Modern Completions Of Mozart's Requiem
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This article lists some of the modern completions of the
Requiem A Requiem (Latin: ''rest'') or Requiem Mass, also known as Mass for the dead () or Mass of the dead (), is a Mass of the Catholic Church offered for the repose of the souls of the deceased, using a particular form of the Roman Missal. It is ...
by
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (27 January 1756 – 5 December 1791) was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical period (music), Classical period. Despite his short life, his rapid pace of composition and proficiency from an early age ...
.


Liturgical completions

For the first performance of the Requiem in Rio de Janeiro in December 1819, Austrian composer Sigismund von Neukomm constructed a movement based on material in the Süssmayr version. Incorporating music from various movements (including the "Requiem aeternam", "Dies irae", "Lacrymosa", and "Agnus Dei"), the bulk of the piece is set to the "
Libera me "Libera me" ("Deliver me") is a responsory sung in the Office of the Dead in the Catholic Church, and at the absolution of the dead, a service of prayers for the dead said beside the coffin immediately after the Requiem Mass and before burial ...
", a responsory text traditionally sung after the Requiem Mass, and concludes with a reprise of the "Kyrie" and a final "
Requiescat in pace Rest in peace (R.I.P.), a phrase from the Latin (), is sometimes used in traditional Christian services and prayers, such as in the Catholic, Lutheran, Anglican, and Methodist denominations, to wish the soul of a decedent eternal rest and p ...
". A contemporary of Neukomm and a pupil of Mozart's,
Ignaz von Seyfried Ignaz Xaver Ritter von Seyfried (15 August 1776 – 27 August 1841) was an Austrian musician, conductor and composer. He was born and died in Vienna. According to a statement in his handwritten memoirs he was a pupil of both Wolfgang Amadeus Moz ...
, composed his own Mozart-inspired "Libera me" for a performance at
Ludwig van Beethoven Ludwig van Beethoven (baptised 17 December 177026 March 1827) was a German composer and pianist. He is one of the most revered figures in the history of Western music; his works rank among the most performed of the classical music repertoire ...
's funeral in 1827.


The "Amen" fugue

In the 1960s, a sketch for an "Amen"
fugue In classical music, a fugue (, from Latin ''fuga'', meaning "flight" or "escape""Fugue, ''n''." ''The Concise Oxford English Dictionary'', eleventh edition, revised, ed. Catherine Soanes and Angus Stevenson (Oxford and New York: Oxford Universit ...
was discovered, which some musicologists, including Robert Levin and
Richard Maunder Charles Richard Francis Maunder (23 November 1937 – 5 June 2018) was a British mathematician and musicologist. Early life Maunder was educated at the Royal Grammar School, High Wycombe, and Jesus College, Cambridge, before going on to complet ...
, believed Mozart intended as a conclusion of the
sequence In mathematics, a sequence is an enumerated collection of objects in which repetitions are allowed and order matters. Like a set, it contains members (also called ''elements'', or ''terms''). The number of elements (possibly infinite) is cal ...
after the "Lacrymosa". H. C. Robbins Landon argued that the "Amen" fugue was not intended for the Requiem, but rather "may have been for a separate unfinished mass in D minor" to which the Kyrie K. 341 also belonged. There is, however, compelling evidence placing the "Amen" fugue in the Requiem based on current Mozart scholarship. First, the principal subject is the main theme of the Requiem (stated at the beginning and throughout the work) in strict inversion. Second, the fugue is found on the same page as a sketch for the "Rex tremendae" (together with a sketch for the overture of his last opera, ''
The Magic Flute ''The Magic Flute'' (, ), K. 620, is an opera in two acts by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart to a German libretto by Emanuel Schikaneder. It is a ''Singspiel'', a popular form that included both singing and spoken dialogue. The work premiered on ...
''), and thus dates from late 1791. The only instance of the word "Amen" occurring in anything Mozart wrote in late 1791 is in the Requiem sequence. Third, as Levin points out in the foreword to his completion, the addition of the "Amen" fugue at the end of the sequence would maintain an overall pattern that closes each large section with a fugue, a design that appears intentional. Many composers attempting a Requiem completion used the sketch for the "Amen" fugue discovered in the 1960s to compose a longer and more substantial setting for concluding the sequence. In the Süssmayr version, "Amen" is set as a
plagal cadence In Western musical theory, a cadence () is the end of a phrase in which the melody or harmony creates a sense of full or partial resolution, especially in music of the 16th century onwards.Don Michael Randel (1999). ''The Harvard Concise Dicti ...
with a
Picardy third A Picardy third, (; ) also known as a Picardy cadence or Tierce de Picardie, is a major chord of the tonic (music), tonic at the end of a musical Musical form, section that is either musical mode, modal or in a minor scale, minor key. This is ach ...
(iv–I in D minor) at the end of the "Lacrymosa". Only Jones and Suzuki combined the two, ending the fugue with a variation on the concluding bars of Süssmayr's "Lacrymosa" as well as the plagal cadence.


