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Mozart composed 14 pieces that are commonly called "Epistle Sonatas," though the designation is somewhat misleading. "Sonata," which often refers to a work for piano alone or for a solo instrument with piano accompaniment, is used here in its older meaning of a composition to be played by an instrumental ensemble. These works are scored for small orchestra with organ (occasionally as a featured solo part) and are meant to be played as part of a celebration of the Mass. The placement of the pieces within the Mass was not well understood for a long time; now we know that they took the place of the Gradual and thus occurred between the reading of the Epistle and Gospel. While the orchestra played, the priest said the words of the Gradual quietly to himself.

Many of Mozart's Epistle Sonatas can be directly linked with one of his Masses: they were written around the same time, in the same key, and use the same instrumentation. That is not the case, however, with K. 278. It was therefore written either for a revival of an earlier C Major Mass by Mozart (K. 257 and 258 are likely candidates—they use the same instrumentation as this sonata) or perhaps to be played during a Mass written by another composer. As is typical of Austrian church music during Mozart's lifetime, the orchestra does not include violas. This kind of ensemble is often referred to as a "church trio": two violin parts, and a bass line played by the cellos and double bass. It is a vestige of an Italian tradition that emerged in the late seventeenth century.

The piece is a compact fast movement in the style of the opening movement of a symphony or of an opera overture. The exposition begins with a fanfare-like theme that recalls the style of the Mannheim composers Mozart admired so much (shortly after writing this piece, he would visit Mannheim and stay far longer than planned—to his father's chagrin). The dancelike second theme features the oboes. After a brief development section, the first themes return, but the opening music does not appear until the very end of the piece. The fanfare that opened the work thus closes it with a flourish.



2. Recitative and Rondo: Ch’io mi scordi di te…Non temer, amato bene, K. 505

Composed in Vienna, December 26, 1786
Instrumentation: 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 2 horns, violin 1 and 2, viola, cello, bass, piano, soprano solo

Mozart wrote this piece as a farewell gift to Nancy Storace (1765 - 1817), the soprano who had created the role of Susanna in Le nozze di Figaro in the spring of 1786. Storace was leaving for London after a four-year sojourn in Vienna, where she had made a stunning success. All the leading composers of the day had written opera roles expressly for her to sing. Storace performed "Ch’io mi scordi" in her Viennese farewell concert, with Mozart himself playing the concerto-like piano part. The text is adapted from various portions of the libretto for Idomeneo by Varesco.

In a style typical of opera seria (the formal, high operatic style that survived from the Baroque), there is an opening recitative (narrative) that is accompanied by the strings of the orchestra. The full orchestra joins on the aria itself, which is called a rondo because the opening words of the aria are treated as a refrain. The piece concludes with a faster, more dramatic section. This is unusual for a rondo (which normally alternates opening material with contrasting sections), so Mozart has adapted the form: the aria opens with the refrain, which comes back at the end of the slower section with the same music. When the words recur during the fast section, Mozart has provided them with a new melody, and this in turn leads to a repetition of the entire text. The resulting structure is unorthodox but eminently logical—each section has its own three-part song form:

Slow section (Andante):
A: Non temer... (E-flat major) [refrain]
B: Tu sospiri... (B-flat major)
A: Non temer... (E-flat major) [repeats the text and music of A]

Faster section (Allegretto)
C: Alme belle... (E-flat major)
D: Non temer... (A-flat major) [text of A (new music), continues with the text of B]
C: Alme belle... (E-flat major) [repeats text and music, with slight alterations, of C above]

In addition to his Masses, Mozart wrote music for Vespers (the evening service). These consist of five psalm settings and a Magnificat. Undoubtedly, this setting of Psalm 116 (in the Vulgate; Psalm 117 in the English Bible) is among the most memorable Mozart composed.

Mozart had left Salzburg in 1777 as a twenty-one year old seeking his fortune and hoping for a major court appointment. He had been offered the post of organist to the court of Louis XVI at Versailles, but he had turned it down: the position did not offer him scope for his talents, and he had no opportunity to compose operas, which he was convinced would ensure his success and reputation. After a year abroad, he returned to Salzburg to resume his duties as a church musician. Coming home must have been a blow to the young man's pride; within two years he would leave Salzburg for Vienna, where he lived for the last decade of his life.

