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The Requiem Mass in D minor (K. 626) by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was composed in 1791. This is a complete list of the works of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, listed chronologically. The requiem was Mozart's last composition, and is one of his most powerful and recognized works, not only for its music, but also for the debate over how much of the music Mozart managed to complete before his death, and how much was later composed by his student Franz Xaver Süssmayr. Franz Xaver Süßmayr (Franz Xaver Suessmayr 1766 in Schwanenstadt – September 17 1803 in Vienna) was an Austrian Composer.

Despite debate about how much of the music was Mozart's, the Requiem has taken a prominent place as one of Mozart's most important works.

Contents

Structure

The Requiem is divided into fourteen movements, with the following structure:

Instrumentation

The Requiem is scored for 2 basset horns in F, 2 bassoons, 2 trumpets in D, 3 trombones (alto, tenor & bass), timpani (2 drums), organ, and strings. The Requiem (from Latin requiem, accusative case of requies, rest or Requiem Mass (informally a funeral Mass also known formally (in Latin as the The Introit ( Latin: introitus, "entrance" is part of the opening of the celebration of the Roman Catholic Mass and the Lutheran Kýrie is from the Greek word κύριε (kyrie the Vocative case of κύριος (kyrios meaning O Lord. This article is about Latin poems and songs For the Early music group see Sequentia (music group. Dies Irae (Day of Wrath is a famous thirteenth century Latin Hymn thought to be written by Thomas of Celano. Tuba mirum is part of the Liturgy of a Requiem Mass, more precisely a section of the Dies irae sequence, but frequently refers to the fourth Recordare, literally translated means 'To Remember' being the latin infinitive of Recordat meaning he/she/it remembers is a part of the Liturgy of the Roman Catholic The Lacrimosa is part of the Dies Irae sequence in the Requiem mass. Offertory (from the Ecclesiastical Latin offertorium, French offertoire, a place to which offerings were brought the Alms Sanctus is the Latin word for holy or saint and is the name of an important Hymn of Christian Liturgy. Agnus Dei is a Latin term meaning Lamb of God, and was originally used to refer to Jesus Christ in his role of the perfect sacrificial The Communion is the Gregorian chant sung during the distribution of the Eucharist in the Roman Rite Catholic Mass. The basset horn or tenor clarinet (sometimes written basset-horn) is a Musical instrument, a member of the Clarinet family The bassoon is a Woodwind instrument in the Double reed family that typically plays music written in the bass and Tenor registers and occasionally The trombone is a Musical instrument in the brass family Like all brass instruments it is a lip-reed Aerophone: sound is produced when the player’s Timpani (also known colloquially as kettledrums or kettle drums) are Musical instruments in the percussion family The pipe organ is a Musical instrument that produces sound when pressurized air (wind is driven through a series of pipes, controlled by a keyboard A string instrument (or stringed instrument) is a Musical instrument that produces Sound by means of Vibrating strings In the Hornbostel-Sachs

