| Requiem | |
| Composer: | Michael Haydn |
| Key: | C minor |
| Full Title: | Missa pro defuncto Archiepiscopo Sigismondo |
| Catalogue: | Klafsky I:8, MH 155 |
| Occasion: | Requiem of Sigismund von Schrattenbach |
| Text: | Latin: [[Music for the Requiem Mass|Requiem]] |
| Language: | Latin |
| Vocal: | choir and soloists |
Michael Haydn wrote the Missa pro defuncto Archiepiscopo Sigismondo, or more generally Missa pro Defunctis, Klafsky I:8, MH 155, following the death of the Count Archbishop Sigismund von Schrattenbach in Salzburg in December 1771. Haydn completed the Requiem before the year was over, signing it "S[oli] D[eo] H[onor] et G[loria.] Salisburgi 31 Dicembre 1771." At the beginning of that year, his daughter Aloisia Josefa[1] died. Historians believe "his own personal bereavement" motivated the composition.[2] Contemporary materials which have survived to the present day include the autograph score found in Berlin, a set of copied parts with many corrections in Haydn's hand in Salzburg and another set at the Esterházy castle in Eisenstadt, and a score prepared by the Salzburg copyist Nikolaus Lang found in Munich.[3]
The mass is scored for the vocal soloists and mixed choir, two bassoons,[4] four trumpets in C, three trombones, timpani and strings with basso continuo.
The composition is structured in the following five parts:
Sherman recommends a tempo relation in which "in Agnus Dei et Communio, the of both Agnus Dei and Requiem aeternam equals of the fugue Cum sanctis tuis."[5] Sherman also recommends interpreting the Andante maestoso of the Dies Irae at "a pulse of = MM. 104."[6] Leopold Mozart instructs "that the staccato indicates a lifting of the bow from the string" with no accent implied.[7]
Both Leopold and his son Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart were present at the first three performances of Haydn's Requiem in January 1772,[8] [9] and Wolfgang was influenced in the writing of his own Requiem in D minor, K. 626.[10] In fact, Michael Haydn's Requiem is "an important model for Mozart" and strongly suggests that Franz Xaver Süssmayr's completion of Mozart's way does not depart "in any way from Mozart's plans."[11] Pauly notes specific parallels between the two requiems: rhythmic similarities in the setting of the Introit, Quantus tremor and Confutatis maledictis sections, the use of a plainchant melody in the setting of Te decet hymnus, and the subject of the fugue in Quam olim.[12]