The Solemn Vespers of a Confessor stands at the beginning of Mozart's great maturity as a composer. Shortly after he wrote this work, he would compose most of the pieces we associate with his name, including his most famous operas and symphonies. (It is ironic that we know Mozart as a child prodigy, but few of his compositions from before 1780 are performed today.) The voice of the mature Mozart is clearly evident in the floating melody of the soprano, so lovingly supported by the strings and chorus. The plaintive bassoon adds a note of warmth and perhaps melancholy that colors much of Mozart's greatest music.

The choice of atmosphere here may seem an odd one for a psalm whose text is "Praise the Lord, all ye nations." Surrounded by festive psalm settings in the full work, this magnificently lyrical aria seems to focus on the mood of the second verse of the psalm, which speaks of God's love and mercy. In its touching lyricism, it calls to mind the great reflections on love that Mozart wrote for the heroines of his later operas.



4. Recitative and Aria from Le nozze di Figaro (The Marriage of Figaro), K. 492:
E Susanna non vien! … Dove sono

Composed in Vienna, spring 1786
Instrumentation: 2 oboes, 2 bassoons, 2 horns, violin 1 and 2, viola, cello, bass, soprano solo

Le nozze di Figaro is one of three operas Mozart wrote with the librettist Lorenzo da Ponte (1749 - 1838; the others are Don Giovanni and Così fan tutte). The opera is based on a play by Beaumarchais that had been banned in Vienna for its political overtones. Da Ponte and Mozart excised the offending speeches and concentrated on the plot's comic intrigues: there are disguises, people hiding in one another's bedrooms, old contracts that must be fulfilled, a philandering count and his wronged wife, and wily servants who make everything work out for the best—all the classic elements of farce.

The Countess is a serious figure in the midst of all the comedy. She has married the Count as a young bride; he, having won her, has almost immediately lost interest in her. He is pursuing all the pretty young women in his employ, including the Countess's maid, Susanna. The Countess and Susanna devise a plan to embarrass the Count into contrition: Susanna will send a note to the Count agreeing to meet him in the garden by moonlight; the Countess will go instead, dressed in Susanna's clothing.

The Countess sings "Dove sono" in Act 3 of the opera as she waits for Susanna to come and write the letter. She is apprehensive: Susanna has not arrived, and the Countess worries that the plan will fail. Then she recalls the Count's many vices and mourns the loss of his affections. To emphasize her dignity, the recitative and aria are in the same opera seria style as "Ch’io mi scordi": there is a recitative accompanied by the strings, followed by an aria with a lyrical opening and a faster conclusion. The lyrical, soaring melody of this aria is among the most magnificent Mozart ever wrote.



5. Regina coeli, K. 276

Composed in Salzburg, spring 1779 (?)
Instrumentation: 2 oboes, 2 trumpets, timpani, violin 1 and 2, cello, bass, organ, soprano, alto, tenor, and bass solos, chorus

Because no manuscript of this work survives, the date of its composition cannot be determined with certainty. Current thinking is that it belongs to the period after Mozart's return to Salzburg. The text is a Marian Antiphon that would have been sung at Vespers in the period beginning with Easter and continuing until the week after Pentecost. Easter in 1779 occurred on April 4, so the premiere could have been anytime in April or May, and it would most likely have been written sometime in March.

The text urges Mary to celebrate the resurrection of her son. Focusing on "laetare" (rejoice), the work is appropriately joyful, with a fanfare-like opening and fast running passages for the chorus, especially on the recurring word "alleluia." The form of the work looks both back to the eighteenth-century tradition of church music and forward to the latest techniques of form emerging in instrumental music. Like the Sonata that opens our program, the overall design of Regina coeli resembles the opening movement of a symphony. The alternation of the solo quartet with the chorus, however, recalls the contrast of solo and full ensembles characteristic of the Baroque.

The first theme outlines a C major chord in a typical rising figure. The key shifts to G major for the second theme, sung by the soloists to the words "quia quem meruisti." A short development section moves through a variety of keys, and the whole text is repeated beginning at the recapitulation. By aligning the sections of the text with the parts of the relatively new sonata- allegro form, Mozart shows himself to be an innovator. He would use similar strategies in the mature operas of his last decade, revealing and exploiting the inherent drama of the design.