Composition and completion

The work is scored for soprano, alto, tenor, and bass soloists and choir, and a small classical orchestra comprising two basset horns (a type of tenor clarinet much favoured by Mozart throughout his career), two bassoons, two trumpets, three trombones, timpani, violins, viola and basso continuo (cello, double bass and organ). This article is related to a series of articles under the main article Voice type. Alto is a musical term derived from the Latin word altus, meaning "high" that has several possible interpretations The tenor is the highest male voice within the Modal register, just above the Baritone voice For the musical composition see Chorale. A choir, chorale, or chorus is a Musical ensemble of Singers The basset horn or tenor clarinet (sometimes written basset-horn) is a Musical instrument, a member of the Clarinet family The clarinet is a Musical instrument in the Woodwind family The name derives from adding the suffix -et meaning little to the Italian word The bassoon is a Woodwind instrument in the Double reed family that typically plays music written in the bass and Tenor registers and occasionally The trombone is a Musical instrument in the brass family Like all brass instruments it is a lip-reed Aerophone: sound is produced when the player’s Timpani (also known colloquially as kettledrums or kettle drums) are Musical instruments in the percussion family The violin is a bowed String instrument with four strings usually tuned in Perfect fifths It is the smallest and highest-pitched member The viola is a bowed String instrument. It is the middle voice of the Violin family, Figured bass, or thoroughbass, is a kind of integer Musical notation used to indicate intervals, chords and Nonchord tones in relation The violoncello (abbreviated to cello, or 'cello, plural cellos or celli —the c is tʃ The double bass is the largest and lowest-pitched bowed String instrument used in the modern symphony orchestra. The organ (from Greek όργανον – organon "organ instrument tool" is a Keyboard instrument of one or more divisions each At the time of Mozart's death on 5 December 1791 he had only completed the opening movement (Requiem aeternam) in all of the orchestral and vocal parts. Events 63 BC - Cicero reads the last of his Catiline Orations. Year 1791 ( MDCCXCI) was a Common year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common The following Kyrie (a double fugue), and most of the Sequence (from Dies Irae to Confutatis), is complete only in the vocal parts and the continuo (the figured organ bass), though occasionally some of the prominent orchestral parts have been briefly indicated, such as the violin part of the Confutatis and the musical bridges in the Recordare. In Music, a fugue (ˈfjuːg is a type of contrapuntal composition or technique of composition for a fixed number of parts, normally referred Dies Irae (Day of Wrath is a famous thirteenth century Latin Hymn thought to be written by Thomas of Celano. Figured bass, or thoroughbass, is a kind of integer Musical notation used to indicate intervals, chords and Nonchord tones in relation The last movement of the Sequence, the Lacrimosa, breaks off after only eight bars and was unfinished. The following two movements of the Offertorium were again partially done -- the Domine Jesu Christe in the vocal parts and continuo (up until the fugue, which contains some indications of the violin part) and the Hostias in the vocal parts only.

In the 1960s a sketch for an Amen fugue was discovered, which some musicologists (Levin, Maunder) believe belongs to the Requiem at the conclusion of the Sequence after the Lacrimosa. H.C. Robbins Landon argues that this Amen fugue was not intended for the Requiem, rather that it "may have been for a separate unfinished Mass in D minor" to which the Kyrie K341 also belonged. Howard Chandler Robbins Landon (born March 6, 1926) is a musicologist. There is, however, compelling evidence placing the "Amen Fugue" in the Requiem based on current Mozart scholarship. Firstly, the principal subject is comprised of the main theme of the requiem (stated at the beginning, and throughout the work) in strict inversion. Secondly, it is found on the same page as a sketch for the Rex Tremendae (together with a sketch for the overture of his last opera The Magic Flute), and thus surely dates from late 1791. The Magic Flute (German Die Zauberflöte, K 620 is an Opera in two acts composed in 1791 by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart The only place where the word 'Amen' occurs in anything that Mozart wrote in late 1791 is in the Sequence of the Requiem. Thirdly, as Levin points out in the foreword to his completion of the Requiem, the addition of the Amen Fugue at the end of the Sequence results in an overall design that ends each large section with a fugue.

The eccentric count Franz von Walsegg commissioned the Requiem from Mozart anonymously through intermediaries acting on his behalf. Franz Count von Walsegg ( January 17, 1763 - November 11, 1827) living on Stuppach castle near Gloggnitz, was the aristocrat who The count, an amateur chamber musician who routinely commissioned works by composers and passed them off as his own, wanted a Requiem mass he could claim he composed to memorialize the recent passing of his wife. Mozart received only half of the payment in advance, so upon his death his widow Constanze was keen to have the work completed secretly by someone else, submit it to the count as having been completed by Mozart and collect the final payment. Constanze Mozart (born Constanze Weber) ( 5 January 1762 in Zell im Wiesental, Germany &ndash 6 March 1842 Joseph von Eybler was one of the first composers to be asked to complete the score, and had worked on the movements from the Dies irae up until the Lacrimosa. Joseph Leopold Eybler (born February 8, 1765, in Schwechat near Vienna; and died July 24, 1846 in Vienna was an Austrian In addition, a striking similarity between the openings of the Domine Jesu Christe movements in the requiems of the two composers suggests that Eybler at least looked at later sections. Following this work, he felt unable to complete the remainder, and gave the manuscript back to Constanze Mozart.

