Mozart's Requiem Mass in D minor

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

 

Mozart was one of the first classical composers who wrote music for many genres. His major works include Requiem, the operas Nozze di Figaro, Don Giovanni, and Die Zauberflote, the Clarinet Concerto, the string quartets, the late piano concerti, and the later symphonies.

Mozart was one of the most outstanding musical geniuses that ever lived. At the age of four, he was not only reading notes but making up tunes of his own. At the age of six, he and his sister Nannerl played before kings and queens and royal families all over Europe and England. Mozart’s music possesses this simplicity and enchanting power that drives people madly in love with its notes, rhythm, tempo, and magic.

Classical music is the kind of music that is immortal, ageless, and forever beautiful in generations before and generations after.

 

Requiem Mass in D Minor

 

Requiem Mass in D Minor by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was composed in Vienna in 1791 and left unfinished at the composer's death on December 5. A completion dated 1792 by Franz Xaver Süssmayr was delivered to Count Franz von Walsegg, who had anonymously commissioned the piece for a Requiem Mass to commemorate the February 14 anniversary of his wife's death.

The autograph manuscript (acquired by the Austrian National Library in 1831–1838) shows the finished and orchestrated Introit in Mozart's hand, as well as detailed drafts of the Kyrie and the sequence Dies Irae as far as the first eight bars of the "Lacrymosa" movement, and the Offertory. It cannot be shown to what extent Süssmayr may have depended on now lost "scraps of paper" for the remainder; he later claimed the Sanctus and Agnus Dei as his own. Walsegg probably intended to pass the Requiem off as his own composition, as he is known to have done with other works. This plan was frustrated by a public benefit performance for Mozart's widow Constanze. A modern contribution to the mythology is Peter Shaffer's 1979 play Amadeus, in which a mysterious messenger orders Mozart to write a requiem mass, giving no explanation for the order; Mozart (in the play) then comes to believe that the piece is meant to be the requiem mass for his own funeral.

The Requiem is scored for 2 basset horns in F, 2 bassoons, 2 trumpets in D, 3 trombones (alto, tenor & bass), timpani (2 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.

 

Overview

I am not a fan of classical music and I know nothing about Mozart. But when I began hearing the piece, it felt as if the feelings portrayed in the music was my own. I felt every beat, every tempo, every note, every whip of a violin’s string, every harmonizing vocal. I felt all of it. It made it way in my chest to my back, down to the tiny hairs on my skin.

The strong notes of the violins and cellos and the powerful vocals were what made me feel the message of the music. As I listened I could feel anger but at the same time burning passion of sadness at the tips of each note’s voice. The sudden intensity then the gentleness is what makes this piece breathtaking.

It feels as if the waves of a storm and the calms of the ocean have perfectly fitted themselves on each other, blasting the listener’s ears with the magic of a song. The Requiem is both hard and gentle, raging but quiet, passionately burning but as light as the touch of a feather.

I honestly don’t know how to describe music. But when I listened to Mozart’s Requiem, I felt as if I was running. I felt as if I was sprinting against hard wind, flying, then ascending, and soon falling down to hard ground with thunder and lightning and voices screaming at my ears.

I could feel the notes chasing after me, getting louder and louder, drowning me in its power… then soon caressing me like a gentle breeze, making me want to fall asleep.

The end of the Requiem is almost a cappella with all the voices harmonizing, rising, and reaching the top and then suddenly dissolving into silence.

I loved every bit of it even though it was almost an hour long. I think it has completely changed my opinion about classical music.