Output details

Completion of Mozart Requiem Fragment K.626, movements 8, 9, and 12.

These choruses are extracted from an edition and completion of Mozart’s Requiem. They form part of the ongoing ‘Mozart Fragments Project’ at the Royal Academy of Music (www.ram.ac.uk/mozartfragments). The submitted chorus are the movements which required the most reconstruction and therefore involved the most research in the preparation of the completed work.

The three choruses raise different research questions. The material of the Lacrimosa and Amen comes from surviving sources in Mozart’s hand. The editor researched a way to develop the given material into a stylistically convincing prelude and fugue, giving due consideration to the proportions of the movements in relation to the Sequence as a whole, and to the fugal subject's propensity for stretto. In contrast, there is no material evidence that the themes of Süßmayr's Sanctus originated from Mozart, and their authenticity has been contested. The editor's research on the fugue subject of the Osanna revealed a striking potential for stretto treatment. This is in line with Mozart's fondness for stretto in his late fugues (eg the Kyrie in the Requiem), but is at odds with the cursory Osanna fugue (without stretto) composed by Süßmayr. The editor therefore believes that his research points unmistakably towards the Mozartian authenticity of the motives in Süßmayr's Osanna.

The completion was given its first performance on 11 November 2010 in Christ Church Cathedral Oxford with the Choir of Christ Church Cathedral and the Oxford Philomusica conducted by Stephen Darlington. Evidence of this public performance may be found on page 4 of this document: http://www.chch.ox.ac.uk/sites/default/files/Christ%20Church%20Matters%20~%20Issue%2026.pdf

The submission takes the form of a score and a CD recording.