The task was then given to another composer, Franz Xaver Süssmayr, who had already helped the ailing Mozart in writing the score, since in his final days the composer's limbs had become extremely swollen. Franz Xaver Süßmayr (Franz Xaver Suessmayr 1766 in Schwanenstadt – September 17 1803 in Vienna) was an Austrian Composer. Süssmayr borrowed some of Eybler's work in making his completion, and added his own orchestration to the movements from the Dies Irae onward (the Kyrie was orchestrated before either Süssmayr or Eybler began their work) , completed the Lacrimosa, and added several new movements which a Requiem would normally comprise: Sanctus, Benedictus, and Agnus Dei. Kýrie is from the Greek word κύριε (kyrie the Vocative case of κύριος (kyrios meaning O Lord. He then added a final section, Lux aeterna by adapting the opening two movements which Mozart had written to the different words which finish the Requiem Mass, which according to both Süssmayr and Mozart's wife was done according to Mozart's directions. Whether or not that is true, some people consider it unlikely that Mozart would have repeated the opening two sections if he had survived to finish the work completely. However, the fact that the work ends with a recapitulation of the first movement creates a work which, overall, displays characteristics of sonata form, which may help to authenticate the idea for the repetition of the first movement as the final movement. Sonata form is a Musical form that has been used widely since the early Classical period. As has often been stated, Mozart was not the only composer to do this, and many requiems written before his repeat the first movement as the last. (In regular Masses a similar practice existed where the last movement, the Agnus Dei, was indicated only by the words "ut Kyrie", "as the Kyrie". )

Other composers may have helped Süssmayr. The elder composer Maximilian Stadler is suspected of having completed the orchestration of the Domine Jesu for Süssmayr. The Agnus Dei is suspected by some scholars to have been based on instruction or sketches from Mozart because of its similarity to a section from the Gloria of a previous Mass (K. 220) by Mozart, as was first pointed out by Richard Maunder. Many of the arguments dealing with this matter, though, center on the perception that if part of the work is high quality, it must have been written by Mozart (or from sketches), and if part of the work contains errors and faults, it must have been all Süssmayr's doing. A frequent meta-debate is whether or not this is a fair way to judge the authorship of the parts of the work.

Another controversy is the suggestion that Mozart left explicit instructions for the completion of the Requiem on "little scraps of paper. " It is commonly believed this claim was made by Constanza Mozart after it was public knowledge that the Requiem was actually completed by Süssmayr as a way to increase the impression of authenticity.

The completed score, initially by Mozart but largely finished by Süssmayr, was then dispatched to Count Walsegg complete with a counterfeited signature of Mozart and dated 1792. The various complete and incomplete manuscripts eventually turned up in the 19th century, but many of the figures involved did not leave unambiguous statements on record as to how they were involved in the affair. Despite the controversy over how much of the music is actually Mozart's, the commonly performed Süssmayr version has become widely accepted by the public. This acceptance is quite strong, even when alternate completions provide logical and compelling solutions for the work. A completion dating from 1819 by Sigismund Neukomm has recently been recorded under the baton of Jean-Claude Malgoire. Salzburg-born Neukomm, a student of Joseph Haydn, provided a concluding Libera me, Domine for a performance of the Requiem on the feast of St Cecilia in Rio de Janeiro at the behest of Nunes Garcia. José Maurício Nunes Garcia ( September 20, 1767 &ndash April 18, 1830) was a Brazilian classical composer one of the greatest of

History of the Requiem (timeline)