6. Requiem in D Minor, K. 626 (completed by Franz Xaver Süssmayr)

Composed in Vienna, October-December 1791
Instrumentation: 2 basset horns, 2 bassoons, 2 trumpets, 3 trombones, timpani, violin 1 and 2, viola, cello, bass, organ, soprano, alto, tenor, and bass solos, chorus

In the summer of 1791, the last year of Mozart's life, he was approached to write a Requiem Mass (the story is treated more fully in my essay "Still No Rest for the Requiem"). He was busy: he was planning an opera with his friend Emmanuel Schikaneder (The Magic Flute), he would compose an opera to be performed in Prague during the festivities to celebrate the crowning of Emperor Leopold II (La clemenza di Tito), and he wrote numerous shorter compositions. He was, therefore, slow to begin work on the Requiem and did not undertake the composition until sometime in October of 1791, some four months after agreeing to write it.

Mozart was among Vienna's most prominent composers in 1791, with a growing reputation. He held an important (though modestly paid) court post, and he held an honorary position in St. Stephen's cathedral, the principal church in Vienna. He hoped that, on the death of the elderly Kappelmeister at St. Stephen's, he himself might be appointed to the important post. Unfortunately, he did not live to realize this ambition, but he may have approached the writing of the Requiem with particular care and enthusiasm as he contemplated a return to the realm of church music.

Mozart did not live to finish the work. He completed the first movement, Introit and Kyrie, and wrote the choral parts for much of the rest of the piece, leaving the end of the Sequence unfinished (the manuscript of the Lacrymosa breaks off after 8 measures), but composing the vocal parts for the Offertory. The Sequence and Offertory contain the finished vocal parts, along with sketches of crucial passages for the strings.

In order to collect the sum of money that would be paid upon delivery of the finished work, Mozart's widow, Constanze, sought to have the piece completed by one of his friends or students. Several people attempted the task, but all found it too daunting. Finally, Constanze gave the score to Franz Süssmayr (1766 - 1803), who completed the orchestration for the Sequence and Offertory, composed a Sanctus and Benedictus, and provided a setting of the Agnus Dei that could precede a reprise of the opening music for the final prayer. Later, the extent of Süssmayr's contributions to the work became the subject of a dispute between him and Constanze: she claimed that he worked from extensive notes and sketches that Mozart had left and that therefore the work was substantially Mozart's. Süssmayr, on the other hand, claimed that Mozart had discussed the general outlines of the work with him, but had left no detailed instructions or musical material. Bringing the Requiem to fruition, he claimed, was largely his own effort. There was a lively correspondence with the publisher Breitkopf and Härtel over the matter, which was not resolved until shortly before Süssmayr's death in 1803. The Breitkopf and Härtel score, which is still available today, uses the initials M and S to indicate which portions were written by Mozart and which by Süssmayr. Later handwriting analysis supports most of these markings, though a few remain controversial.

In the version completed by Süssmayr, the Mozart Requiem quickly assumed iconic status in the world of music. It was recognized as a profound masterpiece and widely admired (although Beethoven thought it was too operatic and preferred the more austere setting by Luigi Cherubini). Nevertheless, Süssmayr's version was repeatedly criticized for its mistakes: there are places where Süssmayr makes fundamental errors of voice-leading that Mozart would never have made. It has also been criticized for its unvarying instrumentation: Süssmayer simply continued with the same instruments Mozart used in the first movement, though it is widely believed that Mozart would probably have added oboes and possibly flutes to the score in subsequent sections. To address these problems, a number of scholars, composers, and conductors (including such luminaries as Richard Strauss and Benjamin Britten) have either edited Süssmayr's version or provided new completions altogether. Our performance favors the original, contemporary completion as at least having the merit of proximity to Mozart himself. Despite its flaws, Süssmayr's version brought the work recognition as a masterpiece.

The opening section, Introit and Kyrie, begins with a slow introduction. One by one the instruments enter with the somber, plangent melody over the pulsing accompaniment of the strings. The choir enters with its fervent prayer for peace and light, which leads to a soaring melody in the soprano on the words "te decet hymnus." An urgent plea to hear the prayers of the faithful follows, and then the music of the opening returns, now elaborated by a weaving melody in the upper voices before this monumental introduction, with its own ABA form, comes to an end and leads into a faster fugue on the words "Kyrie eleison." The melody of this fugue is an old one; Mozart probably knew it from its use in "And with his stripes" in Handel's Messiah. Mozart was intimately familiar with Messiah, having produced a version of it for private performance by Baron Gottfried van Swieten (1733 - 1803) , the Imperial Librarian, in 1788. Mozart's use of imitative writing and especially of fugue are deliberate attempts to be conservative and therefore timeless: the old-fashioned style of this opening movement is austere and bit forbidding.

