# The origins of Mozart's Kyrie?



## WatchfulRaven (Nov 20, 2018)

EDIT: I tried to get the YouTube videos to playback from the Kyrie and String Quartet fourth movement, respectively, but I couldn't figure it out. The Kyrie movement begins at 5:28 in the first video, and the fourth movement of the String Quartet begins at 21:36.

So this morning I went for a walk, and listened to Haydn's String Quartet, Op. 20, No. 5 along the way. When the fourth movement started playing, I thought, "Do I know this music?"

And then it hit me. The theme of the Kyrie fugue from Mozart's Requiem sounds very similar to the theme from the fourth movement of the Haydn String Quartet, which is also a fugue.











Of course, in the time of Haydn and Mozart, borrowing music from another composer was seen as complimentary rather than thievery like it is now, and certainly Mozart greatly admired Haydn. Nowadays Haydn struggles in Mozart's shadow, though he is by no means neglected or forgotten, and it seems without the Haydn String Quartet, Mozart's Kyrie would be very different.

Unless, of course, Haydn borrowed the fugue for his String Quartet from another composer...

Just thought I'd post this here.


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## hammeredklavier (Feb 18, 2018)

The theme is also found in And With His Stripes in Handel's Messiah and the A minor fugue of Bach Well Tempered Clavier Book II.
The Handel is written like an year earlier than the Bach (I'm not sure if Bach knew the Handel work) as far as I remember.
Mozart probably knew all of them, he definitely knew Messiah (he revised the piece and translated it to German language), studied Haydn's Sun Quartets in his early years (when he wrote the early Milanese, Viennese quartets) and studied Bach's Well Tempered Clavier (+ Art of the Fugue, Musical Offering) when he came to Vienna (he transcribed some of them for string trio).


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## WatchfulRaven (Nov 20, 2018)

Very insightful information, hammeredklavier. Thanks for it.


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## premont (May 7, 2015)

hammeredklavier said:


> The theme is also found in And With His Stripes in Handel's Messiah[/URL] and the A minor fugue of Bach Well Tempered Clavier Book II[/URL].
> The Handel is written like an year earlier than the Bach (I'm not sure if Bach knew the Handel work) as far as I remember.


The WTC II is a collection of works written during several years before they were assembled into one manuscript, so we do not know the exact year of composing for the individual pieces.


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