Mozart may have died of strep throat complications

So ill he could not move, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart supposedly sang parts of his final masterpiece, "Requiem," from his deathbed. Two centuries later, the exact cause of the Austrian composer's premature death, in December 1791 at age 35, is still a mystery.

Theories abound. It's known that his entire body was so swollen he couldn't turn over in bed; some say jealous rivals poisoned him, while others suggest scarlet fever, tuberculosis, or lethal trichinosis from undercooked pork.


Now, new evidence points to an altogether different conclusion: Mozart may have died from kidney damage caused by a strep infection, possibly strep throat. Health.com: Can't stop coughing? 8 causes of chronic cough Dr. Richard H.C. Zegers of the University of Amsterdam and his colleagues analyzed data from Vienna's death registry. Researchers had not previously analyzed the daily death registry -- begun in handwritten script in 1607 and maintained until 1920 -- for clues to Mozart's death.

Zegers and his team looked at information for 5,011 adults who died during three consecutive winters starting in 1790, as well as eyewitness accounts of Mozart's death, according to the study published this week in Annals of Internal Medicine.

"By looking at the patterns of death during Mozart's time and combining them with the signs and symptoms of his final disease, we have not one but two pillars on which our theory is built," said Zegers. "Although we can't be 100 percent conclusive, I'm convinced that we have come very near the exact reason he died."

The researchers found that there were more than 500 deaths related to edema, the swelling caused by fluid in the body's tissues. Edema was the third most common cause of death at the time, after tuberculosis and malnutrition/cachexia, a physical wasting-away that was possibly caused by cancer or diabetes. Health.com: Your nutrition needs in your 30s, 40s, and 50s

During the winter of 1791, there was a spike in edema-related deaths among younger men, possibly because of an epidemic of strep throat, according to Zegers. He and his colleagues suspect that the epidemic's origin was the local military hospital, since crowded quarters are more conducive to the rapid spread of airborne bacteria such as group A Streptococcus, which can cause strep throat.

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Biography - Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart 1756-1791

Born in Salzburg, Austria on Jan. 27, 1756; full name- Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Gottlieb Mozart; he was baptized as Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart. Mozart is named after his grandfather on his mother's side and after the Saint on his date of birth, Johannes Chrysostomus.

Parents: Leopold Mozart - composer and violinist, concertmaster at the archiepiscopal court, and in 1763, vice-kapellmeister at Salzburg court; and Anna Maria Pertl, daughter of Wolfgang Nikolaus Pertl, an official from Sankt Gilgen Sibling: Maria Anna (Nannerl) Mozart



At his age 3: started to play the keyboard Age 5: started composing minuets

1763-1766: toured Europe with his father and sister played for Louis XV at Versailles and George III in London 1764 wrote his first three symphonies; also met Johann Christian Bach.
By his teenage years, he mastered the piano, violin, and harpsichord 1768 completed first opera, La finta semplice (The Simple Pretense)

1769-1773: made three trips to Italy. In Rome, there was a myth that Mozart attended the performance of Allegri's Misere. He wanted the score but when no one agreed he wrote down the music from memory.

1770: Mitridate, re di Ponte (Mithridates, King of Pontus) performed in Milan which was Mozart's first major opera

1772: appointed concertmaster in the orchestra of Archbishop of Salzburg.. During this period, he wrote many sacred works.

1777: toured with his mother hoping to find a court position; traveled to Mannheim where he met and fell in love with Aloysia Weber

1778, July: Anna Maria Mozart died

1779: unable to find a court position, Mozart went back to Salzburg; appointed as court organist to the Archbishop of Salzburg

1781: resigned from his position due to increasing tension and disagreements between Mozart and the Archbishop. Mozart stayed in Vienna instead of returning to Salzburg. Mozart's resignation and his move to Vienna put a strain in his relationship with his father.

1782: married Constanze Weber in Vienna's St. Stephen's Cathedral. After Mozart's death, Constanze married Danish diplomat Georg Nikolaus von Nissen. In Vienna, Mozart supported his family by performing in public and private, teaching , and composing. His first opera written after his residency in Vienna, Abduction from Seraglio became a success.

Mozart conducts a rehearsal of his Requiem in this romanticized image of his last day.

1786: The Marriage of Figaro, the first of three operas Mozart collaborated with librettist, Lorenza da Ponte, premiered at the Burg Theater.

1787: became composer of Imperial and Royal Chamber with an annual salary of 800fl. His father, Leopold, died on May 28, 1787. Don Giovanni premiered in Prague at the National Theater.

1790: Cosi fan tutte premiered at Burg Theater. Mozart declined an opportunity to compose in London.

1791: composed dance music for the Vienna Court; publishers began to pay fees for the rights to publish his works; appointed assistant to the Cathedral Kapellmeister at St. Stephens with no pay. Mozart was already feeling ill in Prague while finishing La clemenza di Tito.

Dec. 5, 1791: a few minutes before 1AM, Mozart died of rheumatic fever.

Constanze watches as Mozart, on his deathbed,
works on the Requiem in this idealized depiction created years later.

The Mozart family: Maria Anna, Mozart, painting of Anna Maria, and Leopold.

His Works music in three stages:
- early: 1761-1772
- middle: 1772-1781
- late: 1781-1791 (best known works)
Mozart composed over 600 works including:21 stage and opera works, 15 Masses, over 50 symphonies, 25 piano concertos, 12 violin concertos, 27 concert arias, 17 piano sonatas, 26 string quartets, and many other pieces.

His style was very unique, unlike many of the musical styles of his time. People did not appreciate his radical music because they did not understand

Mozart's complex and extraordinary music. In his later years, Mozart incorporates many musical elements and style from different countries into his works. His late works include three of his most famous operas, The Marriage of Figaro, Don Giovanni, Cosi fan tutte, written in collaboration with Lorenza da Ponte and his last three church pieces, Mass in C Minor, Ave Verum Corpus, and Requiem. Both the Mass in C Minor and Requiem remain unfinished.

