Separating truth about Mozart's 'Requiem' from the legends

When the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra and Chorus performs Mozart’s “Requiem” Friday through next Sunday, the performers will be wading into one of music history’s most intriguing stories.

Nothing in Mozart’s short life was simple — not being paraded before the aristocracy of Europe as a child prodigy, not the effects his prodigy had on his adult life, not his relationships with colleagues, and certainly not the stories that have grown up around the “Requiem” he left unfinished when he died.

Even today, 225 years after his death, many questions remain unanswered about his monumental “Requiem.” The depth and power of the music, from its sighing “Lacrimosa” to its raging “Dies Irae,” are not in question.

The profundity of his composition is also not in question, which is why it was chosen to give voice to world’s grief on the one-year anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on America, via a project called the Rolling Requiem.

The Rolling Requiem consisted of a performance of Mozart’s “Requiem” that began at 8:46 a.m., in each time zone on the planet, the minute in which the first plane had struck the World Trade Center one year earlier. The performances overlapped to “roll” across the globe.

Despite its place in the classical repertoire today, myth and mystery have surrounded Mozart’s “Requiem” since his death, most of which is more fiction than fact.

Yes, the piece was commissioned anonymously, but no, despite playwright Peter Shaffer’s (“Amadeus”) fictional suggestion of Antonio Salieri as the commissioner of the "Requiem," it was actually commissioned by Count Franz von Walsegg. Walsegg, an amateur musician, had a history of passing off the compositions of others as his own and most likely wanted to do the same with “Requiem.”

Yes, Mozart died in poverty. It was not because he couldn’t earn a living, but because he and his wife, Constanze were dreadful at handling money and borrowed continually.

Yes, Mozart worked on the "Requiem" on the night he died, but no, he was not poisoned. His death was most likely caused by a bloodletting intended to treat his rheumatic fever.

Historians believe that by the night of his death, he knew that von Walsegg had commissioned the piece.

Yes, the last words Mozart is believed to have set to music, before his death at age 35, were (translated) “that day of tears and mourning.” And yes, that’s just chilling.

The piece was completed 100 days after Mozart’s death, by Franz Xaver Sussmayr, a student of Salieri and a friend of Mozart’s. He had access to Mozart’s sketches for the unfinished movements.

Several other composers have taken their turn at completing the work since Sussmayr, but his version remains the one most often performed today.

A long tradition

Regardless of its fame and depth of musical and emotional expression, Mozart’s “Requiem” is but a single entry in a long church and musical history of requiems — i.e. setting of liturgical, requiem texts. “Requiem” is the Latin word for “rest.”

The Catholic practice of commemorating someone death’s with the Eucharist has its roots in the second century. Requiem chants from the 10th century have survived to the present day.

One of the oldest “modern” requiems that exists today, written by Johannes Ockeghem, dates to about 1470.

Brahms’ “Requiem,” completed in 1868 and titled “Ein Deutsches Requiem” ("A German Requiem"), is a non-liturgical work, written in German. Neither commissioned nor dedicated to any individual(s), this work for soprano, baritone, chorus and orchestra is believed to have been an expression of Brahms’ grief over the deaths of his mother and Robert Schumann. It was intended as comfort for the living, rather than a prayer for the deceased.

Verdi’s “Requiem” is a setting of the Roman Catholic Requiem Mass, which was composed in memory of Italian poet and author Alessandro Manzoni.

Written for four soloists, double chorus, and full orchestra, this full-voiced, brassy piece, which is full of passion and drama, is sometimes referred to as “Verdi’s greatest opera.”

Benjamin Britten’s 90-minute, non-liturgical “War Requiem,” was completed in 1962. Written for soprano, tenor, baritone, boy’s choir, adult chorus, organ and two orchestras, the piece was commissioned for the consecration of Coventry Cathedral, which was built beside, and incorporating, the ruins of the fourteenth-century Coventry Cathedral that was destroyed during World War II.

Dvorak, Berlioz, Faure, Saint-Saens, Durufle, Rutter, Penderecki, and even Andrew Lloyd Webber, are among the many composers who have written requiems.

Perusing lists of various musicians’ and arts writers’ “top ten” requiems, one can’t help noticing that Antonio Salieri’s “Requiem” never gets so much as a mention.

IF YOU GO

The Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra and Chorus will perform Mozart's "Requiem" March 31-April 2 at St. Josaphat Basilica, 2333 S. 6th St. For tickets, visitwww.mso.orgor call (414) 291-7605.