Yes, I do believe he was done away with. No, I don’t think it was Salieri. Mozart said he felt as though he was being poisoned. He even described the type of poison he thought had been used — agua toffana. But what possible motive would there be for getting rid of Mozart? What threat did he present?
For one, he had an unusual gift (no, not those of musical genius per se) that caused great consternation in anyone who actually knew him. There was something about him that was ‘different’, and it was something more or other than simply his gifts. It is what I call a gift of “shalom”. Someone else has labeled it in his music as “The Mozart Effect”. We all know what that means — we listen to his music and cannot help but become at least a bit more centered and relaxed, if not happier and emotionally stronger. This gift as we hear it in his music is what makes Mozart’s music the most exciting music there is. In real life, however, there was more to this gift than what we can hear in his music. There was a sort of challenge of energies, so to speak, between him and those around him. He set people on edge. He was disliked. He was considered obnoxious. He didn’t help himself because he thought he was protecting these priceless gifts of musical talent. But this extra gift that he had managed to turn his birth family upside down and destroy his family relationships. He was virtually disinherited by Leopold. His Mother died tragically on his watch. His sister and his wife are buried at opposite ends of Salzburg.
This gift of “shalom” had a connection to creating substance. Of course he thought that if he composed enough great music he would be rewarded with ample resources as a result. That was not the case. It was more complex than he realized, due to the unusual qualities of this gift. This gift of ‘shalom’ could only work in his favor if he held no negative thoughts. We can see from all his letters that he was intensely critical, at times to the point of arrogance — more of the music of others, but also, by inference or directly, of the people themselves.
So the negativity worked against Wolf, as did his arrogant assumption that he understood “God” and that he was a good servant. Nothing could be further from the truth. He was Catholic, indoctrinated with all the dark mysteries of that false gospel. He became a mason — darkness and mystery to the extreme. Spiritually speaking, he was living in a counterfeit world. Only his music was honest.
At the same time, Wolf was an exploited child, conditioned at an early age to give adults (namely Leopold) what they wanted. He operated on rote as an adult as a result. So it is possible that he was too immature and frightened to analyze what was going on in his mind in regards to money. I doubt that he did. So here he was with this great gift, but one that could only be used for good — and his ego was weighing it down. He lived at the center of a vortex. Those around him realized that if they could trip him up and slander him, they could, in effect, steal money from this gift of his. And so the noose tightened. He became surrounded by what I would call an “evil eye” — a group of people in agreement to his murder.
And so it happened. His music was, in effect, stolen by those who performed it pretending to be him. And these murderers and their descendants have continued this practice for over 250 years. They claim, because of this, that they have stolen the “Mozart G’zillions” that, had he used his gift properly, could have belonged to him.
Le Chant du Rossignol...(song of the nightingale) 