Few works have given rise to so many commentaries and legends, or fired so many imaginations as Mozart's Requiem. Musicologists, writers, film-makers have all come up with their own theories, which, when all is said and done, convince nobody but themselves. The very fact that we have so few reliable elements to go on has helped to give the work an aura of mystery. The Requiem was the last work Mozart wrote, which leads to the supposition that he composed it for himself. The fact that it was left unfinished adds still further to its strange glory: Mozart departed from this world, taking with him the last bars-we shall never know his intentions. Then there is the story of mysterious messenger dressed in black who called on him while he was at work on The Magic Flute, asking him to compose a requiem under conditions of secrecy... Once we have cast aside all those elements that are more a question of romantic speculation than of solid historical fact, however, the truth-which is obviously not quite so magical as the legend-may be summarized in just a few lines. In July 1791 a stranger-who was indeed dressed in black-came to see the composer. He had been sent by Count Walsegg to offer him a commission. The Count, who was a music-lover and had recently been widowed, wanted to dedicate a requiem mass to his late wife. The terms of the commission were very precise and were later to be confirmed legaly, before a lawyer. This mass was to remain anonymous (Mozart was even forbiden to make a copy of it). There are two possible reasons for this: firstly, the Count may have wished to arouse curiosity and sagacity of those who were to hear the work; secondly, he may have wanted pass it off as his own. Mozart, who was then going through hard times, morally, phisically and materially, accepted the offer-for the sum of a hundred ducats (or perhaps it was only fifty... we do not really know). And he sat the work on this funeral mass which was to be his last work-and his first sacred work since the abandoned Mass in C minor of 1783. As we have seen, Mozart never finished it. But even in its unfinished state (and perhaps also because of the fact that it is incomplete), the Requiem is an extremely moving and formidable work. It is an expression of sorrow and terror, but also of faith, hope and charity. Mozart never considered death with fear or revolt.
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