Whether Salieri poisoned Mozart or not, no one will ever know. There are several different versions of his death, including the fact that he was poisoned by his wife Constance and her lover. There are no plans to discuss these versions in this note. I will try to acquaint you with how events developed after his death.
The legend that Mozart was buried along with tramps and beggars is not true. Free funerals were provided for such categories.
Mozart's burial was led by his friend and patron, a member of the Masonic lodge, Baron Gottfried van Swieten. He ordered a funeral according to the third category, which was one of the cheapest, but still not free.
This discharge required burial in St. Mark's Cemetery in a grave that was designed for four adults and two children.
02. Once upon a time, the St. Mark's cemetery was located on the outskirts of Vienna, but now it is surrounded by residential areas and finding it was not such an easy task, but we managed it.
03. Mozart was buried in December 1791, and his wife did not attend the funeral, citing illness. Many years later, Constance explained her absence from her husband’s funeral due to the harsh winter, but according to the Vienna Central Office of Meteorology and Geodynamics, the weather on December 6 and 7, 1791 was mild, windless, and without precipitation.
04. At first, Mozart’s grave was visited by his friends, students and composers, but gradually its place was lost. 17 years after Mozart’s death, his wife came to his grave for the first time, but the exact place of his burial could no longer be found.
05. It was only in 1859 that a plan of St. Mark’s cemetery was discovered, from which it was possible to determine the approximate location of his burial.
06. At the same time, a monument by von Gasser was erected at the site of the supposed burial. But he didn't stay there long. Local officials, who were unable to take part in the dignified burial of the great composer in 1791, decided to move this monument to another cemetery a hundred years later.
07. In order not to once again lose the place of Mozart’s real burial, the caretaker of the cemetery built a temporary monument from the remains of the tombstones. However, after some time, justice prevailed, and von Gasser’s “Weeping Angel” was returned to its rightful place.
08. Let's see where they tried to move the monument from Mozart's grave. To do this, we need to take the tram and move to the Central Cemetery of Vienna.
09. Unlike St. Mark's Cemetery, finding the Central Cemetery is not difficult. The tram stop is located directly in front of the cemetery entrance.
10. To the left of the entrance to the cemetery there are Orthodox burials, but none of our famous compatriots are there. The church was closed.
11. So why was it decided to move the Mozart monument to the Central Cemetery?
12. The fact is that in early XIX century, the status of musicians in society begins to increase sharply. Beethoven's funeral in 1827 took place in a completely different environment. He would have been buried in the new Vienna Central Cemetery.
13. By 1891, when the 100th anniversary of Mozart’s death was celebrated, a “musical corner” had already been formed at the Central Cemetery, where world-famous composers were buried.
14. The monument to Mozart was erected surrounded by the graves of Beethoven, Schubert, Strauss, Schubert and Salieri.
15. It’s interesting that we were alone at St. Mark’s cemetery. There were also few visitors to the Central Cemetery. IN " music corner"We met a Chinese woman who asked me to photograph her in front of the Beethoven monument.
16. In conclusion, we can say that the exact burial place of the great composer remains unknown, however, fans of his work have the opportunity to lay flowers at both monuments.
The visit to Vienna took place in November 2017. A few more notes from this trip are expected.
The Central Cemetery in Vienna or St. Mark's Cemetery has long been firmly included in the list of attractions of the city and a must-see place. It's worth going here for many reasons. Firstly, the location. The 11th district of Vienna is a mixture of Turkish and Arabic flavors against a European background. Small Chinese shops filled with tinsel can delight you with some souvenir trinket.
Secondly, the cemetery is the second largest in Europe. I’ll just give you the numbers – 3 million burials. This place has long been turned into a huge park with old mighty trees, smooth gravel paths, clearings, flower beds, with roe deer walking and squirrels jumping. Thirdly, very respectable people, famous throughout the world, lie here.
Thus, even if you are not a taphophile (a lover of cemeteries), it is worth a visit. At the central gate No. 2 you can get a printed plan map. On a large stand, burials are listed by area - Jewish, Buddhist, Catholic, Orthodox, Bulgarian, Serbian and many others. There is enough space for everyone, regardless of religious beliefs, occupation or nationality.
