Most of us have seen the movie Amadeus, and the scene with Salieri pestering Mozart on his deathbed. This treatment sent Mozart into shock, and he passed away shortly before 1am on 5th December.

Thomas Franz Closset, in accordance with the medical conventions at the time, applied cold compresses. Mozart’s condition worsened on the evening of 4 December, and Dr. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Requiem, K 626 “Requiem aeternam” Sketches for the remaining movements, now mostly lost, probably included vocal parts and basso continuo.” It is indeed possible that Antonio Salieri visited Mozart as well, but clearly he neither poisoned him nor was he intent on stealing the Requiem. At the ‘Lacrimosa’ only the first eight bars are present for the vocal parts, along with the first two bars for the violins and viola. A scholar tells us “at that time, he had completed only the ‘Requiem aeternam’ in its entirety from the Kyrie to the ‘Confutatis,’ only the vocal parts and basso continuo were fully written out. Gerl visited him the next day to sing some parts of the unfinished Requiem. Mozart’s condition seemingly improved on 3 December, and his friends Schack, Hofer and the bass F.X. Two leading Viennese doctors, Closset and Sallaba, attended to Mozart health, and he was nursed by his wife Constanze and her youngest sister Sophie. His health continued to deteriorate, and by the end of November he became bedridden while suffering from swelling, pain, and vomiting. He had fallen ill in Prague in September 1791, but continued his professional activities, including conducting the premiere of The Magic Flute on 10 September. Henry Nelson O’Neil: The Last Hours of MozartĪt 12:55 am on 5 December 1791, the singular and unique Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart took his last breath.

Mozart birth and death