Modern completions

Since the 1970s several musicologists, dissatisfied with the traditional "Süssmayr" completion, have attempted alternative completions of the Requiem. These include Franz Beyer, Duncan Druce, C. Franz Beyer (born 1922 is a German Musicologist who is best known for his revising and restoration of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart 's music in particular his Richard F. Maunder, H.C. Robbins Landon, and Robert D. Levin. Howard Chandler Robbins Landon (born March 6, 1926) is a musicologist. This article is about the Robert D Levin the American pianist and composer Each version follows a distinct methodology for completion; for example, the Beyer edition makes revisions to Süssmayr's orchestration in an attempt to create a more Mozartian style, whereas Robbins Landon has chosen to orchestrate parts of the completion using the partial work by Eybler, thinking that Eybler's work is a more reliable guide of Mozart's intentions. Franz Xaver Süßmayr (Franz Xaver Suessmayr 1766 in Schwanenstadt – September 17 1803 in Vienna) was an Austrian Composer. Maunder's edition dispenses completely with the parts known to be written by Süssmayr, but retains the Agnus Dei after discovering an extensive paraphrase from an earlier Mass (Kv. 220). Levin's version retains the structure of Süssmayr while adjusting orchestration, voice leading and in some cases rewriting entire sections in an effort to make the work more Mozartean. For example, in the Levin version, the Sanctus fugue is completely rewritten and reproprortioned and the Benedictus is restructured to allow for a reprise of the Sanctus fugue in the key of D (rather than Süssmayr's use of B flat).

Both Maunder and Levin use the sketch for the Amen fugue discovered in the 1960s to compose a longer and more substantial setting to the words "Amen" at the end of the Sequence. In the Süssmayr version, "Amen" is set to the last two chords of the Lacrimosa. Maunder and Levin recompose the ending of the Lacrimosa to lead to an entire movement with "Amen" as the text. Other authors have also attempted the completion.

Myths surrounding the Requiem

The Requiem has a complex history, riddled with deception and manipulation of public opinion. The work was commissioned by a count who wanted to pass off the work as his own[2], so the circumstances of the commission were kept secret. Upon Mozart's death, Constanze had the work completed by other composers, but to receive final payment, their assistance had to remain a secret. At the same time, Constanze wanted to present the work as having been written by Mozart to completion, so as to receive revenue from the work. When it became known that others beside Mozart had a hand in writing the Requiem, Constanze insisted that Mozart left explicit instructions for the work's completion.

With all of these levels of deceptions and secrets, it is inevitable that many myths would emerge with respect to the circumstances of the work's completion. One series of myths surrounding the Requiem involves the role Antonio Salieri played in the commissioning and completion of the Requiem and in Mozart's death generally. Antonio Salieri ( 18 August 1750 &ndash 7 May 1825) was an Italian Composer and conductor. While the most recent retelling of this myth is Peter Shaffer's play Amadeus and the movie made from it, it is important to note that the source of misinformation was actually a 19th century play by Alexander Pushkin, Mozart and Salieri, which was turned into an opera by Rimsky-Korsakov and subsequently used as the framework for Amadeus. Sir Peter Levin Shaffer (born May 15, 1926) is an English Dramatist, author of numerous award-winning plays several of which have been filmed Amadeus is a Stage play written in 1979 by Peter Shaffer, loosely based on the lives of the Composers Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Amadeus is a 1984 drama directed by Miloš Forman. Based on Peter Shaffer 's stage play Amadeus, the film Nikolai Andreyevich Rimsky-Korsakov ( Николай Андреевич Римский-Корсаков, Nikolaj Andreevič Rimskij-Korsakov) also Nikolay

While Amadeus was never intended to be historically accurate, many people have taken it as fact, reawakening the myth started in the 19th century. The following explores myths surrounding the Requiem.

Some of the most commonly held myths about Mozart's Requiem are:

Early biographers

Much of what is known today about Mozart comes either directly from correspondences about him, to him, and from him, or indirectly from biographers who gathered information from interviews with people close to him, such as his wife, Constanze, his works, and material from people who have come in contact with Mozart. The following is a brief summary of the early biographers who have tried to tell the story of Mozart's life.

