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Requiem (Mozart)



 
 
The Requiem Mass in D minor (K.
Köchel-Verzeichnis

The K?chel-Verzeichnis is a complete, chronological catalogue of compositions by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart which was originally created by Ludwig Ritter von K?chel....
 626) by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Mozart showed prodigious ability from his earliest childhood in Salzburg. Already competent on keyboard and violin, he composed from the age of five and performed before European royalty; at seventeen he was engaged as a court musician in Salzburg, but grew restless and traveled in search of a better position, always...
 was composed in 1791. The requiem was Mozart's last composition, and is one of his most popular and most respected works. There has been a debate over how much of the music Mozart managed to complete before his death, and how much was later composed by Franz Xaver Süssmayr, or possibly others.

Requiem
Requiem

The Requiem or Requiem Mass , also known formally in Latin as the Missa pro defunctis or Missa defunctorum , is a liturgy of the Roman Catholic Church, Anglo-Catholic Anglicans, and certain Lutheran Church Churches in the United States....
 is divided into fourteen movements, with the following structure:

Instrumentation
The Requiem is scored for 2 basset horns in F, 2 bassoon
Bassoon

The bassoon is a woodwind instrument in the double reed family that typically plays music written in the Bass and tenor registers, and occasionally higher....
s, 2 trumpet
Trumpet

The trumpet is a musical instrument with the highest Register in the brass instrument family. Trumpets are among the oldest musical instruments, dating back to at least 1500 BC....
s in D, 3 trombone
Trombone

The trombone is a musical instrument in the brass instrument family. Like all brass instruments, it is a lip-reed aerophone: sound is produced when the player?s vibrating lips cause the air column inside the instrument to vibrate....
s (alto, tenor & bass), timpani
Timpani

Timpani are musical instruments in the percussion instrument family. A type of drum, they consist of a skin called a drumhead stretched over a large bowl traditionally made of copper, and more recently, constructed of more lightweight fiberglass....
 (2 drums), violin
Violin

The violin is a Bow string instrument with four strings usually tuned in perfect fifths. It is the smallest and highest-pitched member of the violin family of string instruments, which also includes the viola and cello....
s, viola
Viola

The viola is a bowed string instrument. It is the middle voice of the violin family, between the violin and the cello.The casual observer may mistake the viola for the violin because of their similarity in size, closeness in pitch range , and nearly identical playing position....
 and basso continuo (cello
Cello

The violoncello is a bowed string instrument. A person who plays a cello is called a cellist. The cello is used as a solo instrument, in chamber music, and as a member of the string section of an orchestra....
, double bass
Double bass

The double bass or contrabass is the largest and lowest-pitched Bow string instrument used in the modern orchestra. It is a standard member of the string section of the orchestra and smaller string musical ensembles in European classical music....
, and organ
Pipe organ

The pipe organ is a keyboard musical instrument that produces sound by venting mechanically compressed air through resonant Organ pipe. Each pipe produces sound at one fixed pitch, so they are provided in sets or "ranks" with one pipe or more per note, each rank having a common timbre and loudness throughout....
 or harpsichord
Harpsichord

A harpsichord is a musical instrument played by means of a musical keyboard. It produces sound by plucking a string when each Key is pressed....
).






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Encyclopedia


The Requiem Mass in D minor (K.
Köchel-Verzeichnis

The K?chel-Verzeichnis is a complete, chronological catalogue of compositions by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart which was originally created by Ludwig Ritter von K?chel....
 626) by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Mozart showed prodigious ability from his earliest childhood in Salzburg. Already competent on keyboard and violin, he composed from the age of five and performed before European royalty; at seventeen he was engaged as a court musician in Salzburg, but grew restless and traveled in search of a better position, always...
 was composed in 1791. The requiem was Mozart's last composition, and is one of his most popular and most respected works. There has been a debate over how much of the music Mozart managed to complete before his death, and how much was later composed by Franz Xaver Süssmayr, or possibly others.

