Mozart In 1788 :: essays research papers

With over two pages of compositions finished in 1788 you would figure that this year was an extremely busy and prosperous one for Mozart, when in fact his "situation both publicly and privately became critical" (unknown). Up until this year the information revealed in Mozart's personal letters has provided great insight about his private life. A peculiar thing about letters from this year is that there appears to be none written after August (Keys 210). One possible reason for this could be that Mozart was again living at home and thus he was living with the person that he would normally be writing to. Of these letters only one of them is written to Nanarel; the rest are to a dear friend of Mozart's, Micheal Puchberg. Interestingly enough Mozart begins all of his letters to Micheal delicately and affectionately with "brother", "Brother of Order", or "beloved friend" which we know from the past is Mozart's way of getting on somebody's good side before asking for something. After the greeting, the body of all of these letters appears to follow a basic format: starting out with a high feeling of dignity or self-confidence, and ending with pleas for financial backing or help. The letters, amounting to twenty between 1788 and Mozart's death (Keys 206), only afforded Mozart an estimated 1415 florins. This can be compared to the near 3000 gulden that he had borrowed from many people by his death in 1791. Mozart met Micheal back in his freemason days; they worked together for the same company. Micheal became very wealthy when he inherited the textile manufacturing business that he was working for. Mozart's near constant pleas for money were sometimes granted, but not all of the time. Unfortunately, Mozart never made enough money before his death to be able to fully pay Micheal back for all of his help. However, as a small form of compensation, Mozart would occasionally send Micheal compositions and even dedicated one of his piano symphonies to him. Micheal was such a good friend of the family, that it has been said that he continued to help Costanze out with family and financial problems after Mozart's death. Eventually, it becomes rather obvious that Mozart can barely support his family, let alone pay back anyone who lends him money. Because of this, he loses nearly all of the financial credibility that he once had.