Who Was Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart 莫扎特 Chapter 6 An Untimely End

Despite the great popularity of his operas, Mozart still struggled to make enough money. The fickle¹ members of the court and the nobility were always in search of something new. They began to lose interest in Mozart’s work. His reputation suffered. He again had to ask his friends to lend him money. His father had died in 1787. Mozart brooded over the many quarrels they had when Leopold was alive. Mozart’s own health was not good. He was often sick or in pain.

Yet despite all the troubles in his life, Mozart never stopped writing his exceptional music. He composed his last three symphonies in about three months. Unfortunately, he never had the chance to hear them played. It is amazing to think that he could hear all the different parts—strings, woodwinds, brass—in his head. He was so accurate that the music is performed today exactly as it was written. There were no corrections at all, because Mozart did not need to make them.

In July 1791, a very strange thing happened. Mozart was alone in his house. A stranger wearing dark clothes and a dark hood² came to the door. The stranger brought with him an unsigned letter. The letter asked Mozart to write a requiem³. A requiem is a piece of music composed to honor a person who has died. The letter promised Mozart a lot of money for the job. Who wanted the music written? And who was it for? Mozart did not know.

For the next several months, Mozart worked on the requiem. He thought about it all the time. His health got worse and worse. Sometimes Mozart felt like he was writing the requiem for his own funeral. Soon he could not get out of bed. It became hard for him to breathe.

On December 4, 1791, he asked his friends to join him at his bedside. Together, they sang different parts of the requiem. On December 5, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart died. He was only thirty-five. The requiem remained unfinished, though the parts that he did complete are considered some of the most beautiful music he ever wrote.

His wife Constanze was grief-stricken when he died; she was also worried. What would happen to her and their children? A friend made the arrangements for Mozart’s small funeral and burial in St.

Marx Cemetery⁴, about three miles outside central Vienna. No stone or statue marked the spot where the great composer was buried.

After Mozart’s death, Constanze married a man who became a loving stepfather to Karl Thomas and Franz Xaver. Although Mozart was gone, his music was not forgotten. And, in the end, that was what mattered most to Mozart. In 1842, a statue of Mozart was put up in Salzburg, his hometown. In 1856, one hundred years after Mozart had been born, there were big celebrations in Salzburg and Vienna. Karl Thomas, who was still alive, was there for the festivities in honor of his father.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart wrote more than 600 works. That is an astonishing number for any composer. It is even more astonishing when we think about how young he was when he died. Among these works were:

 41 symphonies

27 piano concertos⁵

25 violin concertos

27 concert arias⁶

23 string quartets

18 Masses

22 operas

More than 200 years after he lived, people continue to play, listen to, and cherish Mozart’s music. In 2002, on the one-year anniversary of the September 11 attacks, choirs⁷ around the world sang Mozart’s requiem for a span of twenty-four hours in a global effort to honor those who died.

Although Mozart lived only a brief time, his music will live forever, bringing joy to listeners and musicians all over the world.
 

1 fickle   

adj.(爱情或友谊上)易变的，不坚定的

参考例句：

• Fluctuating prices usually base on a fickle public's demand.物价的波动往往是由于群众需求的不稳定而引起的。
• The weather is so fickle in summer.夏日的天气如此多变。

2 hood   

n.头巾，兜帽，覆盖；v.罩上，以头巾覆盖

参考例句：

• She is wearing a red cloak with a hood.她穿着一件红色带兜帽的披风。
• The car hood was dented in.汽车的发动机罩已凹了进去。

3 requiem   

n.安魂曲，安灵曲

参考例句：

• I will sing a requiem for the land walkers.我会给陆地上走的人唱首安魂曲。
• The Requiem is on the list for today's concert.《安魂曲》是这次音乐会的演出曲目之一。

4 cemetery   

n.坟墓，墓地，坟场

参考例句：

• He was buried in the cemetery.他被葬在公墓。
• His remains were interred in the cemetery.他的遗体葬在墓地。

5 concertos   

n. [音]协奏曲

参考例句：

• I once heard Brendel play all the Beethoven concertos. 有一次，我听了布伦德尔演奏贝多芬全部的协奏曲。
• The six finalists then played two piano concertos each. 然后，六名决赛选手每人演奏了两首钢琴协奏曲。

6 arias   

n.咏叹调( aria的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Can you pick out the operatic arias quoted in this orchestral passage? 你能听出这段管弦乐曲里有歌剧式的咏叹调吗？ 来自辞典例句
• The actions are large and colour, there are arias and recitatives. 动作夸张而华美，有唱段也有宣叙部。 来自辞典例句

7 choirs   

n.教堂的唱诗班( choir的名词复数 )；唱诗队；公开表演的合唱团；（教堂）唱经楼

参考例句：

• They ran the three churches to which they belonged, the clergy, the choirs and the parishioners. 她们管理着自己所属的那三家教堂、牧师、唱诗班和教区居民。 来自飘（部分）
• Since 1935, several village choirs skilled in this music have been created. 1935以来，数支熟练掌握这种音乐的乡村唱诗班相继建立起来。 来自互联网