Structure

The Requiem
Requiem

The Requiem or Requiem Mass , also known formally in Latin as the Missa pro defunctis or Missa defunctorum , is a liturgy of the Roman Catholic Church, Anglo-Catholic Anglicans, and certain Lutheran Church Churches in the United States....
 is divided into fourteen movements, with the following structure:
  • I. Introitus: Requiem aeternam (Choir and Soprano solo)
  • II. Kyrie eleison (Choir)
  • III. Sequentia:
    • Dies irae (Choir)
    • Tuba mirum (Soprano, Alto, Tenor and Bass Solo)
    • Rex tremendae majestatis (Choir)
    • Recordare, Jesu pie (Soprano, Alto, Tenor and Bass Solo)
    • Confutatis maledictis (Choir)
    • Lacrimosa dies illa (Choir)
  • IV. Offertorium:
    • Domine Jesu Christe (Choir with Solo Quartet)
    • Versus: Hostias et preces (Choir)
  • V. Sanctus:
    • Sanctus Dominus Deus Sabaoth (Choir)
    • Benedictus (Solo Quartet then Choir)
  • VI. Agnus Dei (Choir)
  • VII. Communio:
    • Lux aeterna (Soprano solo and Choir)


Instrumentation


The Requiem is scored for 2 basset horns in F, 2 bassoon
Bassoon

The bassoon is a woodwind instrument in the double reed family that typically plays music written in the Bass and tenor registers, and occasionally higher....
s, 2 trumpet
Trumpet

The trumpet is a musical instrument with the highest Register in the brass instrument family. Trumpets are among the oldest musical instruments, dating back to at least 1500 BC....
s in D, 3 trombone
Trombone

The trombone is a musical instrument in the brass instrument family. Like all brass instruments, it is a lip-reed aerophone: sound is produced when the player?s vibrating lips cause the air column inside the instrument to vibrate....
s (alto, tenor & bass), timpani
Timpani

Timpani are musical instruments in the percussion instrument family. A type of drum, they consist of a skin called a drumhead stretched over a large bowl traditionally made of copper, and more recently, constructed of more lightweight fiberglass....
 (2 drums), violin
Violin

The violin is a Bow string instrument with four strings usually tuned in perfect fifths. It is the smallest and highest-pitched member of the violin family of string instruments, which also includes the viola and cello....
s, viola
Viola

The viola is a bowed string instrument. It is the middle voice of the violin family, between the violin and the cello.The casual observer may mistake the viola for the violin because of their similarity in size, closeness in pitch range , and nearly identical playing position....
 and basso continuo (cello
Cello

The violoncello is a bowed string instrument. A person who plays a cello is called a cellist. The cello is used as a solo instrument, in chamber music, and as a member of the string section of an orchestra....
, double bass
Double bass

The double bass or contrabass is the largest and lowest-pitched Bow string instrument used in the modern orchestra. It is a standard member of the string section of the orchestra and smaller string musical ensembles in European classical music....
, and organ
Pipe organ

The pipe organ is a keyboard musical instrument that produces sound by venting mechanically compressed air through resonant Organ pipe. Each pipe produces sound at one fixed pitch, so they are provided in sets or "ranks" with one pipe or more per note, each rank having a common timbre and loudness throughout....
 or harpsichord
Harpsichord

A harpsichord is a musical instrument played by means of a musical keyboard. It produces sound by plucking a string when each Key is pressed....
). The vocal forces include soprano
Soprano

A soprano is a voice type with a vocal range from approximately to "high A" in choral music, or to "soprano C" or higher in operatic music. In four part chorale style harmony the soprano takes the highest part which usually encompasses the melody....
, alto
Alto

Alto is a musical term, derived from the Latin word altus, meaning "high", that has several possible interpretations.When designating instruments, "alto" frequently refers to a member of an instrumental family that has the second highest range, below that of the treble or soprano....
, tenor
Tenor

The tenor is a type of male voice type and is the highest male voice within the modal register. The typical tenor voice lies between the C one octave below middle C to the A above in choral music, and up to high C in solo work....
, and bass soloists and an SATB
SATB

In music, SATB or SCTB is a frequent Acronym and initialism for soprano, contralto, tenor, Bass , referring to a common scoring for choruses and choirs....
 mixed choir
Choir

A choir, chorale, or chorus is a musical ensemble of singers. Choral Music, in turn, is the music written specifically for a choir to perform....
.