1. Friedrich Schlichtegroll was a teacher and a scholar who published Mozart's obituary in 1793. The obituary was part of a volume of obituaries referred to as Nekrolog. The two had never met. Most of the information was obtained from Nannerl, Mozart's sister, and Johann Andreas Schachtner, a friend of the family in Mozart's early years. Therefore what Schlichtegroll knew and wrote about was the period before Vienna.

2. Franz Xaver Niemetschek was a citizen of Prague, a teacher and writer. Niemetschek allegedly met with Mozart and claimed to have been acquainted with Mozart's friends in Prague. After Mozart's death, Constanze sent Carl, the elder son, to live with him from 1792-97. Through these relationships with the family, Niemetschek gathered the information needed to write a biography of Mozart. His main source was Constanze and Mozart's friends in Prague. Therefore his emphasis was on Mozart's years in Vienna and his many trips to Prague. Based on research by Austrian scholar Walther Brauneis, much doubt has recently been cast on the veracity of Niemetschek's claim that he actually made Mozart's personal acquaintance.

3. Friedrich Rochlitz was the editor of Allgemeine Musikalische Zeitwig (AMZ), a journal published by Breitkopf & Hartel. Constanze had sent Rochlitz some ancedotes to publish. At first she wanted him to do a biography but after meeting Nissen, she gave Nissen the opportunity instead. Most people believed that Rochlitz is an unreliable source.

4. I. T. F. C. Arnold, a novelist, wrote Mozart's Geist, published in 1803. He took most of the biography directly from the three sources already published. He did add some new information.

5. In 1828, Nissen published a biography of Mozart which included an appendix written by Constanze and J. H. Fewerstein after Nissen's death in 1826. Much of this biography included what had been previously written by Schlichtegroll, Niemetschek, and Rochlitz. In The Mozart's Myths, Stafford writes: "Sometimes Nissen corrects the chunks he borrows, and occasionally he tells the reader that he has done this . . . unfortunately, he does not always correct and revise in this way. Assembling his narrative with scissors and paste, he allows contradictions to creep in. " Nissen, knowing that it was untrue, wrote that the unfinished Requiem was taken by the messenger immediately after Mozart's death.

6. Vincent and Mary Novello's diary of their interviews during 1829 with Nannerl, Constanze, and Mozart's sister in law, was discovered and published in 1955. They were collecting this information in hopes of publishing a book, which never happened. Since almost forty years had gone by since Mozart's death, then these accounts might have been based more on already published biographies than on the participants' own memories.

Constanze Mozart and the Requiem after Mozart's death

The confusion surrounding the circumstances of the Requiem's composition was created in a large part by Mozart's wife, Constanze. Constanze had a difficult task in front of her. She had to keep secret the fact that the Requiem was unfinished at Mozart's death, so she could collect the final payment from the commission. For a period of time, she also needed to keep secret the fact that Mozart had anything to do with the composition of the Requiem at all in order to allow Count Walsegg the impression that he wrote the work. Once she received the commission, she needed to carefully promote the work as Mozart's so she could continue to receive revenue from the work's publication and performance. During this phase of the Requiem's history, it was still important that the public accepted that Mozart wrote the whole piece, as it would fetch larger sums from publishers and the public if it were completely by Mozart.

It is Constanze's efforts that created the flurry of half-truths and myths almost instantly after Mozart's death. Source materials written soon after Mozart’s death contain serious discrepancies which leave a level of subjectivity when assembling the "facts" about Mozart’s composition of the Requiem. For example, at least three of conflicting sources, both dated within two decades following Mozart’s death, cite Constanze Mozart (Mozart’s wife) as their primary source of interview information. Constanze Mozart (born Constanze Weber) ( 5 January 1762 in Zell im Wiesental, Germany &ndash 6 March 1842 In 1798, Friedrich Rochlitz, the German biographical author and amateur composer, published a set of Mozart anecdotes which he claimed to have collected during his meeting with Constanze in 1796. [3] The Rochlitz publication makes the following statements:

