Mozart, R.I.P.

On this day, in 1791, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart died.

His Requiem in D minor, K. 626, left unfinished, is thought by many to have been the last piece he put quill to as he lay dying.

"Beleaguered by prohibitions, pursued by posthumous presences, overcome by constant sorrows, Mozart for a while had reached almost to the edge of silence. But somehow he had managed to harness his creative forces and the old imperatives to a new purpose - in a great effort to save his own family, which now included the Webers. Protected by a loving family - even if he may have sought solace beyond its borders - he had managed to erect a temporary bulwark against annihilation. He had resisted the pull to extinction through an amalgam of love and music. So long as he could write music, he could keep death at a distance. He composed a Requiem to mourn for a nobleman's wife, to express his feelings of grief - or loss - over the death of every beloved person, to propitiate his father and the gods. But now, once again, Mozart was unable to find an effective antidote to a toxic presence, either in work or in love. He no longer had the physical or emotional resources to resist the sacrificial summons."

Maynard Solomon, Mozart: A Life

The Mozart Project adds insight here.