The
Requiem Mass, K. 626, is one of the last of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's catalogued pieces. In July of 1791, Mozart had already been commissioned to collaborate on Die Zauberflöte with, his good friend Emanuel Schikaneder. According to
The new Grove dictionary of music and musicians Mozart, this commission reportedly gave Mozart much pleasure; he enjoyed collaborating with Shikaneder, and Mozart's frequent letters to his wife Constanze reveal a happy frame of mind, full of affection and teasing banter concerning his pupil and family friend,
Franz Süssmayr. It was during this time that Mozart was approached by a mysterious stranger clad in grey and asked to compose a requiem, all in the utmost secrecy. This "stranger' has been identified as Count von Walsegg zu Stuppach, an amateur musician who wanted to pass this work off as his own.
According to Ivor Keys, this was "an innocent diversion' of the Count's, a parlor trick where, in his home, the Count would pass out parts of anonymous music to hired professional performers. Guests would then have to guess the composer, and some were courteous enough to suggest the Count. But Count Stuppach's motives are in truth unknown.
Mozart began working on the
Requiem immediately., but
Die Zauberflöte, another opera, a concerto, and a cantata kept him busy. His letters from this period continue to be high-spirited and enthusiastic. However, he took seriously ill at the end of November, 1791, and was treated by two leading Viennese doctors, Closset and Sallaba. Mozart's wife, Constanze, and her younger sister Sophie nursed him back to health slowly. On December 3, he seemed greatly improved and the next day a few of his friends gathered to sing over with him parts of the unfinished
Requiem. But just before one AM, on December 5, 1791, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart died.
Peter Shaffer's play and subsequent movie, Amadeus, have perpetuated quite a few myths surrounding Mozart's death and the
Requiem in particular. In the film, Court Composer Antonio Salieri is credited with commissioning the Mass from Mozart, dressed in a costume that he had once seen Wolfgang's by then-dead father Leopold wear. Salieri allows his hatred and jealousy to overcome his love of God and takes advantage of Mozart's illness to drive him to his death -- but not before Mozart has completed most of the mass. Salieri's plans are thwarted when Constanze snatches the unfinished
Requiem away from his clutches. The success of this Academy Award -winning movie has unfortunately validated these myths to the point that they are taken as truth by laymen. In reality, Salieri was simply a contemporary of Mozart's, and reportedly enjoyed his work hugely (Keys).
Another myth hints that Count Stuppach secretly had Mozart poisoned, but this is highly improbable. Mozart was at first diagnosed as having died from "severe miliary fever'. On the medical authority of his two Viennese doctors, Closset and Sallaba, it was decided that he had in fact died of "rheumatische Enzfindungsfieber ", rheumatic inflammatory fever. His health had not recently been good, and although a young man when he died at the age of thirty-six, this fever seems perfectly consistent with the symptoms recorded (swelling limbs, high fever, paralyzing pains in the joints, and severe headaches) and Mozart's medical history. One previous supposition of the cause of death, uraernia following a lengthy spell of kidney disease, however, might make for an explanation of the hallucinations Mozart suffered during his last days, Furthermore, this might explain the somewhat abnormal attitude Mozart had towards the
Requiem; he was, by some reports, obsessed with it.
Mozart had completed certain parts of the
Requiem before his death; the whole "Introitus" (though without actually writing out the instrumental parts of the "Kyrie"), and the vocal parts, bass, and leading instrumental parts of the "Dies irae" up until its final section, the "Lacrimosa", which was there (incomplete) only to the eighth bar. He also wrote out the vocal parts, bass, and some of the violin for the "Domine Jesu" and the "Hostias". The rest was left unfinished.
When Wolfgang Amadeus died, his widow Constanze was fearful of losing the commission for the
Requiem; only fifty ducats had originally been advanced. She first turned the score over to one
Joseph Eybler, who had attended Mozart assiduously during his illness and for whom Mozart had written a recommendation for the post of Kappellmeister.
Joseph Eybler began by completing the orchestration of the "Dies irae", quite respectably, but stopped at the "Confutatis"; at this point, he would have needed to begin "composing" where Mozart left off.
