Death of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

On 5 December 1791, the composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart died at his home in Vienna at the age of 35. The circumstances of his death have attracted much research and speculation. The principal sources of contention are: # Whether Mozart declined gradually, experiencing great fear and sadness, or whether he was fundamentally in good spirits toward the end of his life, then felled by a relatively sudden illness # What disease caused Mozart’s death # Whether his funeral arrangements were the normal procedures for his day, or whether they were of a disrespectful nature There is a range of views on each of these points, many of which have varied radically over time. The course of Mozart’s final illness Traditional narrative Mozart scholarship long followed the accounts of early biographers, which proceeded in large part from the recorded memories of his widow Constanze and her sister Sophie Weber as they were recorded in the biographies by Franz Xaver Niemetschek and Georg Nikolaus von Nissen. For instance, the important biography by Hermann Abert largely follows this account. The following is a summary of this view. When in August 1791 Mozart arrived in Prague to supervise the performa