The Requiem in D minor, K. 626, is a Requiem Mass by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Mozart composed part of the Requiem in Vienna in late 1791, but it was unfinished at his death on 5 December the same year. A completed version was delivered to Count Franz von Walsegg, who had commissioned the piece for a requiem service on 14 February 1792 to commemorate the first anniversary of the death of his wife Anna, who had died at the age of 20 on 14 February 1791.
The autograph manuscript shows the finished and orchestrated movement of the Introit in Mozart's hand, and detailed drafts of the Kyrie, the Sequence (the latter including the first eight bars of the Lacrimosa), and the Offertorium. First Joseph Eybler and then Franz Xaver Süssmayr filled in the rest, composed additional movements, and made a clean copy of the completed parts of the score for delivery to Walsegg, imitating Mozart's musical handwriting but clumsily dating it "1792."Both the delivery score and the working manuscript with Mozart's indications from the Dies irae onwards are held at the Austrian National Library, and can be viewed online. It cannot be shown to what extent Süssmayr may have depended on now lost "scraps of paper" for the remainder; he later claimed the Sanctus and Benedictus and the Agnus Dei as his own.
Walsegg probably intended to pass the Requiem off as his own composition, as he is known to have done with other works. This plan was frustrated by a public benefit performance for Mozart's widow Constanze. She was responsible for a number of stories surrounding the composition of the work, including the claims that Mozart received the commission from a mysterious messenger who did not reveal the commissioner's identity, and that Mozart came to believe that he was writing the Requiem for his own funeral.
In addition to the Süssmayr version, a number of alternative completions have been developed by composers and musicologists in the 20th and 21st centuries. At least 19 conjectural completions have been made, eleven of which date from after 2005.
Instrumentation The Requiem is scored for two basset horns in F, two bassoons, two trumpets in D, three trombones (alto, tenor, and bass), timpani (two drums), violins, viola, and basso continuo (cello, double bass, and organ). The basset horn parts are sometimes played on conventional B♭ or A clarinets and sometimes the related alto clarinet, even though this changes the sonority.
The vocal forces consist of soprano, contralto, tenor, and bass soloists and an SATB mixed choir.
Structure
Süssmayr's completion divides the Requiem into eight sections:
All sections from the Sanctus onwards are not present in Mozart's manuscript fragment. Mozart may have intended to include the Amen fugue at the end of the Sequentia, but Süssmayr did not do so in his completion.
The following table shows for the eight sections in Süssmayr's completion with their subdivisions: the title, vocal parts (solo soprano (S), alto (A), tenor (T) and bass (B) [in bold] and four-part choir SATB), tempo, key, and meter.
{| class="wikitable sortable mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" |+ !style="background: Silver" |Section !style="background: Silver" |Title !style="background: Silver" |Vocal Forces !style="background: Silver" |Tempo !style="background: Silver" |Key !style="background: Silver" |Meter |- |I. Introitus |Requiem aeternam |S solo + Chorus (SATB) |Adagio |D minor |align="center" | |- style="background: Gainsboro;" |II. Kyrie |Kyrie eleison |Chorus (SATB) |Allegro |D minor |align="center" | |- | rowspan="6" |III. Sequentia |Dies irae |Chorus (SATB) |Allegro assai |D minor |align="center" | |- |Tuba mirum |SATB soli |Andante |B major |align="center" | |- |Rex tremendae |Chorus (SATB) |Grave |G minor – D minor |align="center" | |- |Recordare |SATB soli |Andante |F major |align="center" | |- |Confutatis |Chorus (SATB) |Andante |A minor – F major |align="center" | |- |Lacrymosa |Chorus (SATB) |Larghetto |D minor |align="center" | |- style="background: Gainsboro;" | rowspan="2" |IV. Offertorium |Domine Jesu |SATB soli + Chorus (SATB) |Andante |G minor |align="center" | |- style="background: Gainsboro;" |Hostias |Chorus (SATB) |Larghetto – Andante |E major – G minor |align="center" | – |- | rowspan="2" |V. Sanctus |Sanctus | rowspan="2" |Chorus (SATB) |Adagio | rowspan="2" |D major |align="center" | |- |Hosanna |Allegro |align="center" | |- style="background: Gainsboro;" | rowspan="2" |VI. Benedictus |Benedictus |SATB soli |Andante | rowspan="2" |B major | rowspan="2" align="center" | |- style="background: Gainsboro;" |Hosanna |Chorus (SATB) |Allegro |- |VII. Agnus Dei |Agnus Dei |Chorus (SATB) |Larghetto |D minor – B major |align="center" | |- style="background: Gainsboro;" | rowspan="2" |VIII. Communio |Lux aeterna |S solo + Chorus (SATB) |Adagio | rowspan="2" |B major – D minor | rowspan="2" align="center" | |- style="background: Gainsboro;" |Cum sanctis tuis |Chorus (SATB) |Allegro
Music I. Introitus
The Requiem begins with a seven-measure instrumental introduction, in which the woodwinds (first bassoons, then basset horns) present the principal theme of the work in imitative counterpoint. The first five measures of this passage (without the accompaniment) are shown below.
This theme is modelled after Handel's opening chorus "The ways of Zion do mourn" from his 1737 Funeral Anthem for Queen Caroline, HWV 264. Many parts of the work make reference to this passage, notably in the coloratura in the Kyrie fugue and in the conclusion of the Lacrymosa.