Composition and completion


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. The following Kyrie (a double fugue
Fugue

In music, a fugue is a type of counterpoint composition or technique of composition for a fixed number of melody, normally referred to as "voices"....
), and most of the Sequence (from Dies Irae
Dies Irae

Dies Irae is a famous thirteenth century Latin hymn thought to be written by Tommaso da Celano. It is a medieval Latin poem, differing from classical Latin by its accentual stress and its rhymed lines....
 to Confutatis), is complete only in the vocal parts and the continuo (the figured
Figured bass

Figured bass, or thoroughbass, is a kind of integer musical notation used to indicate interval , chord s, and nonchord tones, in relation to a bass note....
 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. 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. 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
The Magic Flute

The Magic Flute is an opera in two acts composed in 1791 by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart to a libretto by Emanuel Schikaneder. The work is in the form of a Singspiel, a popular form that included both singing and spoken dialogue....
), and thus surely dates from late 1791. 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. 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
Constanze Mozart

Constanze Mozart was the wife of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart....
 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. 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. 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. 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
Kyrie

K?rie is from the Greek language word ????e , the vocative case of ?????? , meaning O Lord. It is the common name of an important prayer of Christian liturgy, also called K?rie, el?ison which is Greek language for Lord, have mercy....
 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. 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
Sonata form

Sonata form is a musical form that has been used widely since the early Classical music era. While it is typically used in the first Movement of multimovement pieces, it is sometimes employed in subsequent movements as well....
, which may help to authenticate the idea for the repetition of the first movement as the final movement. 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
Maximilian Stadler

Maximilian Johann Karl Dominik Stadler, later Abbot Stadler was an Austrian composer, musicologist and pianist.In 1766 he entered the Benedictine Monastery in Melk Abbey where he served as Benedictine monk, and then Prior from 1784 to 1786....
 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 Constanze 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
Joseph Haydn

Joseph Haydn was an Austrians composer. He was one of the most prominent composers of the classical music era, and is called by some the "Father of the Symphony" and "Father of the String Quartet"....
, 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.

History of the Requiem (timeline)


  • February 14 1791: Anna, Count von Walsegg's wife, passed away at the age of 20.
  • mid-July: A messenger (probably Franz Anton Leitgeb, the Count's steward) arrived with note asking Mozart to write a Requiem Mass.
  • mid-July: Commission from Domenico Guardasoni, Impresario of the Prague National Theater to compose the opera, La clemenza di Tito, for the festivities surrounding the coronation on September 6 of Leopold II as King of Bohemia.
  • August: Mozart works mainly on La clemenza di Tito; completed by September 5.
  • August 25: Mozart leaves for Prague.
  • September 6: Mozart conducts premiere of La clemenza di Tito.
  • mid-September - September 28: Revision and completion of The Magic Flute.
  • September 30: Premiere of The Magic Flute.
  • October 7: Completed concerto in A for clarinet.
  • October 8 - Nov. 20: Mozart worked on the Requiem and a Cantata.
  • November 20: Confined to the bed due to his illness.
  • December 5: Mozart died shortly after midnight of acute rheumatic fever.
  • December 7: Burial in St. Marx Cemetery.
  • December 10: Requiem performed in St. Michael for a memorial for Mozart by the staff of the Theater auf der Wieden.
  • early-March 1792: probably the time Süssmayr finished the Requiem.
  • January 2, 1793: Performance of Requiem for Constanze's benefit arranged by Gottfried van Swieten.
  • early December 1793: Requiem delivered to the Count.
  • December 14 1793: Requiem performed in the memory of the Count's wife in the church at Wiener-Neustadt.
  • February 14, 1794: Requiem performed again in Patronat Church at Maria-Schutz on Semmering
  • 1799: Breitkopf & Hartel published the Requiem.
  • 1809: Requiem was performed at Haydn's funeral on June 15 at Vienna
  • 1825: Debates started over authorship of Requiem.
  • 1833: Eybler suffered stroke while conducting a performance of Mozart's Requiem. He died in 1846.
  • October 30, 1849: Requiem was performed at Frédéric Chopin's funeral.


Modern completions

Since the 1970s several musicologists, dissatisfied with the traditional "Süssmayr" completion, have attempted alternative completions of the Requiem. These include Franz Beyer
Franz Beyer

Franz Beyer is a Germany musicologist who is best known for his revising and restoration of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's music, in particular his unfinished work Requiem , which he restored in the early 1970s....
, Duncan Druce, C. Richard F. Maunder, H.C. Robbins Landon, Robert D. Levin
Robert D. Levin

Robert D. Levin is an acclaimed classical performer, composer, and musicology and the Artistic Director of the Sarasota Music Festival....
 and Simon Andrews
Simon Andrews

Simon Andrews is a British composer, and Head of Theoretical Studies, Composition, and Director of The Academy Chorale.He was born in Croydon, England....
. 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. 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). Andrews' and Levin's versions retain 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 and Andrews versions, the Sanctus fugue is completely rewritten and reproportioned 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: the Andrews version uses the Süssmayr ending. 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 Count Walsegg in July 1791 who wanted to pass off the work as his own, 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
Antonio Salieri

