GeekForce

Mozart wrote this masterpiece, a five-vocal rotation in front of a full orchestra hastily. That he pulled it off while simultaneously writing the crowning moments of his best opera ‘The Magic Flute’, and understandably under a smidgen of duress, speaks loudly for his composing talent.

The movie ‘Amadeus’, a clearly ‘colored with fiction’ backdrop of his world and work, depicted ‘The Requim’ as his final and exhasting effort amidst a spooky urgent warning from a mysterious ghoul-like figure, and that is absurd. As I’ve shared before, Mozart died in a flu ‘plague’, common for his day, that took hundreds of residents of Prague, his hometown of several years by 1791. Burials were rather unceremonious when plagues ran through closely packed homes, and the only remedy the citizenry of the day got correct was to bury the victims after a hasty rites ‘ceremony’, usually behind the body-carrying cart. The priest ‘hand signed’ the cross, and the deceased got trucked to the mass ditch-grave outside the population center.

More importantly, it’s tantamount that the American and European audiences of the flick understand that rather than a chilly reception by the Hapsburg prince and court, Mozart was already well-renowned and instantly revered by empowered ‘tune and performance’ selectors by the Count’s court. No less than the Prussian Count Walsegg (’too many notes, Your Excellency’ — remember that line?) personally assured that this nearly-from-God piece be brought to two very long performance circuits UNABRIDGED and UNALTERED by the order of The Court. In all, seven members of the Hapsburg family, as young as sixteen and as old as well-over seventy, watched, listened, and wept.

At no point does this thirteen-movement choral/orchestration ever progress beyond an andagio tempo or mood. It didn’t have to. It’s score neatly and seamlessly weaves the soprano, alto, mezzo-alto, tenor, second tenor, and bass vocalist entwining in the movements (more recently, though, there’s usual four vocal parts). Three of the movements (usually called strains in Europe) are purely orchestracal in form, requiring no vocal augmentation.

SIDETRACK: My 24-year-old nephew and I were down in southwesrern KY doing interviews and tape transcripts for my still-in-progress book, and we stayed working as long as we possibly could that day (2005) before hopping in my Avis car and hauling ass up to Powell Symphony Hall on N. Grand, arriving literally seconds before perching, a bit worn out, in our rather high-rent seats that leaned over the balcony, just in the nick of time. I/we have ever come to missing a show’s opening call, but we’d rather not come any closer.

‘Requiem’ isn’t broody or depressing. It’s as morbid as bringing a stroller baby to a park in a sunny day. What is IS is uplifting is that how the choral music blends in such a subtle-yet-refined delivery. It most assuredly was that evening, and this piece will be performed around the World: Arab, Central Asian, Southeastern Asia, Steppes of cold-ass Siberia, Moscow, Kiev, and ALL theaters of Europe–west, central, Baltic, British Isles, Scandanavian. Let’s not forget to toss in Central and South America and theaters and venues on however many Islands bob and grace out seas.

Representation that this isn’t a religious representation of pure hope and His promise of salvation (read: the movie, which, by the way, was a WONDERFUL flick) is entirely false.

I can’t provide a shred of any commentary or description of the strings (particularly the violas-coupled with altos in two strains–it’s breathtaking) without defiling this music’s grace and purity.

Date suggestion: pick up a couple of tickets when this piece is presented ANYWHERE on the planet nearest you, and invite your lady to a bewildering show of that which is the embodiment of any proof you require of our higher power’s occasional release of the stupendous.