Classical Period

For this wrap-up we’re going to do a close-listening to a piece of music and consider how it responds to broader themes in our course. Please listen to the “Dies Irae” of Mozart’s Requiem.  Then read this article from France Musiques. Then write a 250-word response that addresses the concept of composition in the Classical Period. If, as we know, Mozart didn’t complete this piece, but it was instead a posthumous collaboratively completed work, why do historians and audiences adhere to an auteur theory around this piece? What is it in the sound of this piece, in the history of the mass, or in the legend of Mozart that allows a legend like this to persist? Please consider some of the reading and discussions we’ve already had, as well as perhaps doing a little reading on the history of the Requiem mass, and the Dies Irae specifically.