Requiem Trivia Quiz

Answer: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Mozart wrote this beautiful work during the last months of his life in 1791, and it is quite likely that he feared that he was writing his own requiem. In fact in the end he left it unfinished, and the composition was completed by Franz Sussmayr.

Answer: Hector Berlioz

Berlioz had been awarded the Pris de Rose at the Paris Conservatoire de Musique in 1830, the same year that he completed his "Symphonie Fantastique", but a few years later the French Government apparently felt he needed some encouragement so they commissioned him to write a work "for a military and ceremonial occasion". The "Grande Messe Des Morts" was the result in 1837.

Answer: Michael Haydn

Michael Haydn was the younger brother of the more famous Franz Joseph Haydn, who himself wrote 13 masses, although none as a requiem. Michael Haydn's "Requiem in C minor" was written in 1771 for the death of the Archbishop Siegmund (or Sigismund). Sigismund Graf von Schrattenbach was Prince-Archbishop of Salzburg from 1753 to 1771.

This work, also sometimes called the "Schrattenbach Requiem", is said to have influenced Mozart's Requiem.

Answer: Osip Kozlovsky

Osip Kozlovsky was a Polish-Russian composer working in St Petersburg, who in 1798 was commissioned by the King of Poland himself (Stanislav August Poniatowski) to compose a Requiem Mass to be performed at his death. His "Requiem in E-flat minor - Missa pro defunctis" - was the result. Kozlovski later wrote another requiem for the death of Emperor Alexander I of Russia.

Answer: Antonin Dvorak

Antonín Dvořák's "Requiem in B♭ minor, Op. 89, B. 165", is a funeral Mass for soloists, choir and orchestra. It was composed in 1890 during his stay in England. In 1892 he was appointed Director of the New York National Conservatory of Music and it was during this latter period that Dvorak wrote his famous "New World Symphony" and "American Quartet".

Answer: Gabriel Faure

Faure may have written his Requiem in memory of his father although the literature is unclear. He took about three years to compose it for its first performance in 1888, but it is actually quite short compared with other Requiem Masses. He omitted the "Dies Irae", resulting a a work that takes about 35 minutes to perform, which makes it popular with smaller musical associations.

Answer: Benjamin Britten

The "War Requiem, Op. 66", is a large-scale work finished early in 1962. It was first performed on 30 May 1962, at the consecration of the new Coventry Cathedral, built after World War Two alongside the ruins of the old cathedral which was destroyed in a German bombing raid.

It uses conventional Latin wording interspersed by extracts from poems by the war poet Wilfred Owen. As a gesture of reconciliation, the German baritone Dietrich Fischer-Diescau was one of the soloists with Peter Pears, tenor, and Heather Harper (standing in at the last minute) as soprano.

Answer: Giuseppe Verdi

Verdi much admired the poet and novelist Alessandro Manzoni, and was inspired to write his "Requiem Mass (The Messa da Requiem)". It was performed on the first anniversary of Manzoni's death in Milan in 1874. It is now usually performed as a concert piece, lasting almost 90 minutes.

Answer: Johannes Brahms

This work, the longest of Brahms's compositions, was written between 1865 and 1868 not for the Church, but nevertheless as a sacred oratorio. The words are taken from the Scriptures, in German. Frequently performed, it requires a chorus, orchestra, a soprano and a baritone soloist.

Answer: Andrew Lloyd Webber

Lloyd Webber is well known for his many musicals, so writing a Requiem was a new venture for him. An incomplete version was performed in England in 1984, and the composer spent the rest of that year completing it. The first full performance was in New York, conducted by Lorin Maazel, with Placido Domingo, Sarah Brightman and the boy soprano Paul Miles-Kingston as soloists.

It is remarkable that one section, the Pie Jesu, became a popular hit in its own right.