Dei, to Mr. Sussmeier, his best scholar, who was seated at his bedside writing them down, Now, one of the first stages of Germany proposed to appoint him director for its orchestra, and 30 did the magistrate of Vienna, for the cathedral; but he exclaimed: "It is too late! Now, I must begone while I should be able to take better care of my family;" and he sank in the arms of his wife, mingling his tears with hers, and bidding her to fetch the children to his bed. She brought them, the babe in her arms; he blessed them, and spoke to her: "Pardon, my dearest wife' if I, sometimes, caused grief to you. To be sure, I did not mean it; I loved you, nevertheless, from all my heart." He sank back on his bed, and died. It was, at midnight, the 5th of December, in 1791. Lange, his brother-in-law, put a crown of laurel upon his head. At the news of Mozart's death the whole city came in motion; crowds of people assembled before his windows; messengers of the noblest families came to hear the report of the sad tidings. They spread, the same day, to south and north. In Prague, all bells of the parochial church were rung, and the spacious building could not hold all the people. One hundred and twenty musicians executed the funeral music, and many who were present in the audience shed tears of friendship and veneration. Abbe Stadler, the best friend of Mozart, summoned Schickaneder to fulfill now the contract he had concluded with Mozart, and to discharge his obligation due to the destitute wife and children of the deceased. But this person protested that he never had made a contract with Mozart, and had no obligations toward his family. Stadler and other friends of Mozart collected, then, contributions, by which the future of the widow and her children was secured. Bu Schickaneder grew indebted again, and died poor and in disorder of mind.* Two of the five children of Mozart survived him; the youngest one had good musical talents, and became music director in Lemberg; the other was attached to the custom office in Milan. Mozart left two hundred musical works, or, (according to another biographer) eight hundred for piano, and many for vocal music. As an opera-composer he stands superior to all his predecessors. In 1852 a monument was erected to him in Saltzburg. An other biographer of Mozart, reports that Schickander has paid him reasonably for his composition. |