The most highly disputed of these claims is the last one, the chronology of this setting. According to Rochlitz, the messenger arrives quite some time before the departure of Leopold for the coronation, yet we have record of his departure occurring in mid-July 1791. However, Constanze was in Baden during all of June to mid-July, she would not have been present for the commission or the drive they were said to have taken together. Baden is a Spa town and medieval city in Lower Austria, Austria, 26 kilometres south of Vienna, with a population of 25207 (2005 [3] Furthermore, The Magic Flute (except for the Overture and March of the Priests) was completed by mid-July. The Magic Flute (German Die Zauberflöte, K 620 is an Opera in two acts composed in 1791 by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart La Clemenza Di Tito was commissioned by mid-July. La clemenza di Tito (The Clemency of Titus K 621 is an Opera seria composed by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, with text after Metastasio [3] There was no time for Mozart to work on the Requiem on the large scale indicated by the Rochlitz publication in the time frame provided.

Also in 1798, Constanze is noted to have given another interview to Franz Xaver Niemetschek[4], another biographer looking to publish a compendium of Mozart's life. He published his biography in 1808, containing the following claims about Mozart’s receipt of the Requiem commission:

This account, too, has fallen under scrutiny and criticism for its accuracy. According to letters, Constanze most certainly knew the name of the commissioner by the time this interview was released in 1800. [4] Additionally, the Requiem was not given to the messenger until some time after Mozart’s death. [3] This interview contains the only account of the claim that Constanze took the Requiem away from Wolfgang for a significant duration during his composition of it from Constanze herself[3]. Otherwise, the timeline provided in this account is historically probable. However, the most highly accepted text attributed to Constanze is the interview to her second husband, Georg Nikolaus von Nissen. Georg Nikolaus von Nissen, (sometimes Nicolaus or Nicolai January 22 1761 in Haderslev, Denmark – March 24 1826 in Salzburg) was a Danish [3] After Nissen’s death in 1826, Constanze released the biography of Wolfgang (1828) that Nissen had compiled, which included this interview. Nissen states:

The Nissen publication lacks information following Mozart’s return from Prague. [3]

From the various accounts of Constanze’s words, historians try to assemble the details of Mozart’s “Requiem” commission and completion.

The autograph at the 1958 World's Fair

The autograph of the Requiem was placed on display at the World's Fair in 1958 in Brussels. Expo 58, also known as the Brussels World’s Fair, Brusselse Wereldtentoonstelling or Exposition Universelle et Internationale de Bruxelles, was held from Brussels (Bruxelles pronounced; Brussel pronounced) officially the Brussels Capital-Region, is At some point during the fair, someone was able to gain access to the manuscript, tearing off the bottom right-hand corner of the second to last page (folio 99r/45r), containing the words "Quam olim d: C:" (an instruction that the "Quam olim" fugue of the Domine Jesu was to be repeated "da capo", at the end of the Hostias). To this day the perpetrator has not been identified and the fragment has not been recovered. [5]

If the most common authorship theory is true, then "Quam olim d: C:" might very well be the last words Mozart wrote before he died. It is probable that whoever stole the fragment believed that to be the case.

Discography

Selected recordings, alphabetically by conductor:

References

  1. ^ This is not verifiable by the sources of the Neukloster in Wiener Neustadt!
  2. ^ Machlis, Joseph and Forney, Kristine. "Mozart and Chamber Music. " The Enjoyment of Music: An Introduction to Perceptive Listening. 9th Ed. W. W. Norton & Company: 2003
  3. ^ a b c d e f g Landon, H. C. Robbins (1988). 1791: Mozart's Last Year. New York: Schirmer Books.  
  4. ^ a b Steve Boerner (December 16, 2000). Events 755 - An Lushan revolts against Chancellor Yang Guozhong at Fanyang, initiating the An Shi Rebellion 2000 ( MM) was a Leap year that started on Saturday of the Common Era, in accordance with the Gregorian calendar. K. 626: Requiem in D Minor. The Mozart Project.
  5. ^ Facsimile of the manuscript's last page, showing the missing corner

Bibliography

External links

Video Performances of Mozart's Requiem

Audio Performances of Mozart's Requiem

Scores of Mozart's Requiem

Other links

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