Requiem as a Genre

• Special type of mass from late 15th C onward

• There were local variants of text construction until after the Council of Trent

  • Introit

  • Kyrie

  • Gradual

  • Tract

  • Sequence

  • Agnus Dei

  • Communion

  • Responsory

  • Antiphon

• Different composers set different sections

Mozart Requiem

• History

  • The factual events surrounding Mozart Requiem lend itself to fiction

  • Mozart dies on December 5, 1791, leaving the work unfinished

  • The score is finished by Franz Xaver Süssmayr

• Musical Characteristics

  • Primacy of Vocal Parts

  • Relatively small instrumentation

    • use of basset horn

  • Handelian-like vocal writing

  • Varying vocal styles

    • imitative

    • chordal declaration

    • fugue

  • vocal textures as structural devices