Requiem, K626, in Full Score (Dover Miniature Scores: Choral) - Softcover

Mozart, Wolfgang Amadeus

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0486401162 ISBN 13: 9780486401164

Publisher: Dover Publications, 1998

Synopsis

A masterpiece of the choral literature, Mozart's Requiem, his last work, was commissioned in the summer of 1791 but left incomplete at the time of the composer's death in December of the same year. His colleague Franz Süssmayer finished the work, based on sketches left by Mozart.
In the two centuries since its composition, the Requiem has become one of the most recorded and performed works in the repertoire. Reprinted here from the authoritative Breitkopf & Härtel edition, it combines orchestra, chorus, and four soloists in a deeply moving, elegiac work of glowing intensity.
This edition of the Requiem is in full score, with bar-numbered movements for easy reference. Ideal for study in the classroom, at home, or in the concert hall, this affordable, durable, and portable volume will be the edition of choice for music students and music lovers alike.

About this title

Review:

Contrary to popular fiction (Peter Shaffer's fanciful play Amadeus), there is no particular mystery surrounding the commissioning of Mozart's Requiem. A Viennese musical dilettante who was fond of ordering up music from established composers and then passing (or trying to pass) it off as his own work originally commissioned it. There's more question about how much of it Mozart composed in full or left sketches for, and how much his colleague Franz Sussmayer--asked by Constanze Mozart to complete the work--wrote on his own. Sussmayer, unsurprisingly, claimed a great deal for himself; Constanze averred that her husband had virtually completed the piece before his death and simply left the detail work to be done by another. Many later musicians have been highly critical of Sussmayer's additions, and several other notable composers, including Benjamin Britten, have tried their hands at finishing up and filling in Mozart's musical ideas.

Readers can play musical detective and decide for themselves just what Sussmayer contributed to the work--and how well he did it--with the aid of this full orchestral score from Dover, part of its new series of pocket-sized scores that offer convenient size and affordable prices. As is customary with Dover, this is a reprint of an out-of-print original from another publisher (in this case Breitkopf & Hartel), so it does not contain the most up-to-date musical scholarship, nor does it offer much in the way of informative notes on the music. Despite that, it remains a very useful tool for students and music lovers alike. --Sarah Bryan Miller

About the Author:

A child prodigy who blossomed into the Classical era's most influential composer, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756–91) wrote more than 600 works in his brief life. His oeuvre encompasses a wide variety of genres, including symphonic, chamber, operatic, and choral music.

About this edition

• Publisher: Dover Publications
• Publication date: 1998
• ISBN 10: 0486401162
• ISBN 13: 9780486401164
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 112