Sussmayrs and Maunders Editions of Mozarts Requiem Essay

Sussmayrs and Maunders Editions of Mozarts Requiem - Essay Example It is reported that Mozart’s Requiem mass was assigned by Count Walsegg to Mozart in the memory of his wife in early 1791. Mozart started his work on this classical work in the fall of 1791, during this work he suffered from fever and died without completing his requiem (Levin et al., 2008). According to Grout, Burkholder and Palisca (2005), the requiem Aeternam, figured bass, choral, and several essential instrumental components of first 8 measures of Lacrimosa; Domine Jesu Christ as well as Hostias were at the initial stages. It was Franz Xaver Sussmayr, who was working with Mozart at that time, who completed the incomplete Mozart’s Requiem. From definition, a requiem refers to the mass for the dead as the first line of the introit says, â€Å"Eternal rest grant them, O Lord† (Mozart, 1998). There are different editions of Mozart’s Requiem and all are dissimilar from each other. There is controversy on the script and structure of different editions. However, it is very evident that it was written in 1791 in ‘Requiem in D minor, K. 626’ by Mozart and was the last as well as best recognized and the most impressive composition of his life (Harrison, 1997). Its music was a classical addition to western music and its complicated compositional history. The recent studies reveal that the aeternam was also added with some orchestral bars by another composer. Kyrie and Dies Irae to Confutatis were in the form of vocal parts at the death of Mozart. Moreover, some of the most well-known orchestral parts were also indicated by him, example of the orchestral contribution from Mozart include violin element of Confutatis and melodious links in the Recordare (Leeson, 2004). During twentieth century, many musicologists pointed out several weaknesses in the traditional edition of Mozart’s Requiem which was accomplished by Sussmayr. Therefore, they offered alternative editions of the Requiem. After the traditional edition, five other editions of Mozart’s work have been represented by Beyer, Druce, Maunder, Landon and Levin. Every one of these musicologists completed the Requiem by following a different approach. Beyer presented an edition that offered revisions of Sussmayr’s orchestration and claimed to make them more familiar to Mozart’s style. On the other hand, Maunder’s edition agreed with the orchestral parts of Sussmayr’s edition but decided to retain the Agnus Dei when he discovered an exclusive phrase in Sparrow Mass, K. 220 (Davies, 2004). The next section gives detailed overview of the two editions of Mozart’s Requiem, the traditional edition of accomplished by Sussmayr and Maunder’s edition, assessment of the resources and their mutual relationship be discussed. An investigation in to the sources of Sussmayr’s and Maunder’s Editions of Mozart’s Requiem and their relationship to each other Wolff and Whittall (1998) described the tradition edition of Requiem completed by Sussmayr. They expressed a strong belief in the authenticity and originality of this score. It is the only score that must be protected as the most existing, chronological,