Requiem

Lacrimosa dies illa
Qua resurget ex favilla
Judicandus homo reus

Lacrimosa dies illa
Qua resurget ex favilla
Judicandus homo reus

Huic ergo parce Deus
Pie Jesu, Jesu Domine

Dona eis requiem
Dona eis requiem
Amen
-By Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Franz Xaver Sussmayr

One of the most well known and loved pieces of classical music has an interesting history. From the Wiki:

The Requiem in D minor, K. 626, is a Requiem Mass by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756–1791). Mozart composed part of the Requiem in Vienna in late 1791, but it was unfinished at his death on 5 December the same year. A completed version dated 1792 by Franz Xaver Süssmayr was delivered to Count Franz von Walsegg, who had commissioned the piece for a requiem service on 14 February 1792 to commemorate the first anniversary of the death of his wife Anna at the age of 20 on 14 February 1791.

The autograph manuscript shows the finished and orchestrated movement of Introit in Mozart’s hand, and detailed drafts of the Kyrie and the sequence of Dies irae as far as the first eight bars of the Lacrimosa, and the Offertory. It cannot be shown to what extent Süssmayr may have depended on now lost “scraps of paper” for the remainder; he later claimed the Sanctus and Benedictus and the Agnus Dei as his own.

Walsegg probably intended to pass the Requiem off as his own composition, as he is known to have done with other works. This plan was frustrated by a public benefit performance for Mozart’s widow Constanze. She was responsible for a number of stories surrounding the composition of the work, including the claims that Mozart received the commission from a mysterious messenger who did not reveal the commissioner’s identity, and that Mozart came to believe that he was writing the Requiem for his own funeral.

The lyrics at the beginning of the post and are just the introit. Translated into English they are:

Grant them eternal rest, Lord,
and let perpetual light shine on them.
You are praised, God, in Zion,
and homage will be paid to You in Jerusalem.
Hear my prayer, to You all flesh will come.
Grant them eternal rest, Lord,
and let perpetual light shine on them.

The next session of the Requiem is the Kyrie which simply states:

Lord, have mercy on us.
Christ, have mercy on us.
Lord, have mercy on us.

And ends with the Communion:

Let eternal light shine on them,
Lord, as with Your saints in eternity,
because You are merciful.
Grant them eternal rest, Lord,
and let perpetual light shine on them,
as with Your saints in eternity,
because You are merciful

Any ways, it is one of the most beautiful pieces of music every written. And it is a love song for the departed. Maybe not the typical love song. But a love song. And I consider it apropos cause this week began with All Saints Sunday (in my church) and I think everyone knows what this week is the anniversary of.

But Thursdays are for flowers. This Thursday’s flowertography session took place in my yard: