Trivia / Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

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• Died During Production: Mozart died in December 1791 at the young age of 35. This left several pieces incomplete or in fragmentary form.
  • At the time of his death, the Requiem in D minor (K. 626) was only fully orchestrated in the first movement, 'Requiem aeternam'. The 'Kyrie eleison', the 'Sequentia' ('Dies irae', 'Tuba mirum', 'Rex tremendae', 'Recordarde' 'Confutatis', 'Lacrimosa') and 'Offertorium' ('Domine Jesu', 'Hostias') only had the SATB voices, the cello/contrabass/figured bass organ and certain musically important segments (eg, the violin part in 'Dies irae', the tenor trombone in 'Tuba mirum') written out as a sketch. In fact, the 'Lacrimosa' breaks off after just 8 bars. Mozart's widow Constanze first asked Joseph von Eybler, a fellow composer, to step in and try and complete the missing orchestration and movements, but he was daunted by the task and only attempted a small bit before handing over the incomplete score to Franz Xaver Süssmayr, who had been Mozart's pupil. Süssmayr is the person who wrote the other remaining movements and who filled in the orchestration. It is his completion which people hear most commonly nowadays, although others have tried to rewrite/alter it to fit what they think is more "Mozartian".
  • For unknown reasons, Mozart also never finished the Great Mass in C minor (K. 427/417a) from 1783, leaving the 'Credo' and 'Agnus Dei' incomplete orchestrally and vocally. As with the Requiem, other music scholars have attempted to fill in these parts themselves.
• Short-Lived, Big Impact: As mentioned above, Mozart died at just 35 years old, yet he produced much of the most highly-regarded classical music in history.

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