Lacyrmosa Fireside video chat 7
Lacyrmosa—Larghetto, D minor, 30 mm.
Lacrymosa dies illa,
Tearful that day will be,
qua resurget ex favilla
when man will rise from the ashes
judicandus homo reus.
to be judged as a defendant.
Huic ergo parce, Deus, pie Jesu Domine!
So spare him, God, pious Jesus Lord!
Dona eis requiem! Amen!
Give them rest! Amen!
Context
The Lacyrmosa “of tears,” movement, the eighth movement, stands at the center of the arc of fifteen movements of the Requiem, both structurally and emotionally.
Motivic References across Movements
Notice the similarity of the Kyrie first subject and the Lacyrmosa opening choir motif Mozart makes motivic references across movements throughout the Requiem; these cyclic devices unify a lengthy, multi-movement work, such as the Requiem. Beethoven would take up this mantle in his compositions, his Fifth Symphony being an example.
Now look at the opening two measures of the Lacyrmosa, and compare them with the opening measures seven measures of the Requiem Aeternam: similar harmonic progressions.
Word Painting
In the opening two measures, violas and second violins play piano chords on the beat, and violin I's present a two note motif, the first note more (in duration and in emphasis) and the second tapering (in duration and dynamic). The two-note tapering motif is a symbol in musical tone painting of a sob or a tear, usually it is a falling motif, often falling by only a second. In the Lacyrmosa, the motif first ascends, twice, then descends, twice, then alternates direction, upward, downward, upward downward, seeking, searching, beseeching; sometimes the two notes are only a half step apart (very tearful) sometimes as much as minor 6th (the heartbreak interval). The motifs are wide-ranging in the first 4 measures, sometimes by as much as a diminished octave, M1 (end of beat 3 to beginning of beat 4). There is both restlessness and apprehension.
The choir enters in almost unison rhythm, two statements separated by rests.
Choirestory: The music will be made poignant by singing tapered motifs. eg. la-cry-MO-sa.
Qua resurget ex favilla (when man will rise from the ashes), MM 5&6, is set in a rising one octave scale in the soprano, harmonically supported by the alto, tenor, and bass. Each faltering sung eighth note in the ascending scale is followed 2 eighth rests.
The telling of the impending Judgement Day, MM7& 8, is forte and in sustained dotted quarters.
The dynamic contrasts in this movement, p and sotto voce versus forte, are impassioned. The crescendo (M7) is in Mozart's own hand, an infrequent occurrence, and thus of great import. It is a musical upheaval, a device of Sturm und Drang.
So often, we think of dynamics as a secondary element, after pitches and rhythms, but here, the sharp shifts and contrasts of dynamic levels and the crescendo are laden with potential emotional impact.
Singery: Be sure-footed on close chromatic changes. Here are a few examples:
Tenors M 13 B natural, B flat;
Sops M18 B natural and B flat, and Tenors M18 A flat and A natural.
Basses M16 B natural, D flat to M17 D natural, B flat.
Altos M25 E flat and E natural.
At M 24 and following, when the downward stepping almost imitative parallel lines between bass and soprano suggest a moving towards resignation, on a V-I, dominant-tonic, authentic cadence M27(4) to M 28.
Another motivic reoccurrence: remember the archaic and beautiful final chord of the Kyrie, d minor, with its three tonics (B, T, S) and one fifth (A)? On M 28 of the Lacyrmosa, the same d minor chord, with the same three tonics (this time in B, A, S) and the sole fifth (T)— again, no third.
I make a big deal of this tonic chord with no third. It lacks nothing.....it is an edifice of archaic beauty and permanence.
A little side trip
This Medieval tonic and dominant chord (without the juicy third that will make its appearance later in the Renaissance and Baroque) reminds me of the Cathedral (Dom) of Charlemagne in Aachen, Germany. It has been here for nearly two thousand years, the barnacles of time rugged and rich on its stonework. A group of friends is enjoying a pasta dinner (the food of impecunious students) and beer, of course, at an outdoor restaurant. Everyone is garrulous—in German. I am the newcomer. But at last i can understand the gist of the conversation (better than i can speak). Content, I lean back in my chair, and reach my arm backwards; my hand touches a stone in the "plump"wall of the Dom. In this casual touch, there is a continuum for me: the mysterious, dark, and very distant past (the Dom is centuries old, older than Notre Dame, and dark as pitch inside), and the lively present, and i am in and of this story, this history, this culture.
Aachen Cathedral (German: Aachener Dom). One of the oldest cathedral buildings in Europe, it was constructed as the royal chapel of the Palace of Aachen of Emperor Charlemagne, who was buried there in 814.
Now, back to the last two measures of the Lacyrmosa
The final Amen is, of course, a plagal cadence (IV-I), of course beacuse that's the cadence of hymn endings. Here, the movement's closure is on the Tonic Major, the Tierce de Picardie (Picardiean Third), another Baroque device, and the shift from the minor mode of the entire movement to major on the final chord is a clear signifier of hope. Altos have the delicious, awaited, and hopeful third—make it shimmer!
The first eight measures of the Lacrymosa were the last music that Mozart wrote, and he wrote these from his sickbed, the day before he died. In Mozart's autograph score, after his last-written measures, there is a setting in the soprano for the text huic ergo parce deus. The handwriting is slightly different, because these two measures were written by Eybler, the first person Constanze approached after Mozart's death to complete the Requiem. Eybler, a gifted student of Mozart, began to write his completion on Mozart's autograph score. Not getting very far along, he had second thoughts, and gave the score back to Constanze, saying he could not continue. We do not exactly know his reasons, but we might guess....
A quartet of singer friends had gathered around Mozart's sick bed the afternoon before he died, to sing the Requiem—what had been written of it. There is a story that when they sang the Lacrymosa, Mozart turned his head to the wall, and wept. Whether this story is true or apocryphal, it is a hard heart or a deaf ear that is not moved to tears by this music. (Watch Leonard Bernstein's 1988 performance https://youtu.be/m3wFdajeAwU at +/- 38-39 minutes)
Just a word about the provenance of the movements following the Lacrymosa. As was his wont, when working on a large-scale piece, Mozart had sketched thematic ideas for several movements that come after the Lacrymosa. So Süssmayr, who completed the work, had at least some of Mozart's own musical material from which to fashion the completion.
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