Antonio Salieri , was a Republic of Venice composer and Conducting. As the Austrian imperial Kapellmeister from 1788 to 1824, he was one of the most important and famous musicians of his time....
 played in the commissioning and completion of the Requiem and in Mozart's death generally. While the most recent retelling of this myth is Peter Shaffer
Peter Shaffer

Sir Peter Levin Shaffer is an England dramatist, author of numerous award-winning plays, several of which have been filmed....
's play Amadeus
Amadeus

Amadeus is a stage play playwright in 1979 by Peter Shaffer, loosely based on the lives of the composers Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Antonio Salieri....
 and the movie
Amadeus (film)

Amadeus is a 1984 in film drama film directed by Milo? Forman and written by Peter Shaffer. Based on Shaffer's stage play Amadeus, the film is based loosely on the lives of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Antonio Salieri, two composers who lived in Vienna, Austria, during the later half of the 18th century....
 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
Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov

Nikolai Andreyevich Rimsky-Korsakov , also Nikolay, Nicolai, and Rimsky-Korsakoff, was a Russian composer, and a member of the group of composers known as "The Five." Noted particularly for a predilection for folk and fairy-tale subjects as well as his extraordinary skill in orchestration, his best known orchestral compositions...
 and subsequently used as the framework for Amadeus , .

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:

  • Myth: Antonio Salieri commissioned the Requiem from Mozart so it could be played at Mozart's own funeral after Salieri poisoned the composer.
    • Reality: The Requiem was actually commissioned by Franz von Walsegg so he could pass it off as his own to memorialize the death of his wife. Count von Walsegg, an amateur musician, often commissioned works by composers and performed them with friends in musicales as his own. The count took the extra step of using a messenger to take extra precautions to maintain confidentiality, given that this event was much more public than the private musicales that he was accustomed to using for representing "his" works.
  • Myth: Antonio Salieri
    Antonio Salieri

    Antonio Salieri , was a Republic of Venice composer and Conducting. As the Austrian imperial Kapellmeister from 1788 to 1824, he was one of the most important and famous musicians of his time....
     helped to complete the Requiem on the deathbed of Mozart.
    • Reality: At Mozart's death, Constanze took on the responsibility of the Requiem, engaging a series of composers to attempt the completion, the last of which was Süssmayr. There is nothing to suggest that Salieri had anything to do with any part of the Requiem. This myth was incorporated into Pushkin's play, and in turn, the film version of "Amadeus".
  • Myth: Mozart actively worked on the Requiem up to the moment he died.
    • Reality: In the last days of his life he had become too sick (his hands were swollen) to work on it any more. He did have the Requiem (as far as it went) sung to him on one of his last days (reportedly the Lacrimosa moved him to tears), and there is a report of him trying to voice drum parts at the very end of his life, but the notion of Mozart working through the night just before he died is not accurate.
  • Myth: It was played at Mozart's funeral.
    • Reality: Mozart died in the early hours of December 5 1791, had a small funeral and was buried in an unmarked grave. A memorial service on December 10 1791 was organized by Mozart's friend and librettist, Emanuel Schikaneder
      Emanuel Schikaneder

      Emanuel Schikaneder , born Johann Joseph Schikaneder, was a German impresario, dramatist, actor, and singer. He was the librettist of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's opera The Magic Flute and the builder of the Theater an der Wien....
      , at which one of the completed movements (the Introitus) might have been performed; it is unknown what music, if any, was played.
  • Myth: Everything after the Lacrimosa was composed by Süssmayr.
    • Reality: Although the Lacrimosa breaks off incomplete after 8 bars, as noted above, the vocal and continuo of the Domine Jesu and the vocal parts of the Hostias are in Mozart's hand. The complexity of the Domine Jesu, with its frequent use of counterpoint
      Counterpoint

