MOZART AND THE PRACTICE OF SACRED MUSIC, 1781-91 a ...

FIVE
Mozart’s Obsequies
342
Die Musik bey der Todtenmesse zeichnet sich wegen der ihr
eigenen Composition sehr aus, sie ist voll Ausdruck, erregt
fromme Empfindungen, und ist so ganz für das Herz gemacht.
Ignaz de Luca, Topographie von Wien 1
Intanto raccomando questa mia creatura
catholica alle di Lei grazie e protezione...
Franz Xaver Süssmayr to Salieri 2
The tradition of composers writing music for their own funerals and obsequies has a long
and distinguished history. 3 Such compositional efforts can be traced back to the earliest
history of the Requiem as a polyphonic form: Dufay’s three-voice setting, usually said to be
the earliest complete polyphonic setting of the Requiem text, is now lost, 4 but there are many
other settings allegedly or certainly produced in this context, including works by Guerrero,
Gilles, Gassmann, Michael Haydn, Salieri, Cherubini, Zingarelli and Eybler. A number of
these settings were not originally written for their composer’s funeral but found their place
there in any case, with or without the authorisation of their creator.
Due to the highly personal nature of the requiem text, and the obviously emotional
circumstances in which such memorials are created, the circumstances of their preparation
1 Ignaz De Luca, Topographie von Wien, 2 vols. (Vienna: Thad. Edlen von Schmidbauer und Komp., 1794),
i.381-82.
2 Angermüller, Dokumente, ii.389-90.
3 Portions of this chapter appeared in an earlier form in my paper “The Exequien for Mozart at St. Michael’s,”
presented at the conference “Mozart’s Choral Music: Composition, Contexts, Performance,” Bloomington, IN,
12 February 2006.
4 Craig Wright, “Dufay at Cambrai: Discoveries and Revisions,” Journal of the American Musicological Society 28
(1975): 218-20, William F. Prizer, “Music and Ceremonial in the Low Countries: Philip the Fair and the
Order of the Golden Fleece,” Early Music History 5 (1985): 133-35.