Music Alley
The most picturesque monuments are located along the main alley. At the composers' site, you can stand near each monument, admire the sculptures, and say hello to everyone. Here is Ludwig Beethoven with a beautiful golden bee (symbol of the Freemasons) on the obelisk. How can one not remember that on the day of the funeral of this great man, everything in Vienna was closed? educational establishments as a sign of respect to the composer. Two hundred thousand people followed his coffin. The grave of Johann Brahms is also nearby. And another Johann - Strauss, whom the Viennese dubbed the king of waltzes. And Strauss the father. In the very center of this site is the symbolic burial place of Mozart. After all, he was once thrown into a mass grave for the poor. Therefore, the exact location is unknown.
Sometimes you can go to a concert here, because musicians often come here to bow to their teachers and idols. That is why the Vienna Cemetery is called the “musical” cemetery of Europe.
By the way, Salieri’s grave is also in this cemetery, only it is located near one of the fences.
Sometimes a bus drives through the cemetery, delivering people to the plots. But you can also travel by fiacres. All you have to do is book a tour. Looks very romantic. A cab is rolling through the cemetery, the driver (or what to call him, I don’t know) is waving his whip, pointing to both sides.
Orthodox part
There is also a small one in the cemetery Orthodox Church. There are graves around with Russian inscriptions, with “Yatya”. Entire families lie side by side.
Not only tourists walk around the cemetery, but in the alleys you can also meet whole family groups. The air here is clean, birds sing on the branches, squirrels sit on marble or granite slabs, decorously gnawing nuts. Ready-made sketches for rural pastorals.
Apparently God himself
I wanted to do this...
That's your favor
Having revealed, oddly enough...
So that among the ten
Homeless tramps
hide Mozart
In a nameless ditch!..
30.01.2018.
This Detective story begins immediately after Mozart's death. Gloomy rumors spread throughout Vienna: “The Maestro has been killed! He's poisoned! Wasn’t it Mozart himself who complained to his Constance: “I won’t last long. Surely someone gave me poison!”
Even the names of possible killers were named. What if this is Franz Xaver Süssmayer, whom Mozart once called "shit"? (For the sake of fairness, we note that it was Süssmayer, in the last hours before his death, that Mozart indicated how to finish the score of the Requiem.) Or his rival on the musical path - Antonio Salieri, this “Italian”, who later himself seemed to confess to the murder? “He performed a heavy duty!” - the poet branded him with such deadly bureaucracy. (One more note in fairness: of the last three symphonies written by Mozart, only one was performed on stage during his lifetime; it was performed in 1791 in charity concert, and this happened with the assistance of A. Salieri.) What if it was Constance herself, the poet’s careless wife?
All these versions have long been studied by historians and refuted. Science exonerated everyone - Salieri, Franz Xaver, and the companion of life and death.
Mozart died of rheumatic inflammatory fever. IN last years he was exhausted by poverty and deprivation. After the death of Emperor Joseph II in 1790, Mozart's position became completely hopeless. For some time he had to leave Vienna to escape persecution by creditors. Shortly before his death, he was finally enlisted in the service, appointing him “a free assistant to the conductor of St. Stephen’s Cathedral.” After the death of the conductor, Mozart had the right to take his place, but he himself died first. On November 20 he fell ill and after a two-week illness died on December 5, 1791.
Another legend has long been exposed - that Mozart was buried in a common grave as the last beggar, and the hill crowned with unknown ashes was not even decorated with a sign: “Here lies the great Austrian...”. Not everything in this legend is false, but the events of those sad days require a different assessment. You need to know the realities of Vienna at that time.
Baron Gottfried van Swieten, who took care of the funeral, ordered a “third-class burial” for his friend. Cost: eight guilders, 56 kreuzers; in addition three guilders for the hearse. At that time it was a very ordinary funeral, befitting a person worthy in all respects. In the last ritual due to Mozart, all funeral regulations adopted in the Austrian Empire and familiar to its inhabitants were strictly observed, but perhaps surprising to foreigners who were ready to consider the observance of order as neglect of Mozart’s remains.
So, this regulation, for example, said: “In the graves of the deceased buried in coffins, it is prescribed to bury four adults and two children; in the absence of children, put five adult corpses.” Ordinary graves were, in fact, common, designed for several people, but this was the way it was supposed to be for everyone. This is not neglect, these are rules.
