If I was restricted to choose just one piece of music (of all the music I have had the privilege to hear in my life) to take with me to a Desert island it would be Requiem in D Minor. I first heard it in the movie Amadeus that tops my 100 favourite movies list. A lot of the music that appears in the soundtrack has already appeared here and will continue to grace my blog. The movie has one of the most emphatic endings in all of cinematic history and features a monumental segment of Mozart’s Magnum Opus played at his death.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s final Masterpiece was commissioned in mid 1791 by the Austrian count Franz Von Walsegg, as a Tribute to the passing of his young wife Anna. Mozart began his final composition in Prague, suffering from an undetermined illness, which would eventually take his life and rob him of the chance to see the completion of his Magnum Opus. After Mozart’s death, his understudy ‘Franz Xaver Süssmayr’, at the behest of Mozart’s wife, completed the missing parts of the Requiem.

Requiem Mass was first performed on January 2, 1793, in a private concert for the benefit of Mozart’s grieving wife, Constanze Mozart.

The Following are the lyrics, translated from their Original Latin:

Grant them eternal rest, Lord,
and let perpetual light shine on
them.
You are praised, God, in Zion,
and homage will be paid to You in
Jerusalem.
Hear my prayer,
to You all flesh will come.
Grant them eternal rest, Lord,
and let perpetual light shine on
them.

Lord, have mercy on us.
Christ, have mercy on us.
Lord, have mercy on us.

Day of wrath, day of anger
will dissolve the world in ashes,
as foretold by David and the Sibyl.
Great trembling there will be
when the Judge descends from
heaven
to examine all things closely.

The trumpet will send its wondrous
sound
throughout earth’s sepulchres
and gather all before the throne.

Death and nature will be
astounded,
when all creation rises again,
to answer the judgement.
A book will be brought forth,
in which all will be written,
by which the world will be judged.
When the judge takes his place,
what is hidden will be revealed,
nothing will remain unavenged.
What shall a wretch like me say?
Who shall intercede for me,
when the just ones need mercy?

King of tremendous majesty,
who freely saves those worthy
ones,
save me, source of mercy.

Remember, kind Jesus,
my salvation caused your
suffering;
do not forsake me on that day.
Faint and weary you have sought
me,
redeemed me, suffering on the
cross;
may such great effort not be in
vain.
Righteous judge of vengeance,
grant me the gift of absolution
before the day of retribution.
I moan as one who is guilty:
owning my shame with a red face;
suppliant before you, Lord.
You, who absolved Mary,
and listened to the thief,
give me hope also.

My prayers are unworthy,
but, good Lord, have mercy,
and rescue me from eternal fire.
Provide me a place among the
sheep,
and separate me from the goats,
guiding me to Your right hand.

When the accused are confounded,
and doomed to flames of woe,
call me among the blessed.
I kneel with submissive heart,
my contrition is like ashes,
help me in my final condition.

That day of tears and mourning,
when from the ashes shall arise,
all humanity to be judged.
Spare us by your mercy, Lord,
gentle Lord Jesus,
grant them eternal rest. Amen.

Lord Jesus Christ, King of glory,
liberate the souls of the faithful,
departed from the pains of hell
and from the bottomless pit.
Deliver them from the lion’s
mouth,
lest hell swallow them up,
lest they fall into darkness.
Let the standard-bearer, holy
Michael,
bring them into holy light.

Which was promised to Abraham
and his descendants.

Sacrifices and prayers of praise,
Lord,
we offer to You.
Receive them in behalf of those
souls
we commemorate today.
And let them, Lord,
pass from death to life,
which was promised to Abraham
and his descendants.

Lamb of God, who takes away
the sins of the world,
grant them eternal rest.
Lamb of God, who takes away
the sins of the world,
Grant them eternal rest.
Lamb of God, who takes away
the sins of the world,
grant them eternal rest forever.

Let eternal light shine on them,
Lord,
as with Your saints in eternity,
because You are merciful.
Grant them eternal rest, Lord,
and let perpetual light shine on
them,
as with Your saints in eternity,
because You are merciful.

Reference:
1. Requiem (Mozart) – Wikipedia