Requiem (Michael Haydn)

Michael Haydn wrote the Missa pro defuncto Archiepiscopo Sigismondo, or more generally Missa pro Defunctis, Klafsky I:8, MH 155, following the death of the Count Archbishop Sigismund von Schrattenbach in Salzburg in December 1771. Haydn completed the Requiem before the year was over, signing it "S[oli] D[eo] H[onor] et G[loria.] Salisburgi 31 Dicembre 1771." At the beginning of that year, his daughter Aloisia Josefa[1] died. Historians believe "his own personal bereavement" motivated the composition.[2] Contemporary materials which have survived to the present day include the autograph score found in Berlin, a set of copied parts with many corrections in Haydn's hand in Salzburg and another set at the Esterházy castle in Eisenstadt, and a score prepared by the Salzburg copyist Nikolaus Lang found in Munich.[3]

Requiem
by Michael Haydn
The composer
Full titleMissa pro defuncto Archiepiscopo Sigismondo
KeyC minor
CatalogueKlafsky I:8, MH 155
OccasionRequiem of Sigismund von Schrattenbach
TextRequiem
LanguageLatin
Composed1771 (1771)
VocalSATB choir and soloists
Instrumental
  • brass and timpani
  • strings
  • continuo

Instrumentation
First page of M.Haydn's Requiem

The mass is scored for the vocal soloists and mixed choir, two bassoons,[4] four trumpets in C, three trombones, timpani and strings with basso continuo.

Structure

The composition is structuret in the following five parts:

  1. Requiem aeternam Adagio, C minor, common time
  2. Sequentia Dies irae Andante maestoso, C minor, 3/4
  3. Offertorium Domine Jesu Christe
    • "Rex gloriae" Andante moderato, G minor, common time
    • "Quam olim Abrahae" Vivace, G minor, cut time
    • "Hostias et preces" Andante, G minor, common time
    • "Quam olim Abrahae" Vivace e più Allegro, G minor, cut time
  4. Sanctus Andante, C minor, 3/4
    • "Benedictus qui venit..." Allegretto, E-flat major, 3/4
  5. Agnus Dei et Communio
    • "Agnus Dei, qui tollis peccata mundi" Adagio con moto, C minor, common time
    • "Cum sanctis tuis" Allegretto, C minor, cut time
    • "Requiem aeternam" Adagio, C minor, common time
    • "Cum sanctis tuis" Allegretto, C minor, cut time

Tempo

Sherman recommends a tempo relation in which "in Agnus Dei et Communio, the of both Agnus Dei and Requiem aeternam equals of the fugue Cum sanctis tuis."[5] Sherman also recommends interpreting the Andante maestoso of the Dies Irae at "a pulse of = MM. 104."[6] Leopold Mozart instructs "that the staccato indicates a lifting of the bow from the string" with no accent implied.[7]

Influence in Mozart's Requiem

Both Leopold and his son Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart were present at the first three performances of Haydn's Requiem in January 1772,[8][9] and Wolfgang was influenced in the writing of his own Requiem in D minor, K. 626.[10] In fact, Michael Haydn's Requiem is "an important model for Mozart" and strongly suggests that Franz Xaver Süssmayr's completion of Mozart's way does not depart "in any way from Mozart's plans."[11]

Notes
  1. Max Kenyon, Mozart in Salzburg: A Study and Guide. New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons: 154. "Haydn's second child, so quickly baptized on the day she was born, was named Josepha : had Michael his great brother in mind ?"
  2. p. [i] (1969) Sherman
  3. p. [ii] (1969) Sherman
  4. p. [i] (1969) Sherman. Though the score says "Fagotto," in the preface Sherman writes: "Two bassoons are necessary to reinforce the basses at the octave."
  5. p. [ii] (1969) Sherman
  6. p. [ii] (1969) Sherman
  7. p. [ii] (1969) Sherman
  8. p. 537 (1995) Heartz
  9. p. 65, Wolff (1998) Christoph. Berkeley, California Mozart's Requiem: historical and analytical studies, documents, score University of California Press
  10. p. 538 (1995) Heartz
  11. p. 70 (1998) Wolff

References
  • Heartz (1995) Daniel. New York. Haydn, Mozart, and the Viennese School: 1740 — 1780 W. W. Norton & Co.
  • Sherman (1969) Charles. Mainz Foreword to Missa pro Defunctis Universal Edition
  • Wolff (1998) Christoph. Berkeley, California Mozart's Requiem: Historical and Analytical Studies, Documents, Score University of California Press
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