It is hard to believe that the death of a man can remain unknown for several centuries. It

is even harder to believe that the death of one of the greatest composers of all time, is

indeed that. That composer, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, was a child prodigy. He

performed for royalty, wrote and composed symphonies, and learn to play the violin and

organ without instruction all before he ever reached the age of seven. Mozart was truly

blessed with a gift from God to hear the music before he ever wrote it. Many people

were aware of that gift, including Antonio Salieri. Salieri was the court composer and

was thought of highly until the works of Mozart became heard in Vienna. Mozart was

amazing and astounding and loved by all-all except Salieri. Salieri sat and watched this

man, this great “wonder child”, and asked God why he had given this perverted and

immature boy such a wondrous gift. He asked God why he had put the love of music in

his heart if he was going to give the talent to Mozart. During the time that Salieri spent

with Mozart, did only his pain, hatred and jealousy grow. Salieri wished nothing but

humiliation, failure and perhaps even death on Wolfgang Mozart. Through all of those

distressing emotions, I’m not sure that Antonio Salieri ever wanted Mozart dead so badly,

that he could have or would have killed him, as some historians have said. I believe that

if Salieri would have wanted Mozart dead, that he would have acted more quickly that he

did. After all, why would Salieri, the man jealous of the work and popularity of Mozart,

ever let him become such a success? Why didn’t Salieri act on his internal rage before

hand? Simple, through of the hatred that Salieri felt toward Mozart, he could not help

but to appreciate his work that was so finely mastered. I, myself, think that Mozart’s

death was caused by alcohol. Mozart was always a very heavy drinker, but especially

after he moved to Vienna. There could have a been numerous explanations for his

excessive drinking, one might have been stress. From looking at what Mozart

accomplished, you might have thought that he was a very hard-worker and a very serious

man, always getting things done when they needed to be. You would be right in thinking

that Mozart was a very hard-worker and that he always had his work finished before he

had ever started it. Yet of all the titles that Mozart had earned, mature was definitely not

included. Mozart was indeed a partier. He loved to drink and dance and play. I think

that his drinking started out as a social occurrence and then it was more of a pleasure.

But all to soon, Mozart would become more and more addicted to alcohol. He became

somewhat dependent on liquor, even though it was never stated, it was obvious that his

late-night “sneak-outs” were associated with the stress of his work. Mozart would drink

constantly, during a meal, and while he was writing music, which would have been how

he spent the other twenty-three hours of his day. Mozart never learned how to manage his

time so that he would have time to do other things, such as spending time with his family.

He also never understood that there were limits to anything. That “blindness” included

his love of alcohol. The failure to ever learn these, time-management and boundary

skills, would drive him farther away from everything he wanted, his family, his work and

life. The death of young Mozart was completely unexpected and appalling to all that

knew him.

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