      In music, counterpoint is the relationship between two or more Register that are independent in contour and rhythm, and interdependent in harmony....
       and three fugues, would be very unlikely as the work of Süssmayr, given the nature of the Hosanna fugue which he did compose.
  • Myth: Mozart gave Süssmayr detailed instructions on how to complete the Requiem.
    • Reality: This myth was started by Constanze when the fact that Mozart left the Requiem unfinished at his death became public knowledge. To maximize the value of the Requiem, and improve Constanze's security, the public had to believe that Mozart somehow guided the entire work. Exactly what Mozart might have told Süssmayr about the Requiem is not clear. Both Constanze and Süssmayr created the myth of Mozart leaving "scraps of paper" with "detailed instructions", but it was ultimately discovered that it was untrue. She and Süssmayr stated that they were on other "scraps of paper", but it was discovered that the remainder of the Requiem was sketched out on blank manuscript.
  • Myth: Süssmayr was Mozart's pupil.
    • Reality: As with the "scraps of paper", Constanze promoted Süssmayr as a pupil of Mozart to maximize the perceived value of the Requiem after it became known that Mozart left the Requiem unfinished at his death. Süssmayr was more of a colleague and friend to the Mozarts and even accompanied Constanze on her spa trips in 1791. Süssmayr did not study with Mozart. There is discussion in some of the sources cited in this article of the possibility that Süssmayr was actually having an affair with Constanze, and that Constanze's initial reluctance to engage Süssmayr to complete the Requiem upon Wolfgang's death was due to a "lover's quarrel".
  • Myth: The movie "Amadeus" created all of the confusion surrounding the history of the Requiem
    • Reality: The confusion between myth and reality regarding the events surrounding the commission, composition, completion and release of the Requiem stem from much earlier than the theater and movie production of Amadeus. First of all, Amadeus in both its movie and play forms, was based on Alexander Pushkin's play The Little Tragedy of Mozart and Salieri, which contained many of the falsehoods that were ultimately passed on in Amadeus.


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 the conflicting sources, both dated within two decades following Mozart’s death, cite Constanze Mozart
Constanze Mozart

Constanze Mozart was the wife of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart....
 (Mozart’s wife) as their primary source of interview information. 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. The Rochlitz publication makes the following statements:

  • Mozart was unaware of his commissioner’s identity at the time he accepted the project.


  • He was not bound to any date of completion of the work


  • He stated that it would take him around four weeks to complete.


  • He requested, and received, 100 ducats at the time of the first commissioning message.


  • He began the project immediately after receiving the commission.


  • His health was poor from the outset; he fainted multiple times while working


  • He took a break from writing the work to visit the Prater
    Prater

    The Wiener Prater is a large public park in Vienna's 2nd district Leopoldstadt. The name Prater derives ultimately from the Latin word pratum meaning meadow, possibly via Spanish language prado....
     with his wife.


  • He shared with his wife that for certain he was writing this piece for his own funeral.


  • He spoke of "very strange thoughts" regarding the unpredicted appearance and commission of this unknown man.


  • He noted that the departure of Leopold to Prague for the coronation was approaching.


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
Baden bei Wien

Baden is a spa town in the Austrian state of Lower Austria and the capital of the Baden . Located about 26 kilometres south of Vienna, frequently the name is given as Baden bei Wien ; this name, however, is not official, but can be used to distinguish it from other cities of the same name such as Baden-Baden or Baden, Switzerland....
 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. Furthermore, The Magic Flute
The Magic Flute

The Magic Flute is an opera in two acts composed in 1791 by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart to a libretto by Emanuel Schikaneder. The work is in the form of a Singspiel, a popular form that included both singing and spoken dialogue....
 (except for the Overture and March of the Priests) was completed by mid-July. La Clemenza Di Tito
La clemenza di Tito

La clemenza di Tito , K?chel-Verzeichnis 621, is an opera seria composed by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, with text after Metastasio. It was started after the bulk of The Magic Flute, the last opera that Mozart worked on, was already written ....
 was commissioned by mid-July. 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, 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:

  • Mozart received the commission very shortly before the Coronation of Emperor Leopold II, and before he received the commission to go to Prague.


  • He did not accept the messenger’s request immediately; he wrote the commissioner and agreed to the project stating his fee, but urging that he could not predict the time required to complete the work.


  • The same messenger appeared later, paying Mozart the sum requested plus a note promising a bonus at the work’s completion.


  • He started composing the work upon his return from Prague.


  • He fell ill while writing the work


  • He told Constanze "I am only too conscious," he continued, "my end will not be long in coming: for sure, someone has poisoned me! I cannot rid my mind of this thought."


  • Constanze thought that the Requiem was overstraining him; she called the doctor and took away the score.


  • On the day of his death he had the score brought to his bed.


  • The messenger took the unfinished Requiem soon after Mozart’s death.


  • Constanze never learned the commissioner’s name.


