h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Johann Schobert (c1735-1767) is said to have died from eating
poisonous mushrooms, according to Grove's dictionary. His wife
and one child also succumbed.

There is a tale about Beethoven's death: as Beethoven lay
on his deathbed, a thunderstorm passed through. Thunder
was one of the few things that Beethoven could still hear,
so when he raised his fist toward the heavens and then died,
those present in the room thought he was making his exit
with undiminished defiance toward destiny. A nice story,
but some have pointed out that Beethoven's weakened
liver (he wasn't exactly a teatotaler ) might well have
caused a reflexive reaction like a fist as he expired.

Apparently skulls held a fascination for music-lovers in the
19th century. Bruckner is said to have been present at
the exhumation of either Beethoven or Schubert
(I'm not sure which), because he wanted to hold the skull
in his hand.

Those who have seen the film "Topsy-Turvy" might
conclude that Sir Arthur Sullivan suffered some frequent
bouts of poor health. He was known to suffer severe
attacks of kidney stones. What finally carried him away,
however, was heavy smoking, which apparently left
him vulnerable to the bronchitis which ultimately
killed him.

Those are just as interesting as the entry.

What *did* Mozart die of? In my naive, muddled, half-educated mind, I always thought he died of syphilis, but probably because I thought everyone did in those days.

Our conductor only just told us the story of Lully this week - what a coincidence!

The deaths of musicians are no less dramatic these days, but the details are better known, which perhaps takes away some of the mystery and magic. (John Lennon, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Mama Cass, Kurt Cobain, Michael Hutchence, Elvis, Buddy Holly, and all the rest)

Hope you get this one in Gnomon - how are the 1% coming along?

Hi, Trillian's child:

New theories about Mozart's death keep surfacing. So many that it's hard
to keep track.

The newest theory was based on Mozart's comment, in a diary or letter, about some pork
he was about to eat. The comment came about 6 weeks before his death, which is the
normal incubation period for trichinosis, a parasite which lives in pigs, and which
killed a lot of people in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. (There are effective
drugs for the condition now, but they did not exist then). This theory was explored in a book
(I don't remember the author or title).

An earlier book on the topic was "Mozart's last year, 1791," by renowned Mozart/Haydn scholar
H. C. Robbins Landon. Landon felt that Mozart's symptoms were consistent with a diagnosis
of what was then known as "Military fever," which killed a lot of people in the Masonic lodge
that Mozart belonged to. The period between exposure and symptoms was about right
for that theory, too. Alas, we'll never know.

Even without the trichinosis or military fever, or whatever, Mozart was probably not destined
to have a long life. His kidneys were seriously ocmpromised, according to Landon, and
the circulation in his head left something to be desired.

Straying from the topic slightly: Another contemporary writer, Bernard Bastable, has used Mozarrt
as a fictional detective in London in the early 19th century. (Why London? Well, Mozart was
supposed to go London after Haydn came back from his visit there.). Karen Sturges had also
used Mozart in a detective novel, "Death of a baritone," set during a production of "Cosi fan Tutte."

I like to think that Mozart would have had better things to do with his time than solve mysteries
had he lived longer. For instance, he could have finished his "Great" C-minor Mass, and
his "Requiem." Some modern composers, aided by computer technology, have "finished"
Mozart's Requiem, but the results sound strange to my ears. Of course, someone other than
Mozart finished the Requiem right after Mozart died. Sussmayer is usually suspected
of being the one who did it. Sussmayer probably did not actually write the ending, however.
Rather, Sussmayer's handwriting matched Mozart's better than any of the other students Mozart
happened to be teaching at the time, so Sussmayer was the one to write the finished product,
in Landon's opinion.