Completions since the late 20th century

Since the 1960s several composers and musicologists, usually dissatisfied with the traditional "Süssmayr" completion, have attempted alternative completions of the Requiem. Each version follows a distinct methodology for the whole requiem or only for single movements.


Non-musicological completions

Completions that did not try to emulate Mozart's style, but rather completed the requiem in the style of the editor. * (2000) followed Süssmayr's completion until the "Sanctus" and "Benedictus", inserting 4 bars in piano for the "Sanctus", composing a double fugue for the Osanna with Süssmayr's theme, adding more modulations to the "Benedictus" and composing a transition back to D major. * Gordon Kerry (2005) was commissioned by the
Australian Broadcasting Corporation The Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) is Australia’s principal public service broadcaster. It is funded primarily by grants from the federal government and is administered by a government-appointed board of directors. The ABC is ...
to write a completion. He brought new additions to the manuscript but kept the overall proportions of Süssmayr's version. * Michael Finnissy (2011) used Süssmayr's orchestration as its basis but eliminated Süssmayr's compositions. *Brett Abigaña (2012) revised Süssmayr's version and provided a new "Amen" fugue. * Gregory Spears (2013) like Finnissy, included a new "Sanctus", "Benedictus", and "Agnus Dei" to replace the Süssmayr completion of those movements.


Partial completions

*Karl Marguerre (1962–2016) published an essay on Süssmayr's passages in 1962, replacing a few bars in the middle of the "Lacrymosa", "Sanctus", "Benedictus" and "Agnus Dei" with quotations from other Requiem movements, Marguerre also extended the instrumentation given by Süssmayr to include high woodwinds (oboe, clarinet, flute). His version was later republished by his granddaughter, Dorothee Heath, in 2016. * (1978) replaced the "Amen", "Sanctus", and "Agnus Dei" with parodies of Mozart's earlier works. *Emil Bächtold (1999) makes small additions and changes to Sussmayr's completion from the "Dies Irae" to the "Hostias", having the Lacrimosa only in fragmentary form and, similarly to Maunder, dispenses the "Sanctus", "Benedictus", "Agnus Dei" and the "Communio". *Giuseppe Galli (2012) rewrote the continuation of "Lacrimosa" and the entirety of "Agnus Dei", the first of which he concluded with an "Amen" fugue while incorporating parts from Maunder's completion. *Timothy Jones (2014) followed a Levin-like approach in reworking the "Lacrimosa" and composing an extensive "Amen" fugue modeled on the "Cum Sancto Spiritu" fugue from the ''Great Mass in C minor'', K. 427. He applied the same process to the "Sanctus" and "Osanna" fugue.


