Requiem By Wolfgang Mozart

1084 Words3 Pages

I listened to Requiem by Amadeus Wolfgang Mozart. The piece was commissioned anonymously by Count Walsegg in July 1791. While Mozart was working on this piece, he became suddenly ill with the disease that would eventually kill him. He was also working on other two pieces at the same time one of them being the magic flute. By the time he returned to finish Requiem, he was seriously ill which led him to not finish the piece. His wife, Constanze asked Franz Xaver Sussmayr to finish the work. It is believed that Mozart had already finished most of the piece such as the vocal parts, and the accompanied instruments. He had also written down his ideas for how he was to finish the piece.
The Requiem is set in D minor giving it a modal feel. The orchestra consists of and scored for two basset horns in F, two trumpets in D, two bassoons, three trombones , timpani consisting of two drums , violins, viola and basso continuo(cello, double bass, and organ). The vocal forces include soprano, contralto, tenor, and bass soloists and an SATB mixed choir. All of these constitute together to form the famous orchestral piece. In this piece there are suggestions of orchestral innovations of the classical era. Mozart keeps the traditional elements such as fugue, added rhythmic interests and different orchestral colorings but also adds a variety of different accompaniment patterns.
The piece consists of fourteen movements consisting of the Introitus, Kyrie, Sequentia, Offertorium, Sanctus, Agnus Dei and finally Communium. All the sections starting from Sanctus were not present in the original orchestral composition by Mozart but instead were added by. The first piece starts out with the Introitus, the literal translation for the text goes as follows...

... middle of paper ...

...nstruments in this orchestra increases and emphasizes the drama of the text. In this piece, he uses many innovative orchestral combinations and word painting.
The last movement is the Communion which consists of Lux Aeterea. This last movement took its inspiration from ideas left behind by Mozart, but was mostly the work of Sussmayr. The piece begins with a solo and consists of much more choral and instrumental material. In the whole piece, Mozart relies on the orchestra to provide life to the text and mostly uses the strings and woodwinds to present this piece, while relying on the percussions and the timpani to provide effect for forceful motions. Overall, influence can be noticed from artists such as Bach and Handel. This piece, even though left unfinished made a mark in history as one of the most beautiful pieces ever written during the Baroque/Classical era.

Open Document