Arranged for String Quartet.

Lacrimosa:

The work was never delivered by Mozart, who died before he had finished composing it, only finishing the first few bars of the Lacrimosa. The opening movement, Requiem aeternam, was the only section to be completed. It was brushed into some sort of shape by Mozart’s only composition pupil, Sussmayr, but to the complete lack of satisfaction of scholars down the centuries. As a result, the world and his wife have tried to complete it after him. Regardless, the Requiem still sounds wonderful to most ears.

To add further intrigue, when the unfinished manuscript was displayed in Brussels in the 1950s, a section was torn from the last page and never retrieved. As Mozart worked on the Requiem on his deathbed, it’s highly likely that someone stole the last notes ever written by Mozart.

The chords begin piano on a rocking rhythm in 128, intercut with quarter rests, which will be reprised by the choir after two measures, on Lacrimosa dies illa ("This tearful day"). Then, after two measures, the sopranos begin a diatonic progression, in disjointed eighth-notes on the text resurget ("will be reborn"), then legato and chromatic on a powerful crescendo. The choir is forte by m. 8, at which point Mozart's contribution to the movement is interrupted by his death.

Süssmayr brings the choir to a reference of the Introit and ends on an Amen cadence. Discovery of a fragmentary Amen fugue in Mozart's hand has led to speculation that it may have been intended for the Requiem. Indeed, many modern completions (such as Levin's) complete Mozart's fragment. Some sections of this movement are quoted in the Requiem Mass of Franz von Suppé, who was a great admirer of Mozart. Ray Robinson, the music scholar and president (from 1969 to 1987) of the Westminster Choir College, suggests that Süssmayr used materials from Credo of one of Mozart's earlier Masses, Mass in C major, K. 220 "Sparrow" in completing this movement.