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. Additionally, the Requiem was not given to the messenger until some time after Mozart’s death. 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. 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

Georg Nikolaus von Nissen, was a Denmark diplomat and musicology. He is remembered as the author of one of the first biographies of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, still used today as a scholarly source on the life of this composer....
. After Nissen’s death in 1826, Constanze released the biography of Wolfgang (1828) that Nissen had compiled, which included this interview. Nissen states:

  • Mozart received the commission shortly before the coronation of Emperor Leopold and before he received the commission to go to Prague.


  • He did not accept the messenger’s request immediately; he wrote the commissioner and agreed to the project stating his fee, but urging that he could not predict the time required to complete the work.


  • The same messenger appeared later, paying Mozart the sum requested plus a note promising a bonus at the work’s completion.


  • He started composing the work upon his return from Prague.


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

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
Expo '58

Expo 58, also known as the Brussels World?s Fair, Brusselse Wereldtentoonstelling or Exposition Universelle et Internationale de Bruxelles, was held from 17 April to 19 October 1958....
 in Brussels
Brussels

Brussels , officially the Brussels Capital-Region, is the de facto capital city of the European Union and the largest urban area in Belgium....
. 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.

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:

  • Claudio Abbado
    Claudio Abbado

    Claudio Abbado, Italian orders of merit , is an Italy Conducting. He has held many of the most prestigious positions in the world of classical music, having served as music director of the La Scala opera house in Milan, principal conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra, principal guest conductor of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, music di...
     conducting the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra. Recorded live in 1999 and released in 1999 by Deutsche Grammophon.
  • Daniel Barenboim
    Daniel Barenboim

    Daniel Barenboim is a renowned piano and conducting. He lives in Berlin and holds citizenship in Argentina, Israel, Spain, and the Palestinian Authority....
     conducting the Paris Symphony Orchestra and Paris Symphony Chorus. Released in 1990 by EMI Classics. Soloists are Kathleen Battle (Soprano), Ann Murray (Mezzo Soprano), David Rendall (Tenor), Matti Salminen (Bass).
  • Frieder Bernius conducting the Stuttgart Baroque Ensemble. Recorded in 2000 and released in 2002 by Carus-verlag.
  • Leonard Bernstein
    Leonard Bernstein

    Leonard Bernstein was a multi-Emmy-winning and Academy Award for Original Music Score nominated American Conductor , composer, author, music lecturer and Piano....
     conducting the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra. Recorded in 1986 and released in 1989 by Deutsche Grammophon.
  • Karl Böhm
    Karl Böhm

    Karl August Leopold B?hm was an Austrian Conducting....
     conducting the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra. Recorded in 1971 and released in 1975 by Deutsche Grammophon. Soloists are: Edith Mathis (soprano), Julia Hamari (Alt), Wieslaw Ochman (tenor), Karl Ridderbusch (Bass). Organist is Hans Haselböck.
  • Sergiu Celibidache
    Sergiu Celibidache

    Sergiu Celibidache was a Romanian conductor....
     conducting the Munich Philharmonic Orchestra. Recorded live in 1995 and released in 2004 by EMI Classics
  • John Eliot Gardiner
    John Eliot Gardiner

    Sir John Eliot Gardiner CBE Fellowship of King's College London is an England conducting. He founded the Monteverdi Choir , the English Baroque Soloists and the Orchestre R?volutionnaire et Romantique ....
     conducting the English Baroque Soloists. Released in 1990 by Philips.
  • Gregory Glenn conducting the boys and girls choir of The Madeleine Choir school with symphony in The Cathedral of the Madeleine.
  • Carlo Maria Giulini
    Carlo Maria Giulini

    Carlo Maria Giulini was an Italy conducting, and viola....
     conducting the Philharmonia Orchestra and Chorus(London). Released in 1979 by Angel.
  • Nikolaus Harnoncourt
    Nikolaus Harnoncourt

    Nikolaus Harnoncourt is an Austrian Conducting, particularly known for his historically informed performances of music from the classical music era era and earlier....
     conducting the Vienna Concentus Musicus. Recorded in 2003 and released in 2004 by Deutsche Harmonia Mundi.
  • Philippe Herreweghe
    Philippe Herreweghe

    Philippe Herreweghe is a Belgium Conducting.In his school years at the University of Ghent, Herreweghe combined studies in medical science and psychiatry with a musical education at the Ghent Conservatory, where Marcel Gazelle, Yehudi Menuhin's accompanist, was his piano teacher....
     conducting the Orchestre des Champs Elysees. Recorded live in 1994 and released in 1997 by Harmonia Mundi.
  • Christopher Hogwood
    Christopher Hogwood