Even the dimensions of the grave were precisely determined. “It is prescribed to dig holes six feet long, four feet wide and six feet deep” (one foot corresponded to approximately 32 cm in Austria).
On the evening of December 6, 1791, or perhaps a day later, the hearse with Mozart’s coffin left his last refuge and moved towards St. Mark’s cemetery, located 4 km from the city. Funerals were prohibited within the city at that time. The gravediggers left the coffin in the dead room until the morning, and then, lowering it into the ground, sprinkled quicklime on the lid.
After seven or eight years, the graves acquired new residents. Naturally, no magnificent tombstones were erected over these mounds. Most of the residents of Vienna came to God without any embellishment. One metal cross served as a reminder of the remains of the deceased, but there was none above Mozart’s grave. There was no sign (this is a question for my wife, who has never visited the grave). Therefore, the place where Mozart was buried was soon forgotten. ...Half a century has passed since the composer’s death. Presumably in 1843, an engraver from Vienna, Jakob Hirtl, received a certain skull. As the legend goes, this “container of the mind” was given to him by a friend, a gravedigger from St. Mark’s cemetery.
According to the donor, it was Mozart's skull. This “proletarian of the last shovel” inherited this relic from his predecessor, Joseph Rothmayer.
He allegedly dug up the skull back in 1801, and maybe even earlier, when “Mozart’s grave” was filled with a new batch of mortal remains, because the funeral conveyor was working at full speed. During this procedure, the gravedigger concealed the skull. This is how the legend began.
Where was Mozart buried, and how did it happen?
- Mozart was buried in St. Mark's Cemetery in Vienna in 1791. But no one still knows where exactly the maestro’s grave is: the funeral was very modest, the inconsolable widow felt so bad on the way to the cemetery that she was returned home, and Mozart was buried in a common grave, and no one thought to mark the place even with the cheapest cross.
- At the age of 35, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart died in poverty, hastily writing down the last notes of his Requiem with a weakening hand, which he considered a funeral mass in itself.
According to another version, Franz Xavier Süssmayer, a student, secretary of Mozart and lover of his wife, was involved in the poisoning of Mozart. At the same time, Mr. Süssmayer was a student not only of Mozart, but also of Salieri. It is believed that mercury (mercurius) fell into the hands of Süssmayer from another “hero” of the tragedy - the count and musician Walsegg zu Stuppach, the same one who commissioned Mozart’s “Requiem”. It was in his domain that mercury was mined.
After Mozart’s death, the words of one of the composers were retold in musical circles, who allegedly remarked: “Although it is a pity for such a genius, it is good for us that he is dead. For if he had lived longer, truly, no one in the world would have given us a piece of bread for our works." Among Viennese musicians for a long time was transmitted next story. As if the coffin with Mozart’s body was buried not in the Church of St. Stephen, but at the entrance to the Cross Chapel, adjacent to the northern unfinished tower of the temple. And then, when those accompanying them left, the coffin with the body was brought inside and, having walked in front of the Crucifixion, they carried out the ashes of the great musician through another exit, leading straight to the catacombs, where people who died during the plague epidemic were buried. These strange rumors have various confirmations. For example, it is known that, while sorting through Beethoven’s archive, the composer’s executors discovered, among other papers, an interesting picture depicting the funeral of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. The drawing depicted a wretched hearse driving through the gates of the cemetery, followed by a dejected stray dog.
In the 60s of the twentieth century, in Salzburg, at one of the sessions of the Institute of Mozart Studies, experts came to the conclusion that, in all likelihood, there was no poisoning, and Mozart died from a rheumatic disease that was incurable at that time. These arguments were confirmed by famous work Karl Baer "Mozart. - Illness. - Death. - Burial."
In 1801, an old Viennese gravedigger accidentally dug up a skull that was supposed to belong to Mozart, whose skeleton had disappeared without a trace. It was only in 1859 that the ancient plan of St. Mark's Cemetery in Vienna was discovered and a marble monument was erected at the supposed burial site of Mozart. - Mozart's biographers are still perplexed: how could it happen that the composer, who literally made the librettist and theater entrepreneur Schikaneder rich with his opera The Magic Flute, died in poverty? How could it happen that he was buried at the lowest level in a common grave along with a dozen tramps?
