Requiem (Mozart)

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart wrote the Requiem mass in D minor (K. 626) in 1791. It was Mozart's last composition and is also, perhaps, one of his most powerful and recognised works.

The autograph at the World's Fair

The autograph of the Requiem was put on display at the World's Fair in 1958 in Brussels. At some point during the fair, someone was able to get their hands on the manuscript and tear off the bottom right-hand corner of the second last page (folio 99r/45r), containing the words "Quam olim d: C:" (an instruction that the "Quam olim" fugue of the Domine Jesu was to be repeated "da capo", at the end of the Hostias.) To this day the perpetrator has not been identified and the fragment has not been recovered.

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While the traditional viewpoint has been that Mozart's last work was on the Lacrymosa, some modern scholars believe that he skipped the completion of the Lacrymosa (perhaps because he was certain of how he would complete it) in order to draft the more difficult Domine Jesu and Hostias sections. If this theory is true, then "Quam olim d: C:" might very well be the last words Mozart wrote before he died. It's probable that whoever stole the fragment believed that to be the case.

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