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Mozart's Powerful Effect

Apart from entertainment, could there be more to Mozart’s music? Scientists around the world have claimed that his music makes people more intelligent and improves health. Even cows and plants like it. Now, a German company says you should play Mozart’s music to sewage! Let’s take a look at various studies and research into the so-called Mozart effect.



Intelligence

The term “Mozart effect” was coined in 1995 by scientists at the University of California who found that students scored better on spatial IQ tests after listening to Mozart’s music. The scientists also tried trance music, minimalist music, audio-books, and relaxation instructions, none of which worked. Frances Rauscher, Gordon Shaw, and Katherine Ky from the Center of Neurobiology of Learning and Memory wrote in their paper, published in Neuroscience Letters, that “thirty-six undergraduates listened to 10 [minutes] of Mozart’s Sonata for Two Pianos, K. 448, and scored 8 to 9 points higher on the spatial IQ subtest of the Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scale than after they listened to taped relaxation instructions or silence. This facilitation lasted only 10–15 minutes.”he five-day study, which tested 79 students, also noted a “dramatic increase from day 1 to day 2 of 62% for the Mozart group versus 14% for the Silence group and 11% for the Mixed group [the group that listened to other types of music and recordings].” The study concluded that “perhaps the cortex’s response to music is the ‘Rosetta Stone’ for the ‘code’ or internal language of higher brain function.”

Milk Production

As reported in a 2007 article by Spanish media El Mundo, cows on a farm in Villanueva del Pardillo, Spain, produce 30 to 35 liters (about eight to nine gallons) of milk per day, compared to only 28 liters for other farms. According to owner Hans-Pieter Sieber, this is thanks to Mozart’s Concerto for Flute and Harp in D, which his 700 Friesian cows listen to at milking time. He also claims the milk has a sweeter taste. Monks in Brittany, France, are said to be the first to have discovered cows’ liking for Mozart, according to ABC news. Now, farmers from Israel to England play classical music to their cows.

Health of Premature Babies

In January 2010, the journal Pediatrics published a study by Israeli scientists showing that Mozart helped premature babies gain weight faster. Researchers played 30 minutes of Mozart to 20 preterm infants at the Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center on two consecutive days and compared their weight gains to another group who listened to no music. The doctors noted that babies listening to the music were calmer, thus reducing resting energy expenditure (or REE). “Exposure to Mozart music significantly lowers REE in healthy preterm infants. We speculate that this effect of music on REE might explain, in part, the improved weight gain that results from this ‘Mozart effect,’” the researchers concluded in their paper.

Sewage Treatment

In 2010, a sewage treatment plant near Berlin, Germany, trialed a Mozart sound system made by German company Mundus. Music from “The Enchanted Flute” was played to biomass-eating microbes. Initially, the plant almost canceled the experiment after a few months. But after a year, when it was time to clean the sludge, the plant found that it only had to transport 6,000 cubic meters (about 212 cubic ft.) away, instead of the usual 7,000 cubic meters. Detlef Dalichow, a specialist in wastewater management, told the newspaper Märkische Allgemeine, “We have significantly less sludge to transport away.” The company saved an estimated 10,000 euros on the cost of transporting sludge. Mundus says its speakers strive to accurately replicate the sound of a concert hall.

Plant Growth

Plants have been made to listen to all sorts of music since the 1970s. Some music they loved, and other music made them die. Mozart’s music, however, has been a favorite. One of the first experiments with plants and music took place in 1973 when undergraduate Dorothy Retallack used the Colorado Woman’s College Biotronic Control Chambers to subject plants to two different radio stations. In one chamber, plants had to listen to rock music for three hours a day. In the other chamber, the radio was tuned to easy listening for three hours a day. The plants subject to easy listening grew healthily, and their stems started to bend toward the radio. The plants listening to rock, however, had small leaves and leaned away from the radio. They grew tall and gangly, and most of them died in 16 days. Retallack went on to experiment with a variety of styles of music. The plants leaned away from Led Zeppelin and Jimi Hendrix but seemed to appreciate Bach organ music and jazz. Their favorite, she found, was North Indian classical music played on the sitar. They showed complete indifference to country music.

Vineyards

In 2001, searching for an ecological way to keep pests away from his vines, music lover Carlo Cignozzi set up speakers throughout his 24-acre Tuscan vineyard, Il Paradiso di Frassina. He began playing a selection of classical music, including Mozart, to the plants 24 hours a day, and noticed that the vines seemed to mature faster. Cignozzi said the vines closest to the speakers matured faster and insisted on playing classical music, rather than pop or rock. In 2006, a research team from the University of Florence investigated further. According to professor of agriculture Stefano Mancuso, sound-treated vines matured faster than those not exposed to music. The music also had positive effects on vine growth and total leaf area per vine.

Rats in Mazes

Frances Rauscher, one of the scientists who participated in the original “Mozart effect” study in 1995, went on to study the effect on rats in 1998. A group of rats was exposed to Mozart music while in the womb and for another 60 days after birth. It was found that these rats were better at navigating mazes than other groups of rats that had been left in silence or exposed to white noise or music by minimalist composer Philip Glass. The study, done at the University of Wisconsin together with Desix Robinson and Jason Jens and published in the journal Neurological Research, reported: “By Day 3, the rats exposed to the Mozart work completed the maze more rapidly and with fewer errors than the rats assigned to the other groups. The difference increased in magnitude through Day 5. This suggests that repeated exposure to complex music induces improved spatial-temporal learning in rats, resembling results found in humans.”

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