Вольфганг Амадей Моцарт Реквием Requiem, K 626

Influences[]

Mozart esteemed Handel and in 1789 he was commissioned by Baron Gottfried van Swieten to rearrange Messiah. This work likely influenced the composition of Mozart’s Requiem; the Kyrie is probably based on the And with his stripes we are healed chorus from Handel’s Messiah (HWV 56), since the subject of the fugato, in which Handel was a master, is the same, with only slight variations by adding ornaments on melismata.

Some believe that the Introitus was inspired by Handel’s Funeral Anthem for Queen Caroline, and some have also remarked that the Confutatis may have been inspired by Sinfonia Venezia by Pasquale Anfossi. Another influence was Michael Haydn’s Requiem in C minor which he and his father heard at the first three performances in January 1772. Some have noted that M. Haydn’s «Introitus» sounds rather similar to Mozart’s, and the theme for the fugue of Mozart’s Offertorium No. 1 is a direct quote of the theme of Michael Haydn’s Offertorium and Versus.

All sections from the Sanctus onwards are not present in Mozart’s manuscript fragment. Mozart likely intended to include the Amen fugue at the end of the Sequentia, but Süssmayr did not do so in his completion.

The Introitus is in D minor and finishes on a half-cadence that transitions directly into Kyrie. The Kyrie is a double fugue, with one subject setting the words «Kyrie eleison» and the other «Christe eleison«. The movement Tuba mirum opens with a trombone solo accompanying the bass. The Confutatis is well known for its string accompaniment; it opens with agitating figures that accentuate the wrathful sound of the basses and tenors, but it turns into soft arpeggios in the second phrase while accompanying the soft sounds of the sopranos and altos.

Modern completions[]

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 K. 341 also belonged. There is, however, compelling evidence placing the Amen Fugue in the Requiem based on current Mozart scholarship. First, the principal subject is the main theme of the requiem (stated at the beginning, and throughout the work) in strict inversion. Second, 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 only place where the word «Amen» occurs in anything that Mozart wrote in late 1791 is in the sequence of the Requiem. Third, 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.

Since the 1970s several musicologists, dissatisfied with the traditional «Süssmayr» completion, have attempted alternative completions of the Requiem. Each version follows a distinct methodology for completion:

• Franz Beyer — makes revisions to Süssmayr’s orchestration in an attempt to create a more Mozartian style.
• H. C. Robbins Landon — orchestrates parts of the completion using the partial work by Eybler, thinking that Eybler’s work is a more reliable guide of Mozart’s intentions.
• Richard Maunder — dispenses completely with the parts known to be written by Süssmayr, but retains the Agnus Dei after discovering an extensive paraphrase from K 220.
• Duncan Druce — makes slight changes in orchestration, but retains Eybler’s ninth and tenth measures of the Lacrimosa, lengthening the movement substantially to end in the Amen fugue. He also completely rewrites the Benedictus, only retaining the opening theme.
• Robert D. Levin and Simon Andrews — each 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.
• Benjamin-Gunnar Cohrs — provides an entirely new instrumentation, based on Eybler’s ideas, new elaborations of the Amen and Hosanna fugues, and a new continuity of the Lacrymosa (after the 18th bar), Sanctus, Benedictus and Agnus Dei, following those bars of which Dr. Cohrs assumes Mozart might have sketched himself.

In the Levin, Andrews, Druce and Cohrs 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 major (rather than Süssmayr’s use of B-flat major).

Maunder, Levin, Druce and Cohrs 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 as a plagal cadence with a Picardy third at the end of the Lacrimosa: the Andrews version uses the Süssmayr ending.

Other authors have also attempted the completion, including Clemens Kemme and Pánczél Tamás.

Structure[]

This is the structure of the Requiem. Note that things listed in Italics are Süssmayr’s additions. Chorus is not explicitly mentioned as it is present through the entire work.