.