Throughout the many centuries of the history of music, few works have fascinated generation after generation of musicians and music-lovers and, at the same time, produced so much contrasting emotion and controversy. The work in question could be none other than Mozart\u2019s Requiem \u2013 its origins shrouded in mystery, legend and almost sensational theories. The story of the funeral mass written by Wolfgang Amadeus begins on 14 February 1791, the date of death of the 21-year-old Countess Anna Walsegg zu Stupach. Her husband, an eccentric amateur musician, decides to honour the memory of his deceased wife by commissioning a Requiem. It should be added that it was the habit of Graf Franz von Walsegg zu Stupach to host concerts twice a week; he would present new works, known to nobody, previously commissioned with eminent composers, and pretend to be their author to his guests. Mozart received the Requiem commission in mid-July 1791, just as he was frantically rushing through the composition of The Clemency of Titus. He could properly focus on the funeral mass only in November; most of the work was created between the 8th and the 20th of that month. November 18th saw a sudden and violent onset of the composer\u2019s disease \u2013 although Mozart’s biographers still cannot agree what it was. If one were to believe the Mozarts\u2019 friend and first performer of the part of Tamino in The Magic Flute Benedikt Schack, the last rehearsal of the work\u2019s fragments took place on December 4th, i.e. on the eve of the composer’s death. It is then that, after 8 bars of Lacrimosa when, after a poignant, rising progression, the melody attains the climax at the words \u201chomo reus,\u201d Mozart was said to burst in tears and throw away the score in a gesture of ultimate surrender. It is more probable, however, that the composer\u2019s acute course of disease must have left him in a state of semi-consciousness, and that the dramatic rehearsal is yet another of the fantastic legends spun like a spider\u2019s web around this famous work. Still, the manuscript indeed ends at the 8th bar of Lacrimosa.
\nMozart\u2019s design for his Requiem relates directly to the 18th-century Austrian funeral mass, with its immediate model in Michael Haydn\u2019s Requiem in C minor composed in 1771 to commemorate the untimely death of the composer\u2019s only daughter. Mozart borrowed the structure of the whole from the lesser Haydn, to the extent of omitting the same sections of the traditional funeral mass, such as Gradual, Tractus or Libera me. Detailed analyses of the entirety of the manuscript performed by many scholars show beyond any doubt that the composer completed the first part of the mass alone: the gloomy Introitus (Requiem Aeternam) with a contrastive soft soprano solo. Further fragments \u2013 the dynamic fugue of Kyrie, the multiple Sequence (without Lacrimosa), and Ofertorium (Hostias) with its varying texture remained in the form of vocal score with an attached figured bass part containing details of harmony. As we already know, only the first 8 bars written in Mozart\u2019s hand, including instrumentation, are preserved of the homophonic Lacrimosa, itself a part of Sequence. The composer allegedly planned to write the final Communion (Lux eterna, Cum Sanctis tuis) to the music of Introit and the Kyrie fugue \u2013 a very frequent device in the 18th-century tradition. The remaining parts of the mass \u2013 the celebratory Sanctus with a fugue for Osanna, the cantilena of Benedictus and the meditative Agnus Dei were added \u2013 according to tradition \u2013 by Mozart\u2019s student Franz Xaver S\u00fcssmayr, who undertook to complete the work. According to some of the more recent research, Mozart\u2019s widow Constanze first offered the job not to S\u00fcssmayr, but to Wolfgang Amadeus\u2019s most experienced student, Franz Jacob Freyst\u00e4dtler, who completed the orchestral accompaniment to Kyrie and then relayed the task of reconstruction to Joseph Eybler. He, in turn, is said to have added the instrumentation to five parts of Sequence from Dies Irae through Confutatis. The next important personage in the context of Mozart\u2019s masterpiece is Maximillian \u201cAbb\u00e9\u201d Stadler, Wolfgang Amadeus\u2019s long-time friend, who started working on Offertorium, eventually taken over by S\u00fcssmayr. The version thus completed by Mozart\u2019s students, with additional sections composed by S\u00fcssmayr, soon took on a concert life of its own and remains to this day the most frequently performed form of the work. Yet the problem of Requiem\u2019s authenticity continued to resurface; critics had their reservations with respect to Sanctus \/Osanna, Benedictus and, to a lesser extent, Agnus Dei. This is why new reconstructions of Mozart\u2019s funeral mass appeared; the most convincing ones include those by Duncan Druce, Richard Maunder and Robert Levin.
\nMarcin Gmys<\/p>\n
Introitus (Requiem)
\n(Chorus)
\n1. Grant them eternal rest, O Lord,
\nAnd may the perpetual light shine on them.
