Mozart’s Requiem is one of the most well-known pieces of choral music, it’s powerful and beautiful, and it was also left largely unfinished at Mozart’s death in 1791. He had written the Introit-Kyrie, and vocal parts for many of the other movements, but not much else, save for some clues about the instrumental figures. The Requiem was quickly completed by a colleague of Mozart’s, and there have been several other “completions” over the years.
In coming up with this service for All Saints’ Day, I wanted to find a way to avoid performing the second half of Mozart’s Requiem (some of the initial completion is quite boring!), which meant we would be unable to sing the piece liturgically in the mass. So, I began looking for other works that would fit in the service, and I discovered Mozart’s Missa Brevis in D minor, written when he was only 12 years old — and already his third mass. While it’s in the same minor key as the Requiem, it’s a spritely and joyful piece, full of cute little vocal flourishes that “paint the text” of the mass. The Credo movement, in particular, is packed with musical representations of the Creed that we say every week, and they fly by. Listen also for the “Hosanna” which comes after both the Sanctus and Benedictus. It’s about 15 seconds long, tidy, lively, and perfect for a Missa Brevis, meaning “brief mass.”
This year, I’m hoping that the service for All Saints’ will be an opportunity for our parish to celebrate life, and the lives that have gone before us. It’s a time to hear the choir sing something old, something new, but also to come together as a community and live out this verse of For All the Saints, the hymn that will close our service:
O blest communion, fellowship divine!
We feebly struggle, they in glory shine;
Yet all are one in thee, for all are thine.
Alleluia, alleluia!
I hope you will all attend the service for All Saints’ Day at 5pm on November 6, featuring the choirs of Trinity Church, with orchestra, performing Mozart’s Requiem and Missa Brevis in D minor.
Connor Fluharty,
Interim Director of Music