1 00:00:00,120 --> 00:00:01,960 Speaker 1: This Day in History Class is a production of I 2 00:00:02,040 --> 00:00:10,840 Speaker 1: Heart Radio, Hello and Welcome to This Day in History Class, 3 00:00:10,880 --> 00:00:15,240 Speaker 1: a show that proves history waits for no one. I'm 4 00:00:15,280 --> 00:00:18,720 Speaker 1: Gabe Louzier, and in this episode, we're looking at the 5 00:00:18,800 --> 00:00:22,760 Speaker 1: mysterious circumstances surrounding the death of one of the world's 6 00:00:22,800 --> 00:00:33,680 Speaker 1: most gifted musicians, Wolfgang rock Me Amadeus Mozart. The day 7 00:00:33,960 --> 00:00:42,080 Speaker 1: was December five. Austrian composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart died in 8 00:00:42,240 --> 00:00:46,160 Speaker 1: Vienna at the age of thirty five. He had been 9 00:00:46,159 --> 00:00:50,000 Speaker 1: in relatively good health until mid November that year, when 10 00:00:50,080 --> 00:00:54,240 Speaker 1: he suddenly became seriously ill and died just two weeks later. 11 00:00:55,400 --> 00:00:58,640 Speaker 1: The true cause of Mozart's death has been the subject 12 00:00:58,720 --> 00:01:01,760 Speaker 1: of debate for over two hundred years, and a wide 13 00:01:01,920 --> 00:01:06,200 Speaker 1: range of theories have been proposed, some more plausible than others. 14 00:01:07,200 --> 00:01:13,880 Speaker 1: Mozart was born in Salzburg, Austria, on January seventeen fifty six. 15 00:01:14,959 --> 00:01:19,240 Speaker 1: His father, a composer and music teacher at Salzburg Cathedral, 16 00:01:19,640 --> 00:01:22,919 Speaker 1: instilled a love of music and Wolfgang and his older 17 00:01:22,959 --> 00:01:26,319 Speaker 1: sister at an early age. They were both taught to 18 00:01:26,360 --> 00:01:29,840 Speaker 1: play a stringed instrument called the clavier, and by the 19 00:01:29,880 --> 00:01:32,959 Speaker 1: time he was four years old, Mozart could learn a 20 00:01:33,000 --> 00:01:35,800 Speaker 1: new song on the instrument in just half an hour. 21 00:01:36,840 --> 00:01:41,560 Speaker 1: Two years later, the child prodigy started performing his own concerts. 22 00:01:42,480 --> 00:01:45,640 Speaker 1: At age eight, he published his first piece of music, 23 00:01:46,080 --> 00:01:51,120 Speaker 1: in original violin sonata written in five parts. He penned 24 00:01:51,200 --> 00:01:55,240 Speaker 1: his first opera three years later, and by age thirteen 25 00:01:55,600 --> 00:02:00,400 Speaker 1: he was a touring composer, celebrated throughout Western Europe and beyond. 26 00:02:01,480 --> 00:02:06,000 Speaker 1: In seventeen eighty one, Mozart moved to Vienna and quickly 27 00:02:06,080 --> 00:02:09,880 Speaker 1: became a fixture of the city's elite social scene. He 28 00:02:10,000 --> 00:02:13,400 Speaker 1: spent his evenings at masked balls and operas, where he 29 00:02:13,480 --> 00:02:17,320 Speaker 1: hobnobbed with the wealthy and showed off his latest compositions. 30 00:02:18,200 --> 00:02:21,440 Speaker 1: A year after moving to the city, Mozart married a 31 00:02:21,440 --> 00:02:26,239 Speaker 1: local soprano singer named Constance Weber, and in seventeen eighty 32 00:02:26,240 --> 00:02:32,360 Speaker 1: three they had their first child, a boy named Raymond Leopold. Meanwhile, 33 00:02:32,720 --> 00:02:36,320 Speaker 1: Mozart tried his hand at more and more forms of music. 34 00:02:36,840 --> 00:02:43,799 Speaker 1: He wrote symphonies and concertos, chamber music, piano sonatas, masses, operas, 35 00:02:43,919 --> 00:02:48,280 Speaker 1: choral music, you name it. In Vienna, the composer had 36 00:02:48,360 --> 00:02:52,560 Speaker 1: fallen in love, started a family, and grown as an artist. 