The
Requiem was then completed by
Franz Süssmayr. He had helped Mozart on several operas; for example, he prepared a rehearsal score for
Die Zauberflöte, and was clearly qualified for the task. Why Mozart's widow Constanze did not choose him for the completion in the first place is completely left open to conjecture; many musical scholars have guessed and created rather bizarre stories about the relationship between Constanze and Süssmayr. The two had long been friends; Wolfgang had left Constanze in Süssmayr's care at Baden while he was working on
Die Zauberflöte. Scholar Dieter Schickling has suggested (among other things) that Süssmayr may have been the father of Franz Xavier Wolfgang Mozart, Constanze's youngest son, who was born around this time. This accusation is heartily rebutted, however, by another Mozartean scholar, Joseph Heinz Eibl. These soap-opera sagas aside, a far more important question concerns how far Süssmayr truly knew Mozart's intentions for the rest of the mass.
The Abbe Maximillian Stadler was called in by Constanze to put Mozart's manuscripts into order after his death. Thirty-five years later
Maximilan Stadler made two important statements concerning this matter in his
Defence of the Authenticity of Mozart's Requiem, (Vienna, 1826): 'The widow told me that there were some few leaves of music found on Mozart's writing desk after his death which she had given to Herr Süssmayr. She did not know what they contained, nor what use Süssmayr made of them. "...and Süssmayr did not have much more to do in the completion than most composers leave to their copyists.' The first claim of Stadler's is likely; the second, very unlikely.
Additionally, Constanze's younger sister, Sophie, was in 1825 quoted (Nissen, 1825) by saying that "Süssmaier was there at Mozart's bedside, and the famous
Requiem lay on the bed-cover, and Mozart was explaining to him how he ought to finish it after his death." So the picture painted by Shaffer in Amadeus has some basis in the truth: instead of the jealous, almost demonic Salieri working through the night as Mozart grew closer and closer to death, there was in fact simply the devoted student Süssmayr.
Still, this question of the authenticity of the current completed
Requiem Mass is somewhat undecided and must remain so, since no other information exists on the matter. Thus it will simply remain a subjective decision made on the part of each scholar as to how truly "Mozart" the "Sanctus", "Benedictus", and "Agnus Dei" are.
The
Requiem Mass begins with the "Introitus", and basset-horns as the treble line, sober and dignified, and violins underneath palpitating in a manner that conveys utter hopelessness; the chorus chants 'unto Thee shall all flesh come' with an almost Handelian flavor. The climax of this piece, however, moves on to more passionate, chromatic tones. In the "Kyrie", this passion continues and we are rushed forward to our doom, chanting 'Christ have mercy'. This chorus continues with what Keys calls "frightening intensity" through the "Dies irae", held for a moment at the trombone solo of "Tuba mirum"; the florid trombone solo acting as the voice of human pleading on judgment day. These alternations flavor much of the "Rex tremendae" and the "Recordare"; the "Rex tremendae" is an intense cry of eternal suffering, while the "Recordare" has once more a more human sound, almost wistful and containing some hope in its pleas. The "Confutatis" encapsulates this alternating form, the tenors and basses sing of eternity and severity, while the light lilting sopranos and altos respond with some breath of hope. Under all, the strings are at times jarring and then sweet. The "Lacrimosa", containing the last notes Mozart ever wrote, begins with haunting strings and vocal lines, ending in a dazzling crescendo 'Amen'.
The "Domine Jesu" resembles the "Kyrie" in the sense that one feels one is being catapulted forward into final judgment, with no time for further repentance. The "Hostias" has a slower, more contemplative mood, and the Sanctus promptly returns us once more to a chordal, Handelian mood, all fire and brimstone. Fittingly, the "Benedictus" finally gives a more forgiving and comforting message to the listener and sinner, imparting God's forgiveness. Its tone is somber and yet without pain or suffering. The vocal lines and orchestration themselves sound at peace - even celebratory in the final fugal section. The "Agnus Dei" serves in this mass as a reminder of our everlasting devotion and duty to God, combining hellfire, suffering, pleading, Handelian fugal melodies, and finally, triumph.
This often terrifying and fearful music is much in contradiction to the stoicism of the Masonic Funeral Music of the era, and yet somehow through it we are granted a glimpse of a great musical genius in his last, somewhat tortured days, a man who was convinced that he was writing the
Requiem Mass for his own death. And so he was.