In the interpretation of the fate of the Austrian musician, you can find anything you want - mysticism and intrigue, revenge and conspiracy. Versions about the predetermination of fate and mysterious death There are probably too many Mozarts to choose just one.Some biographers of Mozart claim that the entire life of a musical genius - from birth to grave - is a manipulation of fate, and refer to a secret number system that speaks of an alchemical connection between the date of his birth and the deadly poison given to Mozart: "His birth at 8 o'clock in the evening on Wednesday night , the height of the Sun on the day of his birth was 8 degrees in the constellation Aquarius and, finally, the sum of his numbers full years life - 35 is again a pure eight." If you believe in numerology, then "the eight symbolizes the inevitability of fate, justice, and sometimes even death. This number says that for any action there is a reaction, for any action you will have to answer."
The most common version of the composer's death is poisoning, and it appeared immediately after the death of Mozart. His wife Constanza claimed that her husband was haunted by the thought of death from poison. The son, Karl Thomas, in turn, recalled: “Father’s body was strangely swollen, like that of someone poisoned with mercury.” Opponents of this version believe that mercury could have appeared in the body for a completely different reason: it was used to treat tabes dorsalis, which Mozart suffered from.
Suspect No. 1 has long been his rival, composer Antonio Salieri. Despite rumors, Vienna celebrated its half-century anniversary in grand style creative activity"suspect". They say that the Viennese public did not listen too much to gossip; moreover, after Mozart’s death, his wife Constanze sent youngest son study with Salieri. However, Mozart’s son believed that “Salieri did not kill his father, but truly poisoned his life with intrigues,” and Mozart’s father wrote to his daughter Nannerl on March 18, 1786: “Salieri and his minions are again ready to turn heaven and hell, just to fail production" ("The Marriage of Figaro"). And yet, intrigue is by no means the slow poison of the “aquatophan” that allegedly poisoned Mozart. However, other supporters of this version argued that Mozart was poisoned with mercury.
According to another version, Franz Xavier Süssmayer, a student, secretary of Mozart and lover of his wife, was involved in the poisoning of Mozart. At the same time, Mr. Süssmayer was a student not only of Mozart, but also of Salieri. It is believed that mercury (mercurius) fell into the hands of Süssmayer from another “hero” of the tragedy - the count and musician Walsegg zu Stuppach, the same one who commissioned Mozart’s “Requiem”. It was in his domain that mercury was mined
- in a common grave.... dumped in a heap and that's it... forgotten.... (
- Mozart died on December 5, 1791 from an illness possibly caused by a kidney infection.
He was buried in Vienna, in St. Mark's Cemetery in a common grave, so the burial place itself remained unknown
At that time in Vienna it was customary to bury more than one person at a time; this was due to many things, for example, rampant epidemics. In 1801, under mysterious circumstances, Mozart’s skull was found, this happened when his grave found new inhabitants, but that’s a completely different story. - The cemetery is one of the main attractions of the Austrian capital. Tourists sometimes call it Musical, because here you can find tombstones majority famous composers Ludwig van Beethoven, Johannes Brahms, Christoph Willibald Gluck, Franz Schubert, Johann Strauss (both father and son) and, of course, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.
Although in fact, when Mozart died, his body was thrown into a mass grave for the poor in St. Mark's Cemetery in a completely different area of Vienna, and where exactly he is buried is still unknown. Nevertheless, the Austrians allocated a place for the genius of music in their honorable Pantheon-necropolis.
There are 350 actual celebrity graves in the cemetery, and more than 600 honorary memorial graves (dedicated).
- Mozart was buried in a pauper's grave in the Vienna suburb of St. Marx. His presumed remains were then transferred to the Vienna Central Cemetery Zentralfriedhof.
Beethoven, Brahms, Strauss, Suppe are buried in the famous “Composers' Alley” at the Vienna Central Cemetery, and a monument was erected at the symbolic grave of Mozart.
