Description
Book SynopsisPresenting 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 SÃssmayr's completion (1791â2) 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 discurs
Trade Review'It is astounding that Keefe opens up new ground in large areas … A far-reaching book … All in all, a first-class monograph, outstandingly produced and printed, which will be read cover to cover as well as used for reference.' Manfred Hermann Schmid, Mozart-Jahrbuch 2013
Table of ContentsIntroduction: Mozart's Requiem in context; 1. The Requiem legend in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries; 2. Criticism and scholarship from 1800 to the present day; 3. The Requiem in performance; 4. Mozart's work on the Requiem: sounds and strategies; 5. After Mozart: the Requiem completion, 1791–2; 6. Modern completions of the Requiem; Epilogue: a Requiem for the future.
