Winner of eight Academy Awards in 1984, Amadeus presents a fictional account of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s life and death in Vienna.  In order to create tragic suspense and an ill-fated demise unlike his operas, director Milos Forman introduces Signore Salieri, a rival composer in Vienna who believes he contributed to Mozart’s early death.  Apart from the historical details created for the storyline, the film depicts Mozart’s personality in a distorted light.  Shown as an arrogant, eccentric, and a wild child, the life of Mozart in Vienna is full of myth and embellishment from both those who love and hated him.  These myths along with a few facts construct the Mozart of Forman’s Amadeus and create the persona of Mozart the martyr who died for his music.

Several myths surround the life of Mozart, stemming from his childhood and surpassing his death in 1791.  While some of the myths reflect and exaggerate his musical genius, others create the Mozart persona.  Many of his contemporaries believed him to be a willful child who never grew up, forever remaining irresponsible and perhaps naïve with regards to money.  This sentiment was even voiced by his sister, Marianne, in light of his departure with his mother to France in 1777; “since he was always busy he thought nothing about how he would some day have to manage money” (Solomon 407).  Those around him were convinced that Mozart could not handle his own financial affairs, no doubt inspired by the debts he created toward the end of his life.  Of course, money matters were not the only reason Mozart was not allowed to travel alone.  Through Mozart’s mother, his father, Leopold, could control him in spite of the distance between them.  This oppression of the son and tyranny of the father eventually caused Mozart to find difficulty in making a successful change from child/son that Leopold brought into the world to adult/husband/father (Eyerly).  Never allowed a true childhood during tours of Europe in his youth, Mozart’s eternal childlike behavioral myth developed after he finally freed himself from the will and rule of his father.  Amadeus elaborates on this legend by presenting an eccentric, loud jokester with a severe preoccupation for music.  Within this context, the film gives reference to the real Mozart’s obsession with bodily functions, something that began in adolescence and seemingly never ended.  He, along with his cousin, “delight[ed] also in the release and the flow of their bodily fluids […] All this implies a mutual fixation on a quasi-infantile stage of development” (Solomon 171).  Solomon quickly goes on to point out that “perhaps, then, Mozart’s polymorphousness bears in part on his need to remain an eternal child” (Solomon 171).   This need, of course, is shaped by the treatment he suffered at the hand of his father, forced to serve as the Mozart family’s main source of income and pride—treated always as a child, Leopold nevertheless forced Mozart through guilt and strict rule to act as father and husband to his family.  Forman shows Mozart speaking of farting and shitting with Constanze, his future wife, early in the film.  This demonstrates “Mozart’s bawdy celebration of the body and its physical functions” and how in some aspects Mozart never truly allowed himself to leave his tumultuous childhood behind (Solomon 357).  This is only a single aspect of Mozart’s connection to his inner child; “by his own admission, Mozart was much given to practical jokes […] ‘I can never resist making a fool of someone’” (Solomon 313).  Mozart’s fondness for riddles and a love of the carnival went hand-in-hand with his connection to the past.

In February of 1786, Mozart attended a Viennese carnival ball disguised as an Oriental philosopher while handing out copies of some eight riddles and fourteen proverbs (Solomon 337).  Many of these riddles contained references to phallic and sexual objects, such as horns, providing proof of Mozart’s fixation with his childhood.  The fantasy surrounding the carnival gave Mozart the courage to give out these sheets but also reminded him once again of his past, especially of the world of his own mental creation, the “Kingdom of Back” (Solomon 399).  Forman well demonstrates Mozart’s love for the carnival with a scene first showing his excitement at buying his costume for the ball and then his playful and humorous attitude while in attendance, where he makes a fool of himself in front of his father.  His father, in turn, treats him once again as though he is still a child, instructing him to return to Salzburg with him, undoubtedly where he would resume his post as father and sister’s keeper. Despite Mozart’s relationship with his childhood, he was far from being an eternal child but instead “was a conspicuously successful entrepreneur who was earning large sums of money and was beloved of Haydn, the emperor, the people, and the haut-monde” (Solomon 347).  During Leopold’s visit to Vienna within the film, he begins to realize just how much his Wolfgang has change and understands the extent to which Mozart no long needs him.  Although this realization on Leopold’s part is not explicitly shown within the context of the film, his time in Vienna “pulled down the entire family mythology, root and branch” (Solomon 347).  Leopold and Marianne had been convinced that Mozart lacked the capacity to look after himself but then learn otherwise.  This myth of childishness was thus influenced by his joy and interest in the carnival, fantasy, and jocularity, but also by the opinion of those closest to him, mainly his own family.

