It is generally accepted among musicologists that Salieri had nothing whatsoever to do with Mozart's death. In a letter Mozart wrote to his father he does state "Salieri is poisoning me," but this is generally considered to be a figurative statement.
Mozart had gotten himself dismissed from the court of Prince Archbishop Colloredo of Salzburg (Colloredo's predecessor, Sigismund, had been Mozart's godfather and his father's patron; upon succession, Colloredo became the patron of both Mozarts, father and son) in order to travel to Vienna to become court compser to Emperor Franz Josef II Habsburg. At court in Vienna, Mozart found himself near the bottom of a well-established musical pecking order. True to his impulsive personality, he made this statement as a way of saying that Salieri, the emperor's chief court composer, was keeping him down. The older Salieri's style, as well, very much in keeping with the very simplistic Rococo "Style Galant" was somewhat different from the mature Classical style of Mozart. Mozart may have felt pressure to limit his creativity by adhering to the older, more conservative style, in order to please Salieri, and by so doing, to please the emperor. In effect, he would have felt that Salieri was poisoning his creativity.
It is important to see this in light of the fact that patronage was the way of the musical world in those days. It was fashionable for a nobleman to keep one or more court composers in his employ to write music at his command. The job of composer was considered a middle-class occupation, much on the same level as a plumber or carpenter. The court composer was treated as a servant, and would have to please his employer or face dissmissal (note that when one was employed by a nobleman, simply to quit would have been tantamount to treason, hence Mozart's getting himself fired from the court of Duke Sigismund). Mozart would have had to limit his own creativity in order to please his employer, the emperor, and his superior, Salieri. It is notable here, that Mozart was not good at restraining his creativity in order to please his patron. He set "Le Nozze di Fiagro" as an opera although the original Beaumarchais play had been banned by the emperor due to its strong anit-nobility slant.
In short, in order to advance at court, Mozart would have had to please Salieri. In order to please Salieri, Mozart would have had to limit himself creatively. This would have bred in Mozart resentment for Salieri, causing him to state figuratively that "Salieri is poisoning me."
This statement, however, became the basis for a dramatic scene by the great Russian playright Aleksandr Pushkin, which was set as the chamber opera "Mozart i Salieri" by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov (at its premier, the great Russian bass Feodor Chaliapin sang both roles, Salieri, a bass, and Mozart, a tenor, while Sergei Rakhmaninov accompanied at the piano). Although these works did not serve as a direct inspiration to Peter Shaffer in the writing of the play "Amadeus", and then the subsequent movie, the rumor that was popularized by those works undoubtedly did.
Recent research has shown that, contrary to the popular opinion that Mozart died of tuberculosis, it is most likely that the actual cause of his death was trichinosis (Jan V. Hirschmann, MD. Archives of Internal Medicine, June 11, 2001, vol. 161, pp. 1381-1389). Trichinosis, a parasitic infection caused by eating undercooked pork, was not yet clinically identified at the time. The symptoms of Mozart's final illness, extreme swelling of the extremities, vomiting, fever, rashes and severe pain, are in line with the symptoms of trichinosis. To top it all off, in a letter to his wife, written 44 days before his death, Mozart commented that he smelled pork chops being cooked in the house of his host. The average incubation period for trichinosis is 50 days. Note, please, that I find it to be an interesting commentary on the current state of musicological research that one of the most important research conclusions in recent memory was that Mozart liked pork chops. So much valid research has already been done that it is getting harder and harder to find good, relevant research topics.
It is notable also, given that one of the strongest motives in support of the idea that Salieri killed Mozart, as given by Shaffer in "Amadeus" was sheer jealousy, as demonstrated by his commission of Mozart's Requiem, and his rush to transcribe it at Mozart's deathbed. Such an event is a complete, utter falsehood. The Requiem was commissioned by one Count Walsegg-Stuppach, an amateur composer with a penchant for commisisoning works, then putting his own name on them, as though he had written them himself (in the absence of copyright laws, such practices were common, and Count Walsegg-Stuppachhad already done so with the music of several composers, including Franz Josef Haydn). Mozart did not work on the Requiem right up to the night of his death (the swelling in his hands prevented this), and Salieri was not present at the time. Salieri did not work on the Requiem subsequently, the completion of which by Mozart's student Franz Xavier Sussmyer was authorized by Mozart's widow, Constanze.
With such contributions to the general mythology surrounding Mozart's death as this, and with the lengths of falsehood to which Shaffer goes to involve Salieri in Mozart's death, it becomes obvious that the Schaffer play and movie cannot be treated as anything like an authoritative source of information on the cause of Mozart's death.
Comments
Now, THIS is a great answer. Brilliant!
by Andy Is Wicked Married to Penal Colony on January 13th, 2006
Phew! This is quite a long read but an interesting one.
by Relsqui on January 15th, 2006
Wow!
by Erin Albrecht on January 16th, 2006