The area of the central cemetery is 2.5 square meters. km. The cemetery was built according to designs by Frankfurt architects Karl Jonas Milius and Friedrich Bluntschli. Further disruption occurred on the Feast of All Saints (November 1) in 1874. Since then, about 3 million people have been buried in the central cemetery in 300.00 graves.
http://www.vienna.cc/russky/zentralfried...
http://austria.report.ru/default.asp?pagebegin=1pageno=19
http://otvet.mail.ru/question/12803146/#87597217
Full scientific research is Baer's book "The Illness, Death and Burial of Mozart": C.BKr, Mozart: Krankheit, Tod, BegrKbnis, 2nd Ed., Salzburg. Considering the surviving evidence, medical history patient and the doctor's report on the causes of Mozart's death ("Inflammation with millet-like rash" (see Deutsch, pp. 416-417)), Baer comes to the conclusion that Mozart died from rheumatic fever, possibly complicated by acute heart failure. From the words of Dr. Lobes we can conclude that in the fall of 1791 there was an epidemic of inflammatory diseases in Vienna infectious diseases. Mozart died on the night of December 5, 1791. There was a funeral ahead. Mozart's friend and patron of the arts, his brother in the Masonic lodge Baron van Swieten (Swieten, Gottfried, Baron van, 1733(?)-1803) took upon himself the troubles.
You can refer to Braunbehrens' monograph Mozart in Vienna and to Slonimsky's interesting article (Nikolas Slonimsky, The Weather at Mozart Funeral, Musical Quarterly, 46, 1960, pp. 12-22). Braunberens specifically cites the texts of the funeral rules established by Emperor Joseph as part of his general reforms. First of all, for hygienic reasons, cemeteries were removed from the city limits. Further, the funeral procedure itself was extremely simplified. Here Joseph's enlightened utilitarianism was manifested, the central line of his reforms, which preferred sincere, modest piety to magnificent ostentation. Almost all burials took place in common graves for five or six deceased people. Individual graves were rare exceptions, a luxury for the very rich and nobility. No memorial signs, tombstones, etc. were not allowed on graves (in order to save space); all these signs of attention could be installed along the cemetery fence and on the fence itself. Every 7-8 years the graves were dug up and used again. Thus, there was nothing unusual about Mozart’s funeral for that time. It definitely wasn't a "beggar's funeral." This is exactly the procedure that was applied to 85% of the dead from the wealthy classes of society.
At about three o'clock in the afternoon, Mozart's body was brought to St. Stephen's Cathedral. Here, in a small chapel, a modest religious ceremony took place. Which of the friends and relatives were present at this, how many people the ceremony gathered in general, will remain unknown. The hearse could go to the cemetery only after six in the evening (after nine in the summer), i.e. already in the dark. The cemetery of St. Mark itself was located about three miles from the Cathedral, and a dirt road led to it. It is not surprising that the few who saw off the coffin did not follow him outside the city gates. This was not accepted, difficult to implement, and pointless. There were no ceremonies at the cemetery; there were no priests there, only gravediggers. The coffin was placed in a special room overnight, and the gravediggers took it away in the morning. Today it is difficult and difficult for us to imagine all this. - December 4, 1791.
While writing the Requiem, he could not free himself from the thought that he was writing this tragic music for own funeral. Mozart's premonitions did not deceive him and, before finishing the Requiem to the end, he died. At his request, the friends who gathered with him on December 4, 1791 fulfilled what he had written. Unfortunately, Maestro didn’t hear this anymore.
Only a few people came to the funeral and almost no one made it to the cemetery, they were afraid of the inclement weather. This is how they quietly and unnoticed us in last way Mozart- greatest genius, whose creativity belongs to humanity.
Mozart Wolfgang Amadeus (27.1.1756, Salzburg, - 5.12.1791, Vienna)- Austrian composer. Among greatest masters music, Mozart stands out for the early flowering of a powerful and comprehensive talent, the unusualness of life’s fate - from the triumphs of a child prodigy to the difficult struggle for existence and recognition in adulthood, the unparalleled courage of the artist, who preferred the insecure life of an independent master to the humiliating service of a despot-nobleman, and, finally, comprehensive the significance of creativity, covering almost all genres of music. The life of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, like no other genius, is buried in myths and legends. Many arose soon after his death, some were born later, but all are surprisingly tenacious to this day. Through the centuries we will no longer be able to consider the truth, which gives rise to numerous interpretations of myths and their revelations.
