Requiem in D minor, K. 626

A slow, dark opening in D minor, and the only number in the Requiem that Mozart orchestrated in full. Bassoons and then basset horns present the main theme in imitation, an idea that echoes Handel's funeral anthem. After the introduction the chorus enters, with the basses alone in the first bar. A soprano soloist later sings “Te decet hymnus” to an old chant formula, not a tune of Mozart's. The Introit ends on a half cadence, a pause that leaves the Kyrie to answer it.

1. 0:05Introduction
2. 0:48A
3. 1:30Transition
4. 2:06B
5. 2:34Transition
6. 3:19C
7. 4:25Coda

A double fugue, that is, a fugue with two subjects, which follows the Introit without a break. The first subject is a traditional “cross” figure of the kind Bach, Handel and Haydn used; the second comes from the last chorus of Handel's Dettingen Anthem. Long chromatic runs of sixteenth-notes make the voices climb in intensity. The music moves through sections A, B and C before the coda. The movement ends with a slow Adagio passage on a bare fifth, an old-fashioned sound.

1. 4:49A
2. 5:26B
3. 6:23C
4. 6:51Coda

The “Day of Wrath” opens the Sequence with chorus and orchestra at full strength: string tremolo, syncopated rhythms and repeated chords in the brass. A rising chromatic run of sixteenth-notes drives the chorus up on “Quantus tremor est futurus” (how great the trembling will be). That idea is repeated with developed harmony, then the sound suddenly drops to a trembling unison. A new section, B, follows, and then a closing section, the coda.

1. 7:14A
2. 7:53B
3. 8:38Coda

“Hark, the trumpet”: a solo tenor trombone, alone, plays a three-note arpeggio in B flat major, and the bass soloist imitates it two bars later. A pause at the end of the introduction is the only solo cadenza in the Requiem. The tenor, alto and soprano then enter in turn, and the quartet sings “Cum vix justus” together and unaccompanied, with the violins and bass answering. After the introduction the music falls into sections A, B, C and D.

1. 8:56Introduction
2. 9:25A
3. 9:58B
4. 10:46C
5. 11:20D

“King of tremendous majesty” lasts only 22 bars. The orchestra announces the king with a falling melody in dotted rhythm, and the chorus cries “Rex!” in the orchestra's pauses, oddly on the second beat of the bar. The chorus then takes over the dotted rhythm, in the style of a salute to royalty. Chordal and contrapuntal writing alternate in section B, and the coda ends on a nearly unaccompanied cadence on an open D chord.

1. 12:40A
2. 13:11B
3. 14:08Coda

At 130 bars the longest number and the first in triple time. Basset horns introduce the first theme over descending scales in the cellos, and the four soloists take it up. A second theme on “Ne me perdas” has a plainer accompaniment of repeated chords. The development begins with section B, with the first theme returning at A1 and developed alone in section C. The recapitulation arrives with A2, and the last bars fade into descending orchestral scales.

1. 15:00A
2. 16:31B
3. 17:10A1
4. 17:56C
5. 18:50A2

A contrast between hell and mercy. Tenors and basses burst out forte in a dotted rhythm on the damned, with only the continuo, then stop. In section B, sopranos and altos answer softly on “Voca me cum benedictis” (call me with the blessed) over arpeggios in the strings. The contrast is repeated in A1 and B1. In section C the prayer “Oro supplex” makes a striking move from A minor to A flat minor, and a final dominant seventh chord leads into the Lacrimosa.

1. 20:41A
2. 20:59B
3. 21:09A1
4. 21:32B1
5. 21:59C

A rocking figure in twelve-eight begins quietly in the strings, cut by rests, and the chorus joins on “Lacrimosa dies illa” (that tearful day) after two bars. Two bars later the sopranos rise by step, first detached, then smooth and chromatic in a crescendo. The chorus is at full volume by the end of the opening eight bars, and those eight bars are all that Mozart wrote of the movement. From section B on, the music is Süssmayr's, ending with an Amen cadence.

1. 22:59A
2. 23:51B
3. 25:12A1