The most truthful representation of the real Mozart lies in the display of his preoccupation with music.  His life and world revolved around music.  Mozart admitted that he had “so much to compose and not a minute must be lost,” continuing to compose until he was hungry (Solomon 309).  His wife believed this preoccupation contributed to his early death stating that “he ‘killed himself with overexertion,’ recalling that he ‘frequently sat up composing until two and rose at four, an exertion which assisted to destroy him’,” (Solomon 309).  Although he loved composing and music in general, his lack of sleep and nutrition led to his demise.  This is accurately depicted within the film, with one exception; Salieri did not push him to do so.  This preoccupation appears in other scenes such as when Constanze and Leopold begin to argue. Mozart at first stands up for his wife but soon gives in and leaves the room to compose a piece inspired by their dispute.  Another scene in which the preoccupation appears is when the mysterious man, none other than Salieri, first comes to visit.  Mozart cannot hear the knocking on the door because all he can hear is the music he is composing in his head.  Constanze comes out to yell at him but it takes a minute before he actually hears her and only then does he notice the knocking.  This obsession also helped create the most well-known and untrue myth regarding Mozart’s musical genius; the myth that he could compose without error.

Many of Mozart’s contemporaries were under the impression that he never made corrections to his compositions.  Fueled by the fact that very few of his original sketches survived, this myth still exists.  However, few sketches remain in existence because Mozart periodically discarded the sketches once he made the changes on a new sheet (Solomon 310).  According to Ulrich Konrad, 320 ketches and drafts are intact and sketch material exists for ten percent of Mozart’s compositions (Solomon 310).  There are also “continuity sketches” that still survive but no where near the number of Beethoven.  Nevertheless, the film promotes the legend as fact purely to express the genius that is Herr Mozart—not that they need to as they play his music throughout.  In one scene, Constanze brings Salieri a few of Mozart’s compositions to be submitted to the Kapellmeister under Emperor Joseph II, stating that they are originals so she cannot leave without them.  Salieri is taken aback by this fact as he inspects the sheets for corrections and finds none.  This only confirms his belief that God created Mozart to spite him and his mediocrity as he reads sheet after sheet filled with perfect music.  Later in the film, another aspect of this myth pops up, regarding Mozart’s composition of entire pieces in his head, only to write them in order for them to be complete in the physical sense.  In 1798, Niemetshek published a biography on Mozart, asserting that “Mozart ‘could see the completed work clearly and vividly when it came to him…. We rarely find anything corrected or altered…. In his mind the work was already complete before he sat down at his desk” (Solomon 117).  Once again, the lack of surviving sketches attributes to this myth.  The scene which demonstrates this topic appears toward the end of the film, and Mozart’s life, when Mozart is commissioned to write a new opera and the man who commissioned it comes to collect.  When he asks where it is, Mozart replies “here.”  The man, of course, does not understand what he means.  Mozart then points to his head and repeats “here,” before saying that it is all finished in his “noodle” and all the rest is “scribble.”  Most likely, Mozart made many corrections and changes to his compositions, especially those for opera where he altered pieces until the singer liked them.  The severe lack of evidence of his alterations coupled with the convictions of his early biographers allows this myth to remain believed even to this day.

Due to the promotion of myths in Amadeus, the overall presentation of Mozart’s personality is mostly that of mere fiction.  However, as most fiction is based on some kind of fact, these legends are distortions of the truth surrounding Mozart’s life and musical genius.  With an added fictional twist to his death—that Salieri had some part in it—the film creates a tragic world and thus Mozart becomes a tragic hero, robbed of his life and destiny by a lesser and jealous composer.  This, in turn, makes the life of Mozart its own dramatic tale.

Works Cited

Eyerly, Sarah. “The Son.” Music 110D- Mozart Section. Music Department. UC Davis,

Davis. 13 April 2005.

Solomon, Maynard. Mozart: A Life. New York: Harper Perennial, 1995.

*This paper was written for Music 110D: Mozart taught Spring Quarter 2005 at UC Davis.

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