# Requiems written FOR composers



## 13hm13 (Oct 31, 2016)

I recently came across this Requiem allegedly written for "Mozart".









I'm assuming: THAT Mozart.

How accurate is this claim?

Also, have there been other notable Requiems written _for_ composers?


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## hammeredklavier (Feb 18, 2018)

(written for his own funeral)





"Haydn got the impression he was writing the work for his own death, "like the immortal Mozart". In the end even less of this Requiem was finished when Haydn died than of Mozart's Requiem (KV 626): only the first two sections, Requiem aeternam and Kyrie, were complete. And whereas Mozart left some sketches for other sections of his Requiem, nothing of the sort is known in the case of Haydn's Requiem. He died on 10 August 1806 and three days later the torso of his Requiem was performed at his own funeral. At the occasion the missing parts were taken from an earlier Requiem by Haydn, the Schrattenbach-Requiem, dating from 1771. Shortly thereafter Mozart's Requiem was performed at the memorial service for Haydn in the church of Salzburg University." http://www.musica-dei-donum.org/cd_reviews/Carus_83.353.html


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## Josquin13 (Nov 7, 2017)

There is an ancient history & tradition of composer's writing works in memoriam for other composers, though not always masses, per se; as well as works to be sung at their own funerals.

The composer that wrote the very first (but now lost) Requiem mass, Guillaume Dufay, requested that his motet "Ave Regina coelorum" be sung to him as he lay on his deathbed: 



.

While his friend, Johannes Ockeghem composed a beautiful Miserere, "Mort tu as navré", after the death of the Burgundian composer, Gilles Binchois, who is thought to have been Ockeghem's teacher:






Then, after Ockgehem passed away in 1497, a number of the composers of the 2nd Franco-Flemish school, whose music Ockeghem had greatly influenced & inspired, wrote works in Ockeghem's memory: such as, most notably, Josquin Desprez's lamentation on the death of Johannes Ockeghem, "Nymphes des bois/Reqiuem aeternam", or La déploration de Johannes Ockeghem: Nymphes des bois/Requiem aeteram", composed to words written by Jean Molinet (1435-1597):

"Nymphes des bois, déesses des fontaines

Nymphes des bois, déesses des fontaines,
Chantres experts de toutes nations,
Changez voz voix tant clères et haultaines
En cris trenchans et lamentations.
Car Atropos, très terrible satrape,
A vostre Ockeghem attrapé en sa trappe.
Vrai trésorier de musique et chief d'œuvre,
Doct, élégant de corps et non point trappe.
Grant dommage est que la terre le couvre.
Acoustrez vous d'habits de deuil
Josquin, Pierson, Brumel, Compère,
Et plourez grosses larmes d'œul :
Perdu avez vostre bon père.
Requiescat in pace. Amen.

Cantus fìrmus:

Requiem aeternam dona eis, Domine,
Et lux perpetua luceat eis.
Requiescat in pace. Amen."

Or, translated into English by David Wyatt, as follows,

"Nymphs of the woods

Nymphs of the woods, goddesses of the fountains,
Expert singers from all nations,
Turn your voices, so clear and high,
To rending cries and lamentation.
For Atropos, the terrible ruler,
Has seized your Ockeghem in her trap.
The true treasurer of music and its masterpiece
Learned, elegant in body and in no way old-fashioned.
It is a terrible loss that the earth covers him.
Put on your mourning clothes
Josquin, Pierson [presumably, Pierre De La Rue], Brumel, Compère,
And weep great tears from your eyes
Gone is your great father.
May he rest in peace. Amen.

Cantus firmus:

Eternal rest give them, Lord,
And light perpetual shine on them.
May he rest in peace. Amen."






While other Netherlandish composers did the same, or had already written works in Ockeghem's honor while he was still alive. All of these works are included on an excellent CD, entitled "Plorer, Gemir Crier...Hommage a la - voix d'or de Johannes Ockeghem", from Diabolus in Musica, led by Antoine Guerber:

--"Plorer, gemir, crier - Requiem", composed by Pierre De La Rue: 



--"Ergone conticuit", composed by Johannes Lupus: 



--"In Hydraulis", composed by Antoine Busnois, or Busnoys: 



--Missa "sicut rosa spinam": Kyrie, composed by Jacob Obrecht: 



--Missa "sicut rose spinam": Gloria: 



--Missa "sicut rosa spinam": Credo: 



--Missa "sicut rosa spinam": Sanctus: 



--Missa "sicut rosa spinam": Agnus Dei: 



https://www.amazon.com/Plorer-gemir-Hommage-Johannes-Ockeghem/dp/B008SOGJBY

Finally, when Josquin Desprez passed away, his student Jean de Richafort composed his "Requiem in memoriam Josquin Desprez"; which is one of the first, if not the very first Requiem Mass composed to the memory of another composer:






Here's a link to another fine performance of Richafort's Requiem (by Cinquecento), which is not on You Tube: https://www.amazon.com/Richafort-Re...ort+requiem+cinquecento&qid=1625355590&sr=8-1

Likewise, Nicholas Gombert composed his "Musae Jovis", as a Lament on the death of Josquin:









.

We again see this kind of remembrance or elegy later echoed in the Tudor Age, when the English composer, William Byrd, composed his consort song, "Ye Sacred Muses", on the death of his teacher, Thomas Tallis:

"Ye sacred Muses, race of Jove,
Whom Music's lore delighteth,
Come down from crystal heav'ns above
To earth, where sorrow dwelleth,
In mourning weeds, with tears in eyes:
Tallis is dead, and Music dies."






In the 20th century, though not specifically a Requiem mass, there was also a portfolio of works that were commissioned from various composers (Bartok, Dukas, Falla, Ravel, Roussel, Satie, Stravinsky, etc.), to be written as a tribute in memory of the composer Claude Debussy after his death, entitled, "Le Tombeau de Claude Debussy":


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## 13hm13 (Oct 31, 2016)

Touching pieces, folks ... thx for bringing to my attn! I'm especially moved by the Cherubini ... I've heard it many times before but "(written for his own funeral)" is new info to me!!


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## MarkW (Feb 16, 2015)

The Australian composer Arthur Benjamin wrote a memorial piece "Le Tombeau de Ravel."


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## Rogerx (Apr 27, 2018)

composed by:

Bazzini, Antonio (1818-97)
Buzzolla, Antonio (1815-71)
Cagnoni, Antonio (1828-96)
Coccia, Carlo (1782-1873)
Nini, Alessandro (1805-80)
Pedrotti, Carlo (1817-1893)
Ricci, Federico (1809-77)
Rossi, Lauro (1812-85)
Verdi, Giuseppe (1813-1901)


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## Kreisler jr (Apr 21, 2021)

John Blow: Ode on the Death of Henry Purcell


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## Enthusiast (Mar 5, 2016)

Not a requiem per se but a work that commemorates many creative artists who have passed away: Kancheli's Styx


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## RICK RIEKERT (Oct 9, 2017)

13hm13 said:


> I recently came across this Requiem allegedly written for "Mozart". I'm assuming: THAT Mozart.
> 
> How accurate is this claim?[/URL]


According to David Barker, "... the work was written in 1776 to mark the death of the young Princess of Oettingen-Wallerstein, where Rosetti was employed as a double-bassist in the court orchestra. The Mozart connection is that it was performed at a memorial service for Mozart, arranged by a friend of Rosetti".


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