    Christopher Jarvis Haley Hogwood CBE, MA , HonMusD is an England conducting, harpsichordist, writer and scholar of music.Hogwood studied music and classical literature at Pembroke College, Cambridge, University of Cambridge....
     conducting the Academy of Ancient Music Chorus & Orchestra, and Westminster Cathedral Boys Choir. Recorded in 1983 and released in 1984 by Editions de L'Oiseau-Lyre. Performance of the Maunder completion.
  • Herbert von Karajan
    Herbert von Karajan

    Herbert von Karajan was an Austrian orchestra and opera conducting, one of the most renowned 20th-century conductors. His obituary in The New York Times described him as "probably the world's best-known conductor and one of the most powerful figures in classical music." Karajan conducted the Berlin Philharmonic for thirty-five years....
     conducting the Berliner Philharmoniker. Recorded in 1975 on September 27 and 28 and released on Deutsche Grammophon.
  • Herbert von Karajan
    Herbert von Karajan

    Herbert von Karajan was an Austrian orchestra and opera conducting, one of the most renowned 20th-century conductors. His obituary in The New York Times described him as "probably the world's best-known conductor and one of the most powerful figures in classical music." Karajan conducted the Berlin Philharmonic for thirty-five years....
     conducting the Wiener Philharmoniker. Recorded in 1986 and released on Deutsche Grammophon. Soloists are Anna Tomowa-Sintow
    Anna Tomowa-Sintow

    Anna Tomowa-Sintow is a Bulgarian soprano who has sung to great acclaim in all the major opera houses around the world in a repertoire that includes Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Gioacchino Rossini, Giuseppe Verdi, Giacomo Puccini, Richard Wagner, and Richard Strauss....
     (Soprano), Helga Müller Molinari (Alt/contralto), Vinson Cole
    Vinson Cole

    Vinson Cole, , is an American operatic tenor.A native of Kansas City, the tenor studied at the University of Missouri, Kansas City; the Academy of Music ; and the Curtis Institute of Music....
     (Tenor), Paata Burchuladze
    Paata Burchuladze

    Paata Burchuladze is a Georgia Bass opera singer.Born in Tbilisi, Georgian SSR, he graduated from the Tbilisi State Conservatory and began his operatic career at Tbilisi and Moscow, with subsequent appearances at Covent Garden , Salzburg Festival under Herbert von Karajan , Metropolitan Opera in New York City, Verona , Hamburg , etc....
     (Bass).
  • Ton Koopman
    Ton Koopman

    Ton Koopman is a Conducting, organist and harpsichordist.Koopman had a "classical education" and then studied the pipe organ , harpsichord and musicology in Amsterdam....
     conducting the Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra. Recorded live in 1989 and released in 1990 by Erato-Disques.
  • Zdenek Kosler conducting the Slovak Philharmonic Orchestra. Recorded in 1985 and released in 1986 by OPUS.
  • Sir Neville Marriner
    Neville Marriner

    Sir Neville Marriner is an English conducting and violinist.Marriner was born in Lincoln, England and studied at the Royal College of Music and the Paris Conservatoire....
     conducting the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields. Recorded in 1990 and released in 1991 by Philips.
  • Riccardo Muti
    Riccardo Muti

    Riccardo Muti, Italian orders of merit is an Italian conducting. He is the Music Director Designate of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and will officially start his contract in 2010....
     conducting the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra. Recorded in 1987 and released in 1987 by EMI Classics. Awarded a "Timbre de Platine".
  • Roger Norrington
    Roger Norrington

    Sir Roger Arthur Carver Norrington, Order of the British Empire is a British conducting. He is the son of Arthur Lionel Pugh Norrington and the brother of Humphrey Thomas Norrington....
      conducting The London Classical Players & The Schutz Choir of London. Recorded in 1992 by Emi Records for Virgin Classics Limited. Performance of the Druce completion.
  • Martin Pearlman conducting the Boston Baroque
    Boston Baroque

    Boston Baroque, the oldest continuing period instrument orchestra in North America, was founded in 1973 by the American harpsichordist and conductor, Martin Pearlman, to present concerts of the Baroque music and Classical period repertoire on period instruments, drawing on the insights of the historical performance movement....
    . Recorded in 1995 and released on Telarc Records. This was the first period instrument recording of the Robert D. Levin
    Robert D. Levin