Mozart's name was Wolfgang Amadeus. At baptism, Mozart was given the name Johann Chrysostom Wolfgang Theophilus. The Greek “Theophilus” means “Gottlieb” in German, and “Amadeus” in Latin (that is, “lover of God”). Of all three options, Amadeus is best perceived by ear. This is the name Mozart chose for himself.
Mozart was unique, a miracle; he did things jokingly, and everything came to him extraordinarily easily. Of course, Mozart was musical genius, had phenomenal abilities. But behind his masterpieces there is titanic work; he worked hard and a lot. Too much from the very beginning early childhood. Mozart's genius manifested itself from the age of three. His father, a famous teacher and musician who served at the court of the Prince of Salzburg, immediately began teaching his son. Little Mozart easily repeated small pieces after his sister and easily memorized them. Already at the age of four he composed his first concerto for the harpsichord, and at six he played the harpsichord, violin and organ masterfully. Mozart was not even six years old when his long concert tour began: together with his sister Anna, also a talented performer, and his mentor father, young Wolfgang traveled half of Europe. Over the course of several years they gave concerts in Munich, Paris, Vienna, London, and visited Holland and Switzerland. The public admired the boy who could play blindfolded, improvise masterfully, and perform the most complex passages on a par with adult musicians... The genius was only seven years old when the sonatas he composed for piano and violin were published in Paris. Of course, the children were exhausted by these trips. On the way, Wolfgang and Nannerl were often sick and more than once were on the verge of death. Both of them suffered from pneumonia and smallpox. It is believed that the reason early death Mozart - in the illnesses that he acquired during his difficult childhood. During his travels, Mozart took lessons, met a huge number of composers and musicians of that time, mastered various musical styles and languages. It is impossible to find another composer who mastered the most diverse genres and forms with such brilliance as Mozart: this applies to the symphony and concerto, divertimento and quartet, opera and mass, sonata and trio. In total, Mozart wrote more than 600 works of almost all major musical genres - symphonies, chamber ensembles, concerts, songs, arias, masses, cantatas.
Mozart lived in poverty; his contemporaries did not appreciate his talent. Mozart is considered a classic example of how great artists are exploited by the ruling class for meager remuneration. In fact, Mozart received very decent fees. For one hour of piano teaching, he billed 2 guilders (for comparison, his maid received 12 guilders a year). In 1782, Mozart's opera The Abduction from the Seraglio was a huge success. Over the course of several years he gave many piano concerts. And although it happened that he did not receive payment for his work, very often he was paid huge fees (for comparison: the annual salary of Mozart’s father in Salzburg was 350 florins, and for one concert his son could receive three times more). Personal correspondence shows that the degree of family poverty in myths is noticeably exaggerated. However, the extravagant lifestyle quickly consumed all the money. Once, having earned a fabulous sum for a performance, Mozart spent it in two weeks. A friend to whom the genius came to borrow money asked: “You have neither a castle, nor a stable, nor an expensive mistress, nor a bunch of children... Where do you put the money?” And Mozart replied: “But I have a wife, Constanze! She is my castle, my herd of thoroughbred horses, my mistress and my bunch of children...” Six children were born in the family, but four of them died in infancy. The Mozart family was interrupted by sons Carl Thomas and Franz Xaver, who never had any offspring. Mozart's marriage, which he entered into without his father's permission, turned out to be happy. Wolfgang and Constanze were similar, both had an easy and joyful attitude towards life. There is a legend that one winter a guest came to them and found them dancing: The Mozarts were trying to keep warm, not having money for firewood... However, even when the capricious public in Vienna stopped listening to Mozart’s operas and his work “went out of fashion,” the composer continued to receive good fees from other European countries, as well as court salaries.
