Mozart's Last Year

Although we tend to think of Mozart as the child prodigy and genius composer, his life was not a complete success. He had to deal with many personal and professional difficulties, and this was certainly the case during the last year of his life. Yet, he continued to compose important music that is honored to this day.

Mozart was very young when he died. In January of 1791, he had just turned 35, but this was to be his last birthday. At the time, he was in an extremely difficult and precarious position. His fame was extensive, but he had very little money and less meaningful work. As Harris (1991) noted, although he was still court composer for the Emperor, this work was less than meaningful to him. The Emperor was not interested in having Mozart compose great music, or substantial pieces of work. Instead, he wanted to have Mozart at his court in order to provide entertainment for him through the creation of dance music and frivolous pieces.

This last year is actually fairly of representative of Mozart's life. There are financial difficulties, personal problems, intense composition, and intermittent reinforcement by critics and others. Ironically, it was only right at his death that Mozart received two offers that might have made it possible for him to leave the Emperor's court and compose music in some semblance of financial security. In December of 1791, Hungarian noblemen offered Mozart a yearly honorarium of 1,000 fl

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at this time and was to have their second child to survive in July. Mozart's letters at this time reveal that he was extremely depressed about everything in his life, including not only his finances, but his work, his surroundings, and his relationships with other people. It seems as though his only real pleasure was in being with his wife, and when she was gone, he was almost distraught. Yet, at the same time, he was involved in the creation of his last great work. He began the composition of The Magic Flute during May of that year, briefly leaving the work to write the commissioned work La Clemenza, but completing it in time for its premiere at the end of September. Along with the unfinished Requiem, these were the most important pieces of work during his final year, and representative of the issues in his life. Although the early part of the year seems to have been unremittingly difficult for Mozart, that is not the case with the second half of the year. It might have seemed to him that his circumstances were changing in a positive direction. He received the commission for La Clemenza, an important opera to be premiered in front of the Emperor. In September, he went with his wife and friend to Prague to rehearse that c

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