\n(Soprano)
\nThou, O God, are praised in Sion,
\nAnd unto Thee shall the vow be performed in Jerusalem.
\n(Choir)
\nHear my prayer,
\nUnto Thee shall all flesh come.
\nGrant them eternal rest, O Lord,
\nAnd may perpetual light shine on them.<\/p>\n
Kyrie
\n2. Lord have mercy upon us.
\nChrist have mercy upon us.
\nLord have mercy upon us.<\/p>\n
Sequentia (Dies Irae)
\n3. Day of wrath, that day
\nWill dissolve the age in ashes
\nAs David and the Sibyl bear witness.
\nWhat dread there will be
\nWhen the Judge shall come
\nTo judge all things strictly.<\/p>\n
Tuba Mirum:
\n(Bass)
\n4. A trumpet, spreading a wondrous sound
\nThrough the graves of all lands,
\nWill drive mankind before the throne.
\n(Tenor)
\nDeath and nature shall be astonished
\nWhen all creation rises again
\nTo answer to the Judge.
\nA book, written in, will be brought forth
\nIn which everything is contained,
\nAccording to which the world will be judged.
\n(Contralto)
\nWhen therefore the Judge takes His seat
\nWhatever is hidden will reveal itself.
\nNothing will remain unavenged.
\n(Soprano)
\nWhat then shall I say, wretch that I am?,
\nWhat advocate entreat to speak for me,
\nWhen even the righteous may hardly be secure?
\n(All Soloists)
\nWhen even the righteous may hardly be secure?<\/p>\n
Rex Tremendae:
\n5. King of great majesty,
\nWho freely savest the redeemed,
\nSave me, O fount of mercy.<\/p>\n
Recordare
\n(Soloists)
\n6. Remember, blessed Jesus,
\nThat I am the cause of Thy pilgrimage,
\nDo not forsake me on that day.
\nSeeking me Thou didst sit down weary,
\nThou didst redeem me, suffering death on the cross.
\nLet not such toil be in vain.
\nJust and avenging Judge,
\nGrant remission
\nBefore the day of reckoning.
\nI groan like a guilty man.
\nGuilt reddens my face.
\nSpare a suppliant, O God.
\nThou who didst absolve Mary
\nAnd didst hearken to the thief,
\nTo me also hast Thou given hope.
\nMy prayers are not worthy,
\nBut Thou in Thy merciful goodness grant
\nThat I burn not in everlasting fire.
\nPlace me among Thy sheep
\nAnd separate me from the goats,
\nSetting me on Thy right hand.<\/p>\n
Confutatis
\n7. When the accursed have been confounded
\nAnd given over to the bitter flames,
\nCall me with the blessed.
\n8. I pray in supplication on my knees.
\nMy heart contrite as the ashes,
\nSafeguard my fate.<\/p>\n
Lacrimosa
\nMournful that day
\nWhen from the dust shall rise
\nGuilty man to be judged.
\nTherefore spare him, O God.
\nMerciful Jesu Lord
\nGrant them rest.<\/p>\n
Offertorium
\nDomine Jesu:
\n9. Lord Jesus Christ, King of glory,
\nDeliver the souls of all the faithful departed
\nFrom the pains of hell and from the bottomless lake.
\nDeliver them from the lion’s mouth.
\nNeither let be swallowed by the abyss,
\nNor fall into the darkness.
\n(Soloists)
\nAnd let St. Michael, Thy standard-bearer,
\nLead them into the holy light
\n(Choir)
\nWhich once Thou didst promise to Abraham and his seed.<\/p>\n
Hostias
\n10. We offer unto Thee this sacrifice of prayer and praise.
\nReceive it for those souls
\nWhom today we commemorate.
\nAllow them, O Lord, to cross from death into the life
\nWhich once Thou didst promise to Abraham and his seed.<\/p>\n
Sanctus
\n11. Holy, holy, holy,
\nLord God of Sabaoth.
\nHeaven and earth are full of Thy glory.
\nHosanna in the highest.<\/p>\n
Benedictus
\n(Soloists)
\n12. Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord.
\n(Choir)
\nHosanna in the highest.<\/p>\n
Agnus Dei
\n13. Lamb of God, who takest away the sins of the world,
\nGrant them rest.
\nLamb of God, who takest away the sins of the world,
\nGrant them everlasting rest.<\/p>\n
Communio Lux Aeterna
\n(Soprano, then the Choir)
\n14. May the eternal light shine on them, O Lord.
\nWith Thy saints for ever,
\nBecause Thou art merciful.
\n(Choir)
\nGrant the dead eternal rest, O Lord,
\nAnd may the perpetual light shine on them,
\nWith Thy saints for ever,
\nBecause Thou art merciful.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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