"I kneel with submissive heart,/my contrition is like ashes,/help me in my final condition." English translation from Mozart's Requiem.
The year 1791 was full of extreme highs and lows for the Mozart family. In July Constanza gave birth to their sixth child, Franz Xaver Wolfgang, who would prove to be only the second of their six children to live past infancy. In August, while Constanza went to the spa in Baden to recuperate from the difficult pregnancy, Mozart wrote Die Zuberflote. At the end of September the opera opened to uproarious praise. He recognized its overwhelming success to be his crowning achievement and enjoyed it as much as possible, for he felt it would be his last opera. That same month he wrote in a letter, presumably to Lorenzo da Ponte: "I feel it, and my condition tells me: The hour has struck! I must die. I am at an end now, before I could enjoy my talent. Life was so beautiful. It began so auspiciously! But one cannot alter one's destined fate. No one can safeguard his days. We have to submit to the will of providence." Mozart began working on the Requiem, which was at the time commissioned by an anonymous patron. We learned later that the patron was Count Franz von Walsegg who wished to have it performed in memory of his late wife, and who also planned to claim it as his own composition. Mozart was so convinced that his days on earth were precious few, he gave specific instructions to Austrian composer Franz Sussmayr how "in his opinion, he ought to finish it when he was gone." He told Constanza that the Requiem would be his swan song, and that he was in part writing the piece for his own funeral. His illness, depression and consumption of this piece added to the power and darkness of the music, which was also greatly influenced by Handel's Messiah and Funeral Anthem for Queen Caroline from which he borrowed heavily. On Monday, 5 December 1791, Wolfgang Amedeus Mozart passed away, the Requiem unfinished on his bed. The official diagnosis was Hitziges Frieselfieber or "heated miliary fever", although modern forensic doctors believe he suffered from acute renal failure which can explain the profuse sweating, severe fluid retention known as edema, fatigue and pain, and absence of miliary rash. He had a weakened constitution due to his many serious childhood illnesses. His sister-in-law wrote after his death that she and her mother had made him a night jacket that he could put on frontways, "since on account of his swollen condition he was unable to turn in bed." The day after he died, his body was blessed and taken to St. Marx cemetery to be buried with others in an unmarked grave, as was customary for the poor in those days - Mozart left his wife with considerable debt. His family did not attend, which was also the custom. He was survived by his wife who remarried but never again had children, citing Mozart as her one true and passionate love. He was also survived by two sons, Karl Thomas and Franz Xaver Wolfgang, neither of whom married or had children. Of the Requiem, Albert Einstein said, "We know definitely Mozart's intention, his attitude towards death . . . Death is not a terrible vision but a friend."
This color coordinated collection of fashion fabrics was first featured in our Vogue Fabrics By Mail Winter 2010 catalog of swatches. Subscribe to receive home delivery of these catalogs every other month.
The year 1791 was full of extreme highs and lows for the Mozart family. In July Constanza gave birth to their sixth child, Franz Xaver Wolfgang, who would prove to be only the second of their six children to live past infancy. In August, while Constanza went to the spa in Baden to recuperate from the difficult pregnancy, Mozart wrote Die Zuberflote. At the end of September the opera opened to uproarious praise. He recognized its overwhelming success to be his crowning achievement and enjoyed it as much as possible, for he felt it would be his last opera. That same month he wrote in a letter, presumably to Lorenzo da Ponte: "I feel it, and my condition tells me: The hour has struck! I must die. I am at an end now, before I could enjoy my talent. Life was so beautiful. It began so auspiciously! But one cannot alter one's destined fate. No one can safeguard his days. We have to submit to the will of providence." Mozart began working on the Requiem, which was at the time commissioned by an anonymous patron. We learned later that the patron was Count Franz von Walsegg who wished to have it performed in memory of his late wife, and who also planned to claim it as his own composition. Mozart was so convinced that his days on earth were precious few, he gave specific instructions to Austrian composer Franz Sussmayr how "in his opinion, he ought to finish it when he was gone." He told Constanza that the Requiem would be his swan song, and that he was in part writing the piece for his own funeral. His illness, depression and consumption of this piece added to the power and darkness of the music, which was also greatly influenced by Handel's Messiah and Funeral Anthem for Queen Caroline from which he borrowed heavily. On Monday, 5 December 1791, Wolfgang Amedeus Mozart passed away, the Requiem unfinished on his bed. The official diagnosis was Hitziges Frieselfieber or "heated miliary fever", although modern forensic doctors believe he suffered from acute renal failure which can explain the profuse sweating, severe fluid retention known as edema, fatigue and pain, and absence of miliary rash. He had a weakened constitution due to his many serious childhood illnesses. His sister-in-law wrote after his death that she and her mother had made him a night jacket that he could put on frontways, "since on account of his swollen condition he was unable to turn in bed." The day after he died, his body was blessed and taken to St. Marx cemetery to be buried with others in an unmarked grave, as was customary for the poor in those days - Mozart left his wife with considerable debt. His family did not attend, which was also the custom. He was survived by his wife who remarried but never again had children, citing Mozart as her one true and passionate love. He was also survived by two sons, Karl Thomas and Franz Xaver Wolfgang, neither of whom married or had children. Of the Requiem, Albert Einstein said, "We know definitely Mozart's intention, his attitude towards death . . . Death is not a terrible vision but a friend."
This color coordinated collection of fashion fabrics was first featured in our Vogue Fabrics By Mail Winter 2010 catalog of swatches. Subscribe to receive home delivery of these catalogs every other month.