Mozart wrote a requiem for his death. On an autumn evening, a gray stranger knocked on Mozart's door... He ordered a requiem on the instructions of his master, Count Walsegg-Stuppach, who had recently buried his wife. Anticipating his imminent death, obsessed with dark thoughts, Mozart began to compose a requiem - for himself. So says the legend. However, judging by Mozart's correspondence last months life, he was in excellent spirits. And his death came as a shock to family and friends. (Salieri was just writing a requiem for his death in 1804. But he died much later, in 1825.) The causes of Mozart’s death are also controversial. His illness progressed very quickly, and on December 5, 1791, Wolfgang Amadeus died in terrible suffering from a “severe fever.” What caused the fever is not clear, and this is not surprising at the level of medical development. The genius was treated by the best Viennese doctors using the methods accepted at that time. (As a result of the bloodletting prescribed to him, it is estimated that Mozart lost about two liters of blood.) It is likely that that year there was an epidemic of inflammatory infectious diseases in Vienna, something like the flu. Although there are dozens of theories about the disease that killed the genius: from trichinosis to poisoning.
Buried in oblivion. Mozart was buried in a mass grave of the poor... A single person accompanied him to the cemetery... The widow refused to come to the funeral... A rich friend of the van Swieten family spared money for the burial... All this is not entirely true. Among the reforms of the Austrian Emperor Joseph were new funeral rules. According to them, burials were now removed from the city limits (before this, the custom of burying the dead in the center, near the main cathedral, flourished in Europe). The funeral procedure itself was extremely simplified. 85% of city burials took place in common graves, where it was not allowed to install any memorial signs (to save space). Every 7-8 years the graves were dug up and used again. The widow did not go to the cemetery to pick up the coffin, and that was also in the order of things. The ceremony in memory of Mozart took place in his Masonic lodge. The hearse left for the cemetery only after six in the evening. It was not customary to follow him outside the city gates; no rituals were held at the burial site at that time, and only gravediggers were present. And the “stingy” van Swieten generously paid for the education of Mozart’s sons for several years, organized the first performance of his requiem, and organized concerts in favor of Constanta and children in different cities of Europe.
Sacrificed by the Freemasons. Mozart, like many of his contemporaries, became interested in the ideas of Freemasonry and was a member of the Masonic lodge (along with his friend Haydn). His latest opera, The Magic Flute, contains Masonic themes and allegories. But... Further speculation: the leaders of the order allegedly thought that the opera was too caricatured, and besides, they learned that Mozart was going to create his own secret society. So the genius fell victim to an anti-Christian Masonic conspiracy: the Masons poisoned him with mercury, deliberately hid traces of the grave and stole a skull from it for their rites. This myth was cultivated by the Nazis; they remembered him later. According to the theory of the 60s of the 20th century, Mozart’s death became a sacrifice during the consecration of a new Masonic temple.
Mozart and Salieri. People began to talk about the fact that Mozart was poisoned soon after his death: the topic of poisons and poisonings was extremely popular at that time. And despite the fact that in early biographies Mozart’s version was denied by everyone, including his wife Constanza, and the rumors did not stop. About 30 years had passed since Mozart’s death when Antonio Salieri, at that time already a seriously ill man, appeared in this myth. According to the testimony of those who were close to him in those years, Salieri never made a confession that he killed Mozart, as the newspapers claimed. Perhaps Pushkin read about these rumors in the newspapers and immortalized them in his story about “genius and villainy.” This theme was later featured in Peter Schaeffer's play Amadeus, which was adapted into a film by Milos Forman. However, there is no historical evidence of enmity between the two composers. On the contrary, the opposite is well documented: Salieri's admiring remarks about Mozart; Mozart's story about how Salieri attended a performance of his opera. Salieri had no reason to be envious of Mozart: for example, the latter composed almost no instrumental music, and in the operatic genre Salieri's reputation among his contemporaries was much higher. It is known that Mozart chose Salieri as a teacher for his son Franz. By the way, among the many students of Salieri, who played a huge role in musical life Europe, there were Beethoven, Czerny, Meyerbeer, Schubert, Liszt...
Mozart effect. This term refers to a set of controversial scientific findings that classical music briefly (15-20 minutes) improves certain mental abilities in a person (for example, spatial reasoning). And that listening to Mozart in the cradle is good for the infant mind. Passive listening to works by Mozart, or classical music in general, does not lead to either short-term or permanent increases in intellectual abilities. German scientists came to these conclusions during a study commissioned by the German Ministry of Education and Science. That is, a certain positive effect, lasting no more than 20 minutes after listening, was discovered, but it manifested itself from any music and even reading.
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