    Robert D. Levin is an acclaimed classical performer, composer, and musicology and the Artistic Director of the Sarasota Music Festival....
     completion.
  • Helmuth Rilling
    Helmuth Rilling

    Helmuth Rilling is a German conductor.He was born in Stuttgart into a musical family. He received his early training in Protestant seminaries in W?rttemberg....
     conducting the Bach-Collegium Stuttgart. Released in 1979/1987 by CBS Schallplatten GmbH/CBS Records. Rilling later re-recorded the Requiem with the completion by Robert D. Levin
    Robert D. Levin

    Robert D. Levin is an acclaimed classical performer, composer, and musicology and the Artistic Director of the Sarasota Music Festival....
     in 1991 for Hanssler Classic.
  • Jordi Savall
    Jordi Savall

    Jordi Savall i Bernadet is a Spain-Catalonia viol player, Conducting, and composer. He has been one of the major figures in the field of early music since the 1970s, largely responsible for bringing the viol back to life on the stage....
     conducting Le Concert des Nations and La Capella Reial de Catalunya; Montserrat Figueras, Claudia Schubert, Gerd Türk, and Stephan Schreckenberger, soloists. Released in 1992/1998 & 2000 by Astrée/Auvidis Fontalis/Naïve.
  • Peter Schreier
    Peter Schreier

    File:Bundesarchiv Bild 183-R0423-0017, Berlin,Generalprobe Er?ffnung Palast der Republik.jpgPeter Schreier is a German tenor and conducting....
     conducting the Dresden State Orchestra. Recorded in 1987 and released in 1990 by Philips.
  • Mikhail "Misha" Shtangrud conducted the Burbank Chorale and a twenty-two piece orchestra on a 2006 recording released by the Burbank Chorale. (LISTEN)


  • Robert Shaw
    Robert Shaw (conductor)

    Robert Shaw was an American conducting most famous for his work with his namesake Choir, with the Cleveland Orchestra and Chorus, and the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and Chorus....
     conducting the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra. Recorded in 1986 and released in 1990 by Telarc.
  • Sir Georg Solti
    Georg Solti

    Sir Georg Solti, Order of the British Empire was a Hungary-United Kingdom orchestral and operatic Conducting....
     conducting the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra. Recorded in 1991 and released in 1992 by Decca.
  • Yuri Temirkanov
    Yuri Temirkanov

    Yuri Khatuevich Temirkanov is a Russian conducting of Circassian origin.Yuri Temirkanov has been the Music Director and Chief Conductor of the Saint Petersburg Philharmonic since 1988....
     conducting the Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra & Stat Academic Russian Chorus. Recorded in 1983 and released in 1995 by Melodiya
    Melodiya

    Melodiya is a Russian record label. It was the state-owned major Record industry of the Soviet Union....
     - The Russian Label. Soloists are Nadezhda Krasnaya (Soprano), Evgenia Gorokhovskaya (Mezzo Soprano), Yuri Marusin (Tenor), Sergei Leiferkus (Bariton).
  • Christian Thielemann
    Christian Thielemann

    Christian Thielemann is a Germany Conducting. He is currently principal conductor of the Munich Philharmonic....
     conducting the Munich Philharmonic Orchestra. Recorded and released in 2006 by Deutsche Grammophon.
  • Jos van Veldhoven
    Jos van Veldhoven

    Jos van Veldhoven is a Dutch choral conductor. Although he is a regular guest artist with international orchestras, he is most known as the artistic director of ....
     conducting The Netherlands Bach Society. Recorded live in 2001 and released in 2002 by Channel Classics.
  • Bruno Walter
    Bruno Walter

    Bruno Walter was a Germany-born Conducting and composer. He was born in Berlin, but moved to several countries between 1933 and 1939, finally settling in the United States in 1939....
     conducting the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra. Recorded in 1937. First 20th-century recording.
  • Bruno Walter
    Bruno Walter

    Bruno Walter was a Germany-born Conducting and composer. He was born in Berlin, but moved to several countries between 1933 and 1939, finally settling in the United States in 1939....
     conducting the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra. Recorded live in 1956 and released in 1996 by Orfeo.
  • Franz Welser-Möst
    Franz Welser-Möst

    Franz Welser-M?st is an Austrian conducting....
     conducting the London Philharmonic Choir & Orchestra. Recorded in 1989 and released in 1990 by EMI Classics.


Bibliography


External links


Video Performances of Mozart's Requiem



Audio Performances of Mozart's Requiem



Scores of Mozart's Requiem


Other links

  • in The European Library (third item on page)