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(c) Ian Hammond 1999
All rights reserved

The Vilification of Constanze Mozart
Bear with me for a few moments, it's not Salieri we should be talking
about, but rather Constanze...

Wolfgang Mozart married Constanze Weber against the express wishes of
his father, causing an irrevocable split in the family.

While Mozart lived, Constanze frittered away his money. She was of
loose morals and never took care of him or his health, a mindless brat
out partying all the time.

When Mozart tragically died at age 39, she didn't even go to the
grave. Mozart was buried along with five other nameless people.

After his death, she secretly arranged for others to finish off an
incomplete requiem, so that she could collect on the money. Then she
remarried and spent the rest of her life scheming and exploiting
Mozart's name and died a rich woman.

This, in a nutshell, is the story that has been repeated since Mozart
died some 200 years ago.

Most of it is patently false or misleading.

Mozart had no idea about money. No-one could have organized his
finances. He was a pompous fawning raver who spent his time playing
billiards, drinking, having a great time and writing endless letters
on the subject of excrement. He never got a steady job and the family
was often hungry. He and his wife were deeply in love.

Mozart died of a viral fever. Quarantine rules that governed these
outbreaks required that all corpses be delivered to the town gates at
a particular o-clock. Relatives were not permitted to accompany the
deceased to the grave.

Mozart left little for his wife and children to live on. She had the
requiem completed secretly for a customer who had demanded the Mozart
write the work in complete secrecy so that the customer could attach
his own name to the completed piece, which he did. Good move
Constanze. 

After Mozart's death, Constanze married a Danish diplomat. They moved
to Salzburg, Mozart's birthplace where she and her husband protected
Mozart's legacy. The money she left behind was largely brought into
the marriage by her husband.

Constanze is portrayed as a mindless nobody before Mozart's death, but
as a scheming witch after his death. A sudden transition don't you
think? A little convenient for the vilification process?

Why do I bore you with this little tale? Because of this: to tell you
that this miserable, bankrupt character assassination has proceeded
apace for the past two hundred years without sign of abatement. I
recently saw an Austrian television production on Mozart that
punctuated each segment of the story by returning to the vision of a
faceless woman, dressed in black, dealing out Tarot-like cards with
the cards of all her victims, including Mozart. Constanze the Witch.

Two hundred years? 

What makes Mozart fans want to attack Constanze Mozart?

At the core there is anger waiting to get out. Anger that Mozart died
and she lived. That she remarried. Anger that Mozart was not perfect:
someone needs to be blamed. And anger at the obvious glaring truth:
that Mozart loved her and her alone and not them. So Constanze becomes
the evil empire.

Are we going to have to put up with two hundred more years of
vilification of Yoko Ono, our new Constanze? She's just a person, no
more, no less, no better, no worse, nothing particularly specially
good or bad. You don't like her: fine -- but why the frenzy to put the
boot in? Why seventy posts in a day? There is no reality here. Nothing
answers the description of these posts.

So, here's to Constanze, beloved wife of one of the worlds better
beings, who was struck down far to early and mourned far too deeply.

Here's to Constanze, persecuted only because she was privileged to own
the smiles, tears, the smells and dreams of a man who will remain, for
us, a distant name and a shadow on the wall. 

Here's to Constanze, who lived in the same perfection in imperfection
that signifies the human condition.

Here's to Constanze, for Wolfgang loved her, and not us.

And here's to Yoko and her John for all the same reasons, for the
story is the same, the motives unchanged and the show is just another
tired rerun...

ian hammond
===================================================================
"i'm in love for the first time, don't you know it's going to last"
"i want you so bad, it's driving me mad, it's driving me mad"
"love is touching, touching love"
"we're afraid of everyone, afraid of the sun, isolation"
"even after all these years, I miss you when you're not here"
"grow old alone with me, the best is yet to be"
"twice perfectly happy" (Constanze Mozart)