Requiem in D minor, K.626

Kyrie

Sequence: Dies irae

Tuba mirum

Rex tremendae majestatis

Recordare, Jesu pie

Confutatis maledictis -

Lacrimosa dies illa

Offertory: Domine Jesu Christe

Sanctus: Sanctus Dominus Deus Sabaoth

Benedictus

Agnus Dei

Communion: Lux aeterna

The story of how Mozart came to write the Requiem, and how he failed to complete it, is well known. The commission was delivered to him in August 1791 by an apparently sinister messenger who refused to reveal the identity of his patron but who promised to pay him well, half the fee in advance and half on delivery of the complete score. It was actually a Count Walsegg zu Stuppach who had commissioned the Requiem, with the intention of having it performed in his chapel as his own work. The secrecy involved seems to have upset Mozart, who was so ill that he somehow imagined that whoever had orderred the Requiem was also trying to poison him.

When he undertook the task he was no doubt aware that, in spite of the very best intentions, he had not completed one major work of church music since he had left the service of the Archbishop of Salzburg ten years earlier. He had, on the other hand, written several pieces for Masonic occasions. It is quite possible that he conceived the Requiem as a reconciliation between the enthusiastic Freemason and the conscientious Catholic in him. Certainly, it is difficult to explain otherwise the extraordinary instrumentation of the Requiem, with two basset horns and two bassoons as the only woodwind together with with trumpets, trombones, timpani, strings and organ continuo. He had used the basset horn in his Masonic Funeral Music in 1785 and clarinet sound was, in fact, part of the Viennese Masonic ritual.

Mozart died on 5 December 1791 attempting, according to legend at least, to communicate to his pupil Franz Xaver Süssmayr how he should continue the Requiem. He had completed and scored only the Introit and the Kyrie. Most of the next major section, from the Dies irae up to the first eight bars of the Lacrimosa, was fully sketched, the vocal part written out with a figured bass, and partly scored. So too was the next section, the Offertory. At the request of Mozart’s widow, who was understandably reluctant to forgo the second half-payment, Süssmayr completed the score - adding the Sanctus, the Benedictus, the Agnus Dei and the Communion. Exactly how much of it was Süssmayr’s work and how much was based on sketches or oral instructions from the dying composer we shall probably never know.

The first two movements are pure Mozart. The Introit is a beautiful example of the way he applied himself to this work. He would find his expressive image, perhaps in traditional church music material, and then incorporate it in a symphonic structure, usually in an uncompromisingly contrapuntal texture. The image of the Requiem aeternam is the gentle lament passing in canon between the two bassoons and the two basset horn. It is based on a traditional melody which is taken up by the chorus on its first entry. There is a radiant change of texture and of key in respnse to Lux aeterna and at Te decet hymnus the soprano soloist introduces a new melody, this time a Gregorian chant.

The form of the movement is ternary, with an elaborate reprise of the first section with its ending adapted to lead straight into the next movement, a Kyrie in the form of a double fugue. This masterfully combines two usually separate sections by employing one fugue subject (already used by Handel in Messiah) for the Kyrie eleison and, at the same time, another for the Christe eleison.

In the following Sequence, although the scoring is not necessarily Mozart’s, all the essential material are. The Dies irae is one of the most remarkable passages he ever wrote. With no main theme, it reflects the terrible message of the text in its pressing tempo, its restless and syncopated rhythms, its chromatic harmonies, its brilliant string writing and its vociferous choral effect. While one might have doubts about the use of the trombone in Tuba mirum, this movement is a valuable contrast before the renewed chral might of the Rex tremendae - inspired alike in its imagery, its dotted-rhythm ostinato and its last-minute change from acclamation to prayer.

The Sequence contrinues with the Recordare, which is surely authentic Mozart all the way through. The melody in the basset horn recalls the first entry of the chorus, while the string ostinao must be intended as the direct antithesis of that in Rex tremendae. This is another ternary construction, the middle section beginning at Ingemisco and the last section at Preces meae.

After that, the entry of the Confutatis maledictis, with its fierce string motif and its outcry from tennors and basses, is all the more effective. So, in its turn and in its way, is the quiet prayer, Voca me, of the sopranos and altos, accompanied by a variant of the ostinato from the Recordare. It leads into the Lacrimosa, only the first eight bars of which are Mozart’s - a two-note tear-like image in the strings, an awesome climax in the chorus on Judicandus homerus… And then what? Süssmayr’s answer is unenterprising but not unconvincing.

The only other section wich Mozart is definitely known to have written is the Offertory, which consists of two movement, Domine, Jesu Christe and Hostias, each of them ending with the same fugue on Quam olim Abrahae.

In completing the work Süssmayr exercised considerable tact and ingenuity in making it as much Mozart and as little Süssmayr as possible. The Sanctus and Benedictus he linked in the same way as Mozart had linked the previous two movement, by repeating the Osanna fugue after the Benedictus. The music of the Sanctus is a slowed down version of the Dies irae. Although Mozart left him only the main theme for the Benedictus, Süssmayr made a very crreditable solo quartet from its, and his Agnus Dei has an authentic Mozart in D minor quality about it in the chromatic string writing.

Süssmayr’s final inspiration (not without precedent in Mozart’s church music) was to set the words of the Lux aeterna to the music of the Introitus and to crown the work with the great double fugue Mozart had written for the Kyrie. Although there have been other solutions to the problem of completing the Requiem, Süssmayr’s version not only made the work performable in the first place but did it so discreetly, so tastefully and so intelligently that it has retained a prominent place in the repertoire for more than 200 years. It is still as valid as any other.