Mozart, Requiem - Lacrimosa

Among the countless myths surrounding Mozart's death, the one that refers to Death itself visiting him to ask him to write his own Requiem stands out. The remaining half-truths, encouraged in our time by the film Amadeus, took shape again for a while: the poisoning by Salieri's hidden hand; the mass grave that turned out to be a shared grave; the absence of his wife Constance at the funeral, a custom of the time; the storm at the burial although that day was clear and bright; and finally, that he died bankrupt... the closest thing to the truth because at the time of his death Mozart had spent the last years robbing Peter to pay Paul.

The classical myth
Now, the classical myth, that of the visit of Death, has some substance, for the mysterious emissary sent to the Mozart home by Count Franz von Walsegg could not hide his sinister appearance because of his cadaverous features. The count, an amateur musician who habitually solicited works from professional musicians to pass them off as his own, had been bereaved of his young wife of twenty years in February 1791. In mid-July, he commissioned his not very handsome secretary to ask Mozart to compose a Requiem Mass, taking care not to give any information about the principal. The person himself was also not identified.

The last days, working hard
Around the same time, Mozart was commissioned to write an opera to celebrate the coronation of Leopold II as king of Bohemia. The work was called La Clemenza di Tito, whose premiere he conducted in Prague on September 6. At the end of that month, he completed the revisions of The Magic Flute, and in early October he did the same with the Clarinet Concerto. So it was only from the second week of October onwards that Mozart could focus on writing the Requiem, on which he worked until November 20, when he fell into bed and never got up again. 

Franz Xaver Süsmayr
(1766 - 1803)

The incomplete task
Mozart passed away in the early morning of December 5, without having completed the assignment. But the commitment to the unknown client had to be fulfilled, so Constance sent the manuscripts to Joseph Eybler, Mozart's faithful friend, who returned them after recognizing his inability to continue with the genius's task. Finally, it was Franz Xaver Süsmayr, Mozart's disciple, who completed the work in March 1792. Surprisingly, Count von Walsegg only received the finished work in early December 1793, more than two years after he had commissioned it.

Requiem Mass

The Requiem, or requiem mass (rest mass), or mass for the dead, of the Catholic liturgy, is a votive mass, meaning a mass offered by vow on a specific occasion independent of the liturgical calendar. The texts, in Latin, of its sung parts are predetermined, and its development traditionally contemplates the following sections: Introitus / Kyrie Eleison / Graduale / Tract / Sequentia (which, due to the text's length taken from the 13th-century hymn Dies Irae, some composers divide into several movements, including the passage known as Lacrimosa) / Offertorium / Sanctus / Agnus dei (Lamb of God) / Communio.

Requiem for soloists, choir, and orchestra, in D minor, K. 626
Mozart's Requiem contains five sections, each topped by a fugue:
1  Introitus - Requiem / Kyrie
2  Sequentia (Dies Irae, Tuba mirum, Rex tremendae, Recordare, Confutatis, Lacrimosa)
3  Offertorium
4  Sanctus
5  Agnus Dei

Süsmayr's contribution
What is Mozart's and what is Süssmayr's in the famous Requiem is still under discussion. But the autograph manuscript preserved in the Austrian National Library shows unquestionably the complete Introitus orchestrated by Mozart's hand, as well as detailed sketches of the Kyrie, and the Sequentia completed up to the first eight bars of the Lacrimosa, plus the Offertorium. Süsmayr himself claimed as his own authorship only the Sanctus and Agnus Dei.

Lacrimosa

In a rendition by the Berliner Philharmoniker conducted by Claudio Abbado, we present here the last movement of the Sequentia, Lacrimosa, which is only 3 minutes long (the complete work lasts about 55 minutes, depending on the version).