37 00:02:53,320 --> 00:02:57,520 Speaker 1: In other words, life was good. In the coming years, however, 38 00:02:57,880 --> 00:03:02,000 Speaker 1: Mozart's reputation would continue to grow, but his family would 39 00:03:02,000 --> 00:03:08,040 Speaker 1: struggle financially. By the summer of seventeen, he in Constance 40 00:03:08,200 --> 00:03:12,800 Speaker 1: had six children. Together, Mozart worried constantly about how to 41 00:03:12,880 --> 00:03:17,320 Speaker 1: provide for his still expanding family, and that anxiety began 42 00:03:17,400 --> 00:03:21,960 Speaker 1: to affect his health. He had suffered from rheumatism since childhood, 43 00:03:22,200 --> 00:03:27,440 Speaker 1: and the condition was worsening. The money worries didn't help. Then, 44 00:03:27,560 --> 00:03:34,400 Speaker 1: on November seventeen, Mozart suddenly developed a high fever. His 45 00:03:34,480 --> 00:03:38,000 Speaker 1: hands and feet were severely swollen, and in the following 46 00:03:38,160 --> 00:03:41,800 Speaker 1: days he became so racked with pain that he couldn't 47 00:03:41,840 --> 00:03:45,640 Speaker 1: even turn over in bed. On the eve of his death, 48 00:03:46,080 --> 00:03:51,400 Speaker 1: Mozart lost consciousness after a doctor drew his blood. Hours later, 49 00:03:51,760 --> 00:03:57,160 Speaker 1: at one am on December five, the acclaimed composer died unexpectedly, 50 00:03:57,600 --> 00:04:01,200 Speaker 1: though what exactly took his life from aimed an open question. 51 00:04:02,160 --> 00:04:06,080 Speaker 1: The coroner reported the cause of death as quote severe 52 00:04:06,320 --> 00:04:11,360 Speaker 1: miliary fever, while Vienna's official death register claimed he had 53 00:04:11,400 --> 00:04:15,680 Speaker 1: died of quote fever and rash even at the time 54 00:04:16,040 --> 00:04:20,200 Speaker 1: these were understood to be symptoms of disease, not actual 55 00:04:20,320 --> 00:04:25,400 Speaker 1: diseases themselves. The vague nature of the reports led to 56 00:04:25,560 --> 00:04:30,800 Speaker 1: myths about what it really caused Mozart's premature death. Maybe 57 00:04:30,920 --> 00:04:35,960 Speaker 1: it was lead poisoning or intestinal parasites. Maybe he was 58 00:04:36,000 --> 00:04:40,920 Speaker 1: assassinated by his fellow Freemasons, or maybe it was syphilis. 59 00:04:41,560 --> 00:04:45,159 Speaker 1: There was no shortage of speculation, but the most popular 60 00:04:45,240 --> 00:04:49,480 Speaker 1: rumor by far was that Mozart had been intentionally poisoned 61 00:04:49,720 --> 00:04:54,680 Speaker 1: by Antonio Salieri, a prolific opera composer and something of 62 00:04:54,800 --> 00:04:59,080 Speaker 1: arrival to Mozart. The theory is somewhat supported by the 63 00:04:59,120 --> 00:05:02,800 Speaker 1: fact that Mozart it himself suggested that his illness was 64 00:05:02,880 --> 00:05:07,080 Speaker 1: due to being poisoned over a long period of time. However, 65 00:05:07,520 --> 00:05:10,880 Speaker 1: he only raised that concern during his bout with depression, 66 00:05:11,120 --> 00:05:14,160 Speaker 1: at a time when his health was deteriorating and he 67 00:05:14,200 --> 00:05:18,080 Speaker 1: was prone to fits of delusion and paranoia. In the 68 00:05:18,160 --> 00:05:23,239 Speaker 1: eighteenth century, the poisoning theory was dismissed as baseless gossip, 69 00:05:23,839 --> 00:05:27,400 Speaker 1: partly because Saliary had no motive and stood to gain 70 00:05:27,480 --> 00:05:32,560 Speaker 1: nothing from Mozart's death. Still, the rumor persists even today. 71 00:05:33,160 --> 00:05:37,520 Speaker 1: Largely because of the nineteen seventy nine play Amadeus and 72 00:05:37,800 --> 00:05:42,240 Speaker 1: its Oscar winning film adaptation, both of which depict Saliary 73 00:05:42,560 --> 00:05:47,400 Speaker 1: plotting to murder Mozart. Many viewers have mistakenly assumed that 74 00:05:47,520 --> 00:05:52,080 Speaker 1: Amadeus was a straight adaptation of confirmed history, but the 75 00:05:52,160 --> 00:05:56,440 Speaker 1: truth is there's no record of animosity between the two composers. 