Mozart Requim d-minor K626 sheet music and program notes

Program Notes & Analysis

A Final Testament in the Shadow of Death

In July 1791, as Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was busy working on his opera The Magic Flute, a stranger dressed head-to-toe in grey appeared at his door with an anonymous commission: to compose a Requiem Mass. The mysterious messenger offered a generous fee, with half paid in advance, and asked no questions about the timeline for completion. The truth behind this dramatic encounter was far more prosaic, though no less strange. The patron was an eccentric aristocrat, Count Franz von Walsegg, an amateur musician who had a habit of secretly commissioning works from famous composers and then passing them off as his own. This Requiem was intended to memorialize his recently deceased young wife. But for Mozart, whose health was already failing and whose mind was prone to superstition, the event took on a sinister significance. He could not shake the feeling that the grey messenger was a harbinger from another world and that the Requiem he was tasked with writing was for himself. This obsession would haunt him for the final months of his life, infusing the score with an unparalleled sense of urgency and profound personal depth.

The Final Illness and an Unfinished Score

The last six months of Mozart's life were a whirlwind of superhuman creative activity. On top of composing The Magic Flute, he received another urgent commission to write an opera seria, La Clemenza di Tito, for the coronation in Prague. He completed both monumental works before returning to Vienna in September to devote his failing energies to the Requiem. By late November, he was bedridden, his body swollen and in pain. Yet, he continued to work, gathering his students around his bed to discuss the orchestration and even singing the alto part as they tried out sections of the nearly-finished score. His student Franz Xaver Süssmayr was a constant presence, taking dictation and notes. Mozart’s focus remained on the Requiem until the very end. On the night of December 4th, as his sister-in-law Sophie Haibel recalled, he was still humming the timpani part of the Dies Irae. A few hours later, shortly before 1 a. m. on December 5, 1791, he died. He had fully scored the opening Introitus, and had written the vocal parts and bass line for most of the work through the Hostias. Of the famous Lacrimosa, he had penned only the first eight bars.

The Süssmayr Completion: A Necessary Controversy

Mozart’s widow, Constanze, was left in a difficult financial position. The anonymous patron had already paid half the fee, and she needed to deliver a complete score to receive the rest. She first turned to the composer Joseph Eybler, who orchestrated some of the movements after the Dies Irae but eventually gave up, finding the task of completing his master’s work too daunting. The task ultimately fell to Süssmayr, who had been closest to Mozart in his final days and was familiar with his intentions. Süssmayr orchestrated the movements Mozart had left in sketch form, completed the Lacrimosa, and composed entirely new movements for the Sanctus, Benedictus, and Agnus Dei. To conclude the work, he made an intelligent decision: for the final Lux Aeterna, he adapted Mozart’s own music from the opening two movements, giving the Requiem a powerful sense of cyclical unity. For centuries, the Süssmayr completion has been the subject of intense musicological debate. While critics point to weaknesses in his orchestration and counterpoint compared to Mozart's genius, his version has remained the standard performing edition, a historically vital and emotionally resonant completion that has allowed this sublime work to be heard around the world.

Musical Architecture: A Journey from Darkness to Light

The Requiem is set in the tragic key of D minor, a key Mozart reserved for his most dramatic and serious works (such as the Overture to Don Giovanni). The sound world is dark and solemn. In a masterstroke of orchestration, Mozart completely omits the brighter, more lyrical sounds of the flutes, oboes, and clarinets. In their place, he uses a pair of basset horns (a type of alto clarinet with a rich, mournful timbre), which, along with the bassoons and a prominent trombone section, create a somber, archaic, and profoundly spiritual atmosphere. The true protagonist of the work is the chorus, which carries the weight of the liturgical drama, from terrifying visions of judgment to whispered pleas for mercy.

The Introitus and Kyrie: A Solemn Procession and a Baroque Plea

The work begins with the "Requiem aeternam" (Grant them eternal rest). A seven-bar introduction for basset horns and bassoons sets a tone of profound solemnity. The chorus enters quietly, their homophonic texture evoking a slow, weary funeral procession. This is followed by the "Kyrie eleison" (Lord have mercy), a powerful and intricate double fugue. Here, Mozart’s deep study of the Baroque masters J. S. Bach and Handel is on full display. The complex, weaving lines of the chorus create a magnificent and desperate plea for divine mercy, a piece of astonishing contrapuntal virtuosity.

The Sequenz: A Vision of the Last Judgment

This central sequence is a multi-movement depiction of Judgment Day, filled with some of the most dramatic music Mozart ever composed. It opens with the famous Dies Irae (Day of Wrath), a terrifying and furious choral outburst that unleashes the full power of the orchestra. The Tuba Mirum (The wondrous trumpet) follows, featuring a stunning solo for tenor trombone that calls the dead from their graves, before each of the four vocal soloists enters in turn. The Rex Tremendae (King of tremendous majesty) is a portrait of God the King, with majestic dotted rhythms and powerful choral declamations of "Rex!" answered by desperate cries of "Salva me!" (Save me!). The Recordare (Remember) is an intimate moment of reflection, a beautiful and complex quartet for the four soloists, weaving their voices together in an eloquent plea. This is followed by the Confutatis, a moment of extreme contrast: the men’s voices sing a fiery, agitated passage depicting the damned being cast into hell, while the women’s voices float above them like angels, singing a gentle plea for salvation. The sequence concludes with the heartbreaking Lacrimosa (That tearful day). Beginning with the sublime eight bars that were Mozart’s last written notes, this movement builds to a powerful climax of collective grief and sorrow.

The Offertorium and Conclusion: Fugal Mastery and an Echo of the Beginning

The Offertorium consists of two movements, the Domine Jesu and the Hostias, both of which contain elaborate fugal writing for the chorus, once again demonstrating Mozart's command of Baroque counterpoint. Following Süssmayr's contributions of the majestic Sanctus and the beautiful, lyrical Benedictus, the work moves towards its conclusion with the Agnus Dei (Lamb of God). Süssmayr’s masterstroke was to bring the Requiem to a close by recycling Mozart’s own music from the opening Introitus and Kyrie for the final section, the Communio. This act not only provided an authentically Mozartian conclusion but also gave the entire work a profound sense of formal and spiritual resolution. The plea for "eternal light" (Lux aeterna) is set to the same music as the opening plea for "eternal rest" (Requiem aeternam), bringing the epic journey from the darkness of death into the promise of perpetual light to a solemn and deeply satisfying close.