Music #191 - Mozart Requiem Mass

Requiem Mass 

for soloists, chorus and orchestra in d

- K.626

                  
* John Eliot Gardiner conducting
* Karajan conducting (Note the select in the footnote.)

* with subtitles in 18 languages
- Each totaling 60 minutes.  


I. Introitus: Requiem aeternam (Choir and Soprano solo)

II. Kyrie eleison (Choir)

I. Introitus  &  II. Kyrie

III. Sequentia:

Dies irae (Choir)

Tuba mirum (Soprano, Alto, Tenor and Bass Solo)

Rex tremendae majestatis (Choir)

Recordare, Jesu pie (Soprano, Alto, Tenor and Bass Solo)

Confutatis maledictis & Lacrimosa dies illa (Choir)

IV. Offertorium:

Domine Jesu Christe (Choir with Solo Quartet)

Versus: Hostias et preces (Choir)

V. Sanctus:

Sanctus Dominus Deus Sabaoth (Choir)

Benedictus (Solo Quartet then Choir)

VI. Agnus Dei (Choir)

VII. Communio: Lux aeterna (Soprano solo and Choir)

= = = = =
From the Amadeus movie:

* Mozart was composing Confutatis (Mvt 8 of 14) on his sickbed (deathbed, actually).
(1) his wife was partying; 

(2) Mozart (sick and weak) was composing Confutatis, with Salieri transcribing.  

Actually, (1) his wife was elsewhere delivering a baby boy of his; (2) his assistant Süessmayr (1766-1803, Austrian) was transcribing for him. 

* to sing along (SATB)

When Mozart died, he had the score of the Requiem on his bed and had been explaining to Suessmayr his ideas on how to finish it.

In the movie, "Lacrimosa dies illa" from his Requiem was the background music for his own funeral:

* to sing along (SATB)

 

Notes:

An anonymous earl (Count Walsegg-Stuppach) paid Mozart to ghostwrite a requiem, to be played at the funeral of the earl's wife. The man-in-black who contacted Mozart for the dealing was the earl's steward, who tried to speed up Mozart, as the funeral could not wait for long. 

Mozart started it in good spirits, but his health began to fail. In November 1791, Mozart got his student Suessmayr to do the transcribing for him.  The Requiem Mass was not completed when Mozart died on 5 December, at a young age of 35. His widow, needing the outstanding half of the fee, asked Suessmayr to complete the rest.