NY Times: After Mozart’s Death, an Endless Coda.
That his great genius went unmemorialized at the time of his death, shames a great many.
Comments:
From all my reading, it was family and ‘friends.’
The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians (supposedly a go-to reference on this) says, “Mozart was buried in a common grave, in accordance with contemporary Viennese custom, at the St Marx cemetery outside the city on 7 December. If, as later reports say, no mourners attended, that too is consistent with Viennese burial customs at the time; later Jahn (1856) wrote that Salieri, Süssmayr, van Swieten and two other musicians were present. The tale of a storm and snow is false; the day was calm and mild.”
When I say ‘unmemorialized’, I specifically mean ‘not buried in an individual grave with a monument.’ Everyone would like to drop some flowers over his dust ... and we’re robbed of the opportunity.
I see! Now I understand your comment. When I see the word ‘memorial’ in this context, something in my mind makes the leap to ‘memorial service,’ instead of a stone monument. I also have read the Grove Dictionary’s entire ‘chapter’ on Wolfgang. IMHO so much of it is incredibly poorly written, I am aghast that it’s regarded with esteem! I am astounded that they would not have provided a competent editor to turn that long piece of writing into something that is unambiguous, consistently chronological, as factual as possible, and with some sense of written style. He deserves better than they gave!
Statement is not true. As soon as news of his death reached Prague, a memorial service was held in a cathedral there. It was packed totally full, with huge crowds standing right outside, gathered near the main entrance, also participating in memorializing him. They loved Mozart during his life, and let him know it, like no other population anywhere, including Salzburg. I don’t know what factors in Wien resulted in a similar memorial not happening there. But remember that his death was a huge shock to Costanza and all of his friends, a shock so great that they may have been ‘emotionally paralyzed’ for awhile. Plus Costanza had a nearly 5-month-old baby and a little boy to provide for, and had to switch into high-gear ‘immediate survival mode’ and make that her absolute priority, in addition to being in emotional shock.