Mozart's Requiem History

Mass in D Minor K. 626, Last Composition of Mozart

Dec 5, 2008 Tel Asiado

Brief history of Requiem Mass in D Minor, K. 626, Mozart's last musical work left unfinished.

The Requiem, K 626 (Mass in D minor) was the last composition of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, and one of his most popular works. While confined to bed, he feverishly worked on it. Mozart left it incomplete as he died almost an hour after midnight, December 5, 1791. He was 35.

Today marks the anniversary of the death of that brilliant genius.

Mozart Requiem's Basic Facts

• Original Title: Requiem
• Original Language: Latin
• Form: Work is in eight parts and contains fourteen musical numbers, as completed by Franz Xaver Süssmayr, Mozart's pupil.
• Date of Writing: July to December 4, 1791
• First Performance: December 14, 1793, in the Neuklusterkirche in Wiener Neustadt.
• Text: Mass for the Dead from the Catholic liturgy (missa pro defunctis)

History of Mozart's Requiem

In 1791, Mozart and Constanze were to journey to Prague, where his opera La Clemenza di Tito, commissioned on such short notice, was to have its premiere. Shortly before their departure at the end of August, so the usual story goes, a mysterious "messenger" came to him asking if he could compose a Requiem and how long it would take. The name of the man turned out later to be Leutgeb, who was acting on behalf of Count Franz von Walsegg-Stuppach.

Later writers enlarged upon suspicions rumored at the time that the count used other people's works as his own, that in this case, he wanted it performed in his palace on the first anniversary of his wife's death, passing it off as his own. He wanted the best composer, and who could provide it but Mozart.

Whether Leutgeb was the messenger addressed as "all in gray" on the day he visited Mozart, nobody really knows, but Mozart, in telling Constanze of his premonitions of death, incorporated the vision of a messenger all in gray who came from the next world to tell him of his impending death. Among the numerous rumors relating to Mozart's death, another one held that the Freemasons poisoned him. This was rather preposterous the fact that the Free masons considered him their dear and faithful brother. It's just as absurd as the rumor claiming that Antonio Salieri murdered him.

Mozart Writes the Requiem

In the fall of the year of his death, Mozart worked feverishly on the Requiem, even when he as ailing and confined to bed. A few days before his death, he showed his finished pages of the work to visiting friends: his brother- in-law Hofer, Benedikt Schack, the first who performed the role of Tamino, and the singer Franz Gerl who was singing the role of Sarastro in Die Zauberflöte in the nearby Theater auf der Wieden. They sang from Mozart's manuscript while Mozart, weak as he was, hummed along and gave the beat. The manuscript broke off after the eight bar of the Lacrimosa.

Final Hour of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Earlier in the evening of December 4, he appeared coherent. Later, he was visited by his sister-in-law, Sophie Weber, who fetched a doctor nearby. Mozart passed away before one o'clock in the morning, December 5, 1791 leaving behind a grieving wife and an incomplete Requiem manuscript. Immediately after Mozart's death, efforts to complete Requiem, charged by his wife, Constanze, began.

Related Link

Mozart's Requiem Completed

Sources:

Gutman, Robert W. Mozart: A Cultural Biography. London: Pimlico, 1999

Holmes, Edward, edited with additional notes by Christopher Hogwood. The Life of Mozart. London: The Folio Society, 1991

Pahlen, Kurt. The World of Oratorio. Oregon: Amadeus Press, 1990

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Mozart's Requiem, K.626 Mass in D minor