Full completions

*
Marius Flothuis Marius Flothuis, (30 October 1914 – 13 November 2001) born and died in Amsterdam, was a Dutch people, Dutch composer, musicologist and music critic. Biography Flothuis first took courses at Vossius Gymnasium in Amsterdam. There he studied pia ...
(1941) tried to repair shortcomings in Süssmayr's completion, such as the trombone solo in "Tuba mirum", use of trumpets, timpani, and trombones, and the key choice of the reprise of the "Osanna" fugue. To this end, he inserted two newly composed modulating measures between the "Benedictus" and the second "Osanna". Flothuis's completion was not published but was recorded by Jos van Veldhoven. *Karl Marguerre (1962–2016) published an essay on Süssmayr's passages in 1962, replacing a few bars in the middle of the "Lacrymosa", "Sanctus", "Benedictus" and "Agnus Dei" with quotations from other Requiem movements, Marguerre also extended the instrumentation given by Süssmayr to include high woodwinds (oboe, clarinet, flute). His version was later republished by his granddaughter, Dorothee Heath, in 2016. * Franz Beyer (1971) revised Süssmayr's orchestration with the intention of getting closer to Mozart's style and introduced minor changes to Süssmayr's sections (e.g., slightly lengthening the "Osanna" fugue for a more conclusive-sounding ending). He preserved the two different keys of the "Osanna". *
Duncan Druce Robert Duncan Druce (23 May 193913 October 2015) was an English composer, string player and musicologist, noted for his breadth of musical interests ranging from contemporary music to baroque and early music, as well as music of India. Educatio ...
(1984) opted for a rather radical approach. He made extensive changes to the orchestration focussing on the
basset horn The basset horn (sometimes hyphenated as basset-horn) is a member of the clarinet family of musical instruments. Construction and tone Like the clarinet, the instrument is a wind instrument with a single reed and a cylindrical bore (wind in ...
s much more, retained Eybler's ninth and tenth measures of the "Lacrymosa", substantially lengthened that movement and added an extended "Amen" fugue to it. He reworked the "Osanna" fugues using Süßmayr's theme, significantly extending their length. He also rewrote the "Benedictus" using the opening theme as its starting point, elaborating on it considerably longer than probably every other version. * Simon Andrews (1985–2016) re-worked Süssmayr's instrumentation in a rather conservative way, oftentimes preferring Eybler's additions. He changed the voice leading where he considered it wrong and extended the "Osanna" considerably. He was the first to attribute the woodwind parts of the "Introitus" to an author other than Mozart on the basis of his own manuscript analyses. For these reasons, he rewrote these parts. He also presented a totally new orchestration for the Kyrie. He published his edition and a detailed study justifying his approach on his own homepage. *
Richard Maunder Charles Richard Francis Maunder (23 November 1937 – 5 June 2018) was a British mathematician and musicologist. Early life Maunder was educated at the Royal Grammar School, High Wycombe, and Jesus College, Cambridge, before going on to complet ...
(1988) took a radical approach. He rewrote the orchestration working from Mozart's autographs and eliminated Süssmayr's portions except for the "Agnus Dei" and the ending of the work ("Communio"). He recomposed the "Lacrymosa" from bar 9 onwards and incorporated a completion of the "Amen" fugue based on Mozart's sketch. For his instrumentation, he relied on instances from Mozart's late operas that he deemed appropriate. * H. C. Robbins Landon (1992) orchestrated parts of his completion using Eybler's partial work, thinking Eybler's work represents a more reliable guide of Mozart's intentions. Where Eybler left out portions of the score, he filled them in himself. For movements Eybler did not work on, he relied on Süßmayr. * Robert Levin (1993) retained the structure of Süssmayr's orchestration and contributions while adjusting
orchestration Orchestration is the study or practice of writing music for an orchestra (or, more loosely, for any musical ensemble, such as a concert band) or of adapting music composed for another medium for an orchestra. Also called "instrumentation", orch ...
,
voice leading Voice leading (or part writing) is the linear progression of individual melodic lines ( voices or parts) and their interaction with one another to create harmonies, typically in accordance with the principles of common-practice harmony and cou ...
, and other instrumental passages, trying to match the instrumentation more to the practice in Salzburg. Other notable features included the execution of the "Amen" fugue and an extension of Süssmayr's "Osanna" fugue, following models of the ''Great Mass in C minor'', K. 427. In an interview Levin gave to
Arie Vardi Arie Vardi (; born 1937) is a classical pianist, conductor, and piano pedagogue. He is laureate of the Israel Prize in 2017. Biography Vardi was born in Tel Aviv and graduated from the Rubin Academy (renamed the Buchmann-Mehta School of Music in ...