The trombones then announce the entry of the choir, which breaks into the theme, with the basses alone for the first measure, followed by imitation by the other parts. The chords play off syncopated and staggered structures in the accompaniment, thus underlining the solemn and steady nature of the music. A soprano solo is sung to the Te decet hymnus text in the tonus peregrinus. The choir continues, repeating the psalmtone while singing the Exaudi orationem meam section. Then, the principal theme is treated by the choir and the orchestra in downward-gliding sixteenth-notes. The courses of the melodies, whether held up or moving down, change and interlace amongst themselves, while passages in counterpoint and in unison (e.g., Et lux perpetua) alternate; all this creates the charm of this movement, which finishes with a half cadence on the dominant.
II. Kyrie
The Kyrie follows without pause (attacca). It is a double fugue on a cruciform melody (connecting two of the theme's four notes shows a cross), as many composers used including Bach, Handel, and Haydn. The counter-subject comes from the final chorus of Handel's Dettingen Anthem, HWV 265. The first three measures of the basses (theme) and altos (countersubject) are shown below.
The contrapuntal motifs of the theme of this fugue include variations on the two themes of the Introit. At first, upward diatonic series of sixteenth-notes are replaced by chromatic series, which has the effect of augmenting the intensity. This passage shows itself to be a bit demanding in the upper voices, particularly for the soprano voice. A final portion in a slower (Adagio) tempo ends on an "empty" fifth, a construction which had during the classical period become archaic, lending the piece an ancient air.
III. Sequentia a. Dies irae
The sequence Dies irae ("Day of Wrath") is a strophic hymn, which Mozart sets in six sections. The first verse opens with a show of orchestral and choral might with tremolo strings, syncopated figures and repeated chords in the brass. A rising chromatic scurry of sixteenth-notes leads into a chromatically rising harmonic progression with the chorus singing "Quantus tremor est futurus" ("what trembling there will be" in reference to the Last Judgment). This material is repeated with harmonic development before the texture suddenly drops to a trembling unison figure with more tremolo strings evocatively painting the "Quantus tremor" text.
b. Tuba mirum
Mozart's textual inspiration is again apparent in the Tuba mirum ("Hark, the trumpet") movement, which is introduced with a sequence of three notes in arpeggio, played in B major by a solo tenor trombone, unaccompanied, in accordance with the usual German translation of the Latin tuba, Posaune (trombone). Two measures later, the bass soloist enters, imitating the same theme. At 7, there is a fermata, the only point in all the work at which a solo cadenza occurs. The final quarter notes of the bass soloist herald the arrival of the tenor, followed by the alto and soprano in dramatic fashion.
On the text Cum vix justus sit securus ("When only barely may the just one be secure"), there is a switch to a homophonic segment sung by the quartet at the same time, articulating, without accompaniment, the cum and vix on the "strong" (1st and 3rd), then on the "weak" (2nd and 4th) beats, with the violins and continuo responding each time; this "interruption" (which one may interpret as the interruption preceding the Last Judgment) is heard sotto voce, forte and then piano to bring the movement finally into a crescendo into a perfect cadence.
c. Rex tremendae
A descending melody composed of dotted notes is played by the orchestra to announce the Rex tremendae majestatis ("King of tremendous majesty", i.e., God), who is called by powerful cries from the choir on the syllable Rex during the orchestra's pauses. For a surprising effect, the Rex syllables of the choir fall on the second beats of the measures, even though this is the "weak" beat. The choir then adopts the dotted rhythm of the orchestra, forming what Wolff calls baroque music's form of "paying homage to princes", or, more simply put, that this musical style is a standard form of salute to royalty, or, in this case, divinity. This movement consists of only 22 measures, but this short stretch is rich in variation: homophonic writing and contrapuntal choral passages alternate many times and finish on a quasi-unaccompanied choral cadence, landing on an open D chord (as seen previously in the Kyrie).
d. Recordare
The Recordare ("Remember merciful Jesus") is a prayer not to be forgotten on the last day. At 130 measures, it is the work's longest movement, as well as the first in triple meter (); the movement is a setting of no fewer than seven stanzas of the Dies irae. The form of this piece is somewhat similar to sonata form, with an exposition around two themes ( 1–37), a development of two themes (mm. 38–92) and a recapitulation (mm. 93–98).
In the first 13 measures, the basset horns are the first to present the first theme, clearly inspired by Wilhelm Friedemann Bach's Sinfonia in D minor, the theme is enriched by a magnificent counterpoint by cellos in descending scales that are reprised throughout the movement. This counterpoint of the first theme prolongs the orchestral introduction with chords, recalling the beginning of the work and its rhythmic and melodic shiftings (the first basset horn begins a measure after the second but a tone higher, the first violins are likewise in sync with the second violins but a quarter note shifted, etc.). The introduction is followed by the vocal soloists; their first theme is sung by the alto and bass (from 14), followed by the soprano and tenor (from m. 20). Each time, the theme concludes with a hemiola (mm. 18–19 and 24–25). The second theme arrives on Ne me perdas, in which the accompaniment contrasts with that of the first theme. Instead of descending scales, the accompaniment is limited to repeated chords. This exposition concludes with four orchestral measures based on the counter-melody of the first theme (mm. 34–37).