Mozart's Requiem

Presenting a fresh interpretation of Mozart''s Requiem Simon P. Keefe redresses a longstanding scholarly imbalance whereby narrow consideration of the text of this famously incomplete work has taken precedence over consideration of context in the widest sense. Keefe details the reception of the Requiem legend in general writings fiction theatre and film as well as discussing criticism scholarship and performance. Evaluation of Mozart''s work on the Requiem turns attention to the autograph score the document in which myths and musical realities collide. Franz Xaver Sssmayr''s completion (17912) is also re-appraised and the ideological underpinnings of modern completions assessed. Overall the book affirms that Mozart''s Requiem fascinating for interacting musical biographical circumstantial and psychological reasons cannot be fully appreciated by studying only Mozart''s activities. Broad-ranging hermeneutic approaches to the work moreover supersede traditionally limited discursive confines.