76 00:05:57,360 --> 00:06:01,800 Speaker 1: In reality, Mozart's early death was likely caused by something 77 00:06:01,960 --> 00:06:05,880 Speaker 1: much more mundane. The current working theory is that the 78 00:06:05,920 --> 00:06:10,719 Speaker 1: composer died of a streptococcal infection that eventually resulted in 79 00:06:10,839 --> 00:06:14,840 Speaker 1: kidney failure. In two thousand and nine, a team of 80 00:06:14,920 --> 00:06:18,560 Speaker 1: Dutch researchers studied the death records in Vienna in the 81 00:06:18,600 --> 00:06:23,560 Speaker 1: months before and after Mozart's death. They compared the causes 82 00:06:23,560 --> 00:06:26,640 Speaker 1: of death in those months with those of the previous 83 00:06:26,720 --> 00:06:30,680 Speaker 1: and following years. The study showed there had been an 84 00:06:30,760 --> 00:06:34,400 Speaker 1: increase in swelling related deaths among the young men of 85 00:06:34,520 --> 00:06:38,840 Speaker 1: Vienna in seventeen ninety one compared to the surrounding years. 86 00:06:39,600 --> 00:06:44,440 Speaker 1: According to the studies author doctor Richard Seeger's quote, we 87 00:06:44,560 --> 00:06:47,640 Speaker 1: saw that at the time of Mozart's death there was 88 00:06:47,680 --> 00:06:52,560 Speaker 1: a minor epidemic in deaths involving swelling, which also happened 89 00:06:52,560 --> 00:06:56,760 Speaker 1: to be the hallmark of Mozart's final disease. In fact, 90 00:06:57,080 --> 00:07:03,000 Speaker 1: Mozart's other symptoms, back pain, fever, rash, and depression are 91 00:07:03,040 --> 00:07:07,080 Speaker 1: also symptoms of kidney disease induced by a strep infection, 92 00:07:07,560 --> 00:07:12,200 Speaker 1: possibly strep throat. It's not a definitive answer, but it's 93 00:07:12,240 --> 00:07:16,160 Speaker 1: the most likely theory so far, and the surviving evidence 94 00:07:16,200 --> 00:07:19,680 Speaker 1: does back it up. He may have died young, but 95 00:07:19,800 --> 00:07:23,880 Speaker 1: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart certainly made the most of his time 96 00:07:23,920 --> 00:07:27,800 Speaker 1: on earth. He wrote more than six hundred pieces of music, 97 00:07:28,280 --> 00:07:34,080 Speaker 1: redefined multiple genres, and influence the work of contemporary composers 98 00:07:34,120 --> 00:07:39,400 Speaker 1: such as Beethoven and Tschaikovsky. In these ways, Mozart has 99 00:07:39,440 --> 00:07:43,520 Speaker 1: lived far beyond his early death. For, as he once wrote, 100 00:07:44,120 --> 00:07:47,960 Speaker 1: this world of music, whose borders even now I have 101 00:07:48,120 --> 00:07:55,920 Speaker 1: scarcely entered, is a reality, is immortal. Tim Gay Bluzier, 102 00:07:56,280 --> 00:07:59,440 Speaker 1: and hopefully you now know a little more about history 103 00:07:59,520 --> 00:08:03,480 Speaker 1: today than you did yesterday. If you have a second 104 00:08:03,520 --> 00:08:07,240 Speaker 1: and you're so inclined, you can follow us on Twitter, Facebook, 105 00:08:07,280 --> 00:08:11,640 Speaker 1: and Instagram at T D I HC Show. And if 106 00:08:11,680 --> 00:08:15,160 Speaker 1: you have a Mozart conspiracy theory of your own, Please 107 00:08:15,200 --> 00:08:18,080 Speaker 1: send it my way at this day at i heart 108 00:08:18,200 --> 00:08:21,960 Speaker 1: media dot com. Together we can blow this whole thing 109 00:08:22,160 --> 00:08:26,400 Speaker 1: wide open. Thanks to Chandler May's for producing the show, 110 00:08:26,840 --> 00:08:29,560 Speaker 1: and thank you for listening. I'll see you back here 111 00:08:29,560 --> 00:08:42,960 Speaker 1: again tomorrow for another day in History class. For more 112 00:08:42,960 --> 00:08:45,520 Speaker 1: podcasts from I heart Radio, visit the iHeart Radio app, 113 00:08:45,559 --> 00:08:48,160 Speaker 1: Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.