For my set piece, I decided to use symbolism. In the narrative, the beating heart symbolizes the narrator’s failing health as well as his passion for music. For example, in the first paragraph I use “even beating of a healthy heart” to represent the rhythmic quality of music as well as his health in the moment. I also wanted to explore historical fiction from the perspective of a famous composer in the first person. 

    November 5, 1791. I was in my office and thinking of something to write. The rent had been due already three days earlier, and the landlord was growing impatient with my wife and I, who were struggling to keep up due to my failing health. Like the even beating of a healthy heart, I tapped steadily with my agile fingers on the keyboard of my grand piano. As I tried to forge a melody in my head, I heard a sudden knock on the door. I opened it to find a strange man with a gray coat, gray pants, and a gray hat angled down just enough to cover his face. “What do you want?” I asked him. 

    He told me that he had a request for an original musical composition for a fellow family member that had passed. He requested that I write something for the man’s funeral, perhaps a Requiem in D Minor to set the mood. I felt sorry for the family, and since I had been struggling with my next composition, I agreed and said goodbye. I shut the door and returned to my office and the piano with some paper to begin composing the piece. 

    As November moved into December, my health worsened with each passing day, and I still hadn’t finished the piece the dead man’s family had requested a few weeks earlier. 

    One evening, as I readied myself for a performance at the Schönbrunn Palace in  Vienna, I felt nauseous and extremely fatigued. Nonetheless, Constanze and I climbed into our carriage. On the trip, I hummed the Requiem in D Minor to see what I could add to it because I began to realize that I might not be able to finish the piece due to my deteriorating health. We arrived at the Palace, and I was feeling so much worse even after just a few hours. I could barely walk and my heart pounded with an uneven rhythm in my chest. I went backstage to tell the opera manager that I might not be able to play that night. He felt confident that I would feel well enough after intermission and encouraged me to watch the other performances while waiting. I watched from the back of the Schönbrunn Palace until intermission in hopes I would feel well enough to deliver my own performance. Then, without warning, my vision blurred, and sweat began to drip from my forehead and the back of my neck. I started to panic, my heart felt unsteady, and I soon fell unconscious. 

    When I woke up, I was in my own home. I still felt hot all over my body and my chest was beating hard and uncontrollably. My wife was nearby, and I saw the papers for the Requiem music on my bedside table. I struggled to regain my motivation to continue writing in spite of my physical pain, but was able to do so until the wax of my candle had disappeared. 

I hope I live to see another day,

Amadeus Mozart 

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart died on December 5, 1791 of kidney failure. Unfortunately, he never completed his Requiem in D Minor.