The central part of the Requiem is the setting of the Sequence, a long poem written in the Middle Ages and usually attributed to Thomas of Celano (d. ca. 1250). There are 18 stanzas (17 tercets and one quatrain), all rhyming. The poem portrays the Last Judgment in vivid and terrifying terms; along the way, the speaker pleads for mercy at the last hour. Mozart divides the text into six separate movements, creating a small cantata within the Mass itself. The first section, Dies irae, is a fearsome portrayal of the "day of wrath." In contrast to the contrapuntal first movement, this section is fiercely homophonic: the choir seems almost to shout in block chords. In the next section, the bass sings of the last trumpet in a melody that resembles a lullaby, to the accompaniment of the solo trombone (the Latin, tuba, is variously translated: in English, we invariably speak of the last trumpet, but German speakers typically interpret the Latin word as referring to a trombone). The other soloists join in to describe the coming of judgment. The Judge actually arrives in the next movement, Rex tremendae, in dark but majestic tones. The prominence of dotted rhythms in this movement recalls a musical emblem for royalty, befitting the King of Awful Majesty. From the time of Louis XIV, when Lully wrote strongly-dotted music for the entrance of the king, composers have used these dotted figures to represent the monarch. Near the end of the movement, the dignified calls to the king come to an abrupt halt as the choir sings a plea for mercy. A magnificent solo quartet follows. Its warmth and poignant counterpoint emphasize the idea of the merciful Jesus and seeks pardon. The Confutatis follows: the basses and tenors portray sinners cast into Hell, while the strings depict the "searing flames." This alternates with plaintive cries for mercy from the sopranos and altos, and the four parts come together for a final prayer. The Sequence concludes with the Lacrymosa, a moving setting whose texture recalls the opening of the whole Requiem.

The music grows more confident with the Offertory, with its focus on praising Jesus. There are still moments of fear, but they are tempered by the more hymnlike passages that represent deliverance. As the text speaks of being cast into the abyss, Mozart employs a particularly vivid bit of text painting: the jagged theme clearly portrays falling into the deep pit. A short fugue ends the first movement of the Offertory, followed immediately by the prayer of offering itself. This is a straightforward hymn, in minuet style, a lyrical interlude. The fugue is repeated, as the liturgy requires, to bring the movement to a close.

The Sanctus is wholly by Süssmayr. It is rather brief, and some of the writing is a bit awkward in contrast to Mozart's more elegant music. A short fugal Osanna closes the movement: it is little more than a torso of a fugue, and one wonders if it is based on a Mozart sketch that Süssmayr was unwilling (or perhaps unable) to continue. The Benedictus is also entirely by Süssmayr, according to the Breitkopf score, but its melody is so graceful and Mozartean that here, too, we wonder if there is some genuine Mozart material underlying it. No fragments or sketches, beyond the main manuscript itself, have survived for the Requiem. This is not surprising: if they ever existed, Süssmayr would have destroyed them—their survival would have made clear the extent of his role in the creation of the work. If the Benedictus is in fact Süssmayr's composition, it is undoubtedly the finest thing he ever wrote.

The Agnus Dei that opens the last movement is again completely by Süssmayr. This is far more satisfying than the music of the Sanctus, and it even looks forward to similar settings by Schubert in the next century. It leads to a restatement of the music of the opening, now to the concluding words of the prayer, "lux aeterna luceat eis, Domine, cum sanctis tuis in aeternum: quia pius es" (Shine eternal light upon them, Lord, with your saints forever, for you are good). It is not known whether Mozart would have reused the music of the first movement here, but it was not an unusual way to end a Mass. The idea may have been Mozart's, or it may have been Süssmayr's way of ensuring that the work would end with genuine Mozart material; either way, it was following a long tradition of such reprises.

Though Süssmayr's orchestration has been criticized, it does create a simple and almost ascetic atmosphere that allows the power of Mozart's melodies to speak directly to the listener. While the work is dramatic, it is never theatrical. It seems perfectly to reflect Mozart's attitude, expressed in his 1787 letter to his father, that death is "soothing and consoling." And while it may seem odd to celebrate a great and exuberant composer by performing a Mass for the Dead, it is a work of such towering genius that there can really be no better choice: solemn and serene, it is Mozart's most significant and profound work for chorus, and it stands as one of the monuments of Western music.