he claimed to have changed the traditional completion "...as little as possible, so that it is not to disturb the weight of the centuries". *Pánczél Tamás (2006) revised Süssmayr's instrumentation. He furthermore extended the "Lacrymosa" considerably and much more radical than any other editor, adding a middle section for the soloists. He also added an extensive "Amen" fugue, and rewrote the "Benedictus" ending to lead into the "Osanna" reprise, as most completers did. *Clemens Kemme (2006–2009) rewrote the orchestration in a style closer to Eybler's, emphasizing the
basset horn The basset horn (sometimes hyphenated as basset-horn) is a member of the clarinet family of musical instruments. Construction and tone Like the clarinet, the instrument is a wind instrument with a single reed and a cylindrical bore (wind in ...
s in particular, and reworking the "Sanctus", "Benedictus", and extended "Osanna" fugue. *Letho Kostoglou (2010) tried to fill the blanks of Mozart's manuscript in a similar vein and rhythmic patterns in completed works; unlike Gordon Kerry, he tried to keep his completion in a very close style to Mozart's. * Benjamin-Gunnar Cohrs (2013) provided entirely new instrumentation based on Eybler's ideas, new elaborations of the "Amen" and "Osanna" fugues, and a new continuity of the "Lacrymosa" (after bar 18), "Sanctus", "Benedictus", and "Agnus Dei", employing those bars which Cohrs speculated Mozart might have sketched himself. *Pierre-Henri Dutron (2016) revised Süssmayr's version. He rewrote the "Sanctus" and "Benedictus" from opening themes onward and took creative liberties concerning the vocals between the chorus and soloists. Conductor
René Jacobs René Jacobs (born 30 October 1946) is a Belgian musician. He came to fame as a countertenor, but later in his career he became known as a conductor of baroque and classical opera. Biography Countertenor Born in Ghent, Jacobs began his musi ...
used Dutron's completion for performances in 2016 and recorded it. *R. C. Keitamo (2016–2018) provided a new orchestration by taking into account motivic material from other late Mozart works, reworked the "Lacrymosa", and fleshed out the "Amen" fugue. Like Maunder, this edition dispensed with Süssmayr's "Sanctus", "Osanna", and "Benedictus". For the "Agnus Dei" he opted to present a contrafactum of the
Kyrie in D minor, K. 341 The Kyrie in D minor, K. 341/368a, is a sacred composition from 1780/1781 or 1791 for choir and large classical orchestra by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. It is a setting of the Kyrie, the first section of the Mass, using an orchestra of two flutes, tw ...
, adapted to the Requiem's instrumentation. * Masato Suzuki (2017) followed a methodology similar to Robbins Landon in relying basically on Eybler's instrumentation but elaborated further on Süssmayr's sections Eybler did not work on. He also included a short "Amen" fugue, adding a basso obbligato to Mozart's primary material from the beginning. * Michael Ostrzyga (2017–2020) re-evaluated Süßmayr's and Eybler's addition and took into account the influence from Bach and Handel as well as from works in Mozart's environment. Involving the performers, he offers alternative performance options for the "Lacrymosa", "Sanctus" and "Benedictus". In one of these, he offers a Sanctus in D minor in order to preserve the second "Osanna" from Süßmayr's manuscript. For the "Lacrymosa", Ostryzga offers a version with Süßmayr's short cadence and another with a newly composed "Amen" fugue. The edition was commissioned by the Harvard Summer Chorus and recorded by Florian Helgath. *Jan Groth (2017–2018) made radical changes to the orchestration and rewrote Süßmayr's compositions, completely remaking Sussmayr's instrumentation and drastically increasing the use of the trumpets and timpani. Beyond that, he also completed the Amen fugue sketch and extended Süßmayr's "Sanctus", "Benedictus" and "Agnus Dei". * Howard Arman (2020) provides new orchestrations to the Sequence and the Offertorium, besides adding an entirely new "Lacrymosa" and "Amen" fugue based on Mozart's original sketch. He does not makes changes to the "Sanctus", "Benedictus" and "Agnus Dei", claiming that the editorial changes to those movements "...change Süssmayr’s music in a way that does not match his intentions – and come nowhere close to the intentions of Mozart". Arman recorded his version with the
Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin A German Akademie is a school or college, trade school or another educational institution. The word Akademie (unlike the words Gymnasium or Universität) is not protected by law, and any school or college may choose to call itself Akademie. A Som ...
and the
Chor des Bayerischen Rundfunks (; "Bavarian Broadcasting"), shortened to BR (), is a public-service radio and television broadcaster, based in Munich, capital city of the Free State of Bavaria in Germany. BR is a member organization of the ARD consortium of public broadcas ...
.


